17 comments

1. Me and my tutor have started working on 新中級から上級への日本語 and are starting from around unit 5, as that’s around where our previous textbook leveled out at. I was wondering if anyone has any insight on good pacing. Our last textbook I was able to grind out 1 unit a week, and was aiming to do the same with this textbook, however it is a lot meatier and my dedicated textbook study time is heavily limited to weekends. Has anyone else worked with this book and what was your pace like?

2. Hello everyone. I don’t know if this is a simple question or not so I’m asking here.

   Closing some beginner grammar loops and am having some difficulty concerning the て form of 差し上げる, as some of my main resources A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar (I’ll call DBJG from now) and Genki appear to clash.

   **On Page 67, DBJG says (and I will quote them exactly):**

   “The humble polite version of Vte ageru is Vte sashiageru. Example:

   私は先生にピアノをひいてさしあげました。

   *I played the piano for my teacher.*”

   **However in Genki II (3rd edition), Lesson 20 Page 186 (quoted):**

   “We do not endorse the use of さしあげる with the te-form of a verb in the sense of “humbly doing something for somebody,” because many people object to this type of sentence. They argue that the idea you are doing a service for somebody is ultimately an insolent belief and that trying to talk humbly about it is a rather unconvincing facade. Such speakers prefer to use the “お” + stem + “する” pattern.”

   **Genki examples in footnotes (quoted):**

   “Instead of: 私は先生に地図を見せてさしあげました。

   Use: 私は先生に地図をお見せしました。

   *I (humbly) showed a map for my professor*.”

   Is there a nuance I’m not seeing or is there a clash in pedagogy? DBJG has always been *extremely* accurate in my experience, but I don’t disagree with Genki here in a general sense. DBJG doesn’t say anything about being cautious or certain usages of て form + 差し上げる being potentially acceptable.

   I had a look at the sentence database Massif, but I’m not experienced enough to discern what’s happening.

   What’s the takeaway? Am I making a blunder? Thank you.

   EDIT: thank you everyone for your kind responses. The mixed views on this question are insightful and I’ve learned new things. It would be repetitive to respond to each of you, so I’ll upvote and record your thoughts. Much appreciated.

3. Is there any way too get JL to:

   1. On pop-up put kanji reading (furigana) over kanji instead of to the side?

   2. To have the pop-up lock to the word I’m looking up instead of my cursor.

   3. To have it “auto check” for dupes while in mining mode *and* have it be in mining mode permanently without this meaning it auto locks to every word I check.

   The system I was using previous to this is basically mining with Yomitan which on hover would just tell me if I had already mined that word. I can’t find this option on JL. Meanwhile if I activate the permanent mining mode option I look up any word and it auto locks to it which… sucks, I want it to move on to whatever I hover on next if I happen to do so.

   Thanks in advance.

4. [https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/1qxzply/comment/o40wf09/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/1qxzply/comment/o40wf09/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)

   のスレッドに書いてあることが、実は日本語が何を言っているのか、ネイティブスピーカーにもわからなくなる、「はぁ？なんですってぇえええ？」にバックファイア、逆転することの遠因でもあるんだよね。

   つまり

   「お名前様の方を　頂いてもよろしかったでしょうかぁあああ⤴」

   みたいに、述部てんこ盛り、オーバーロードされてしまうという元来の日本語から真逆の方向に行ってしまう遠因でもある。

   本来は：

   * 来ました
   * 伺いました
   * お名前をいただけますか

   みたいに、述語がスッと立つ。敬語は、本来は、誰が上位か、誰を立てているか、を述部の内部で《判明かつ明晰に》処理するための合理的な仕組み。

   元来は、クリア　＆　ディスティンクト　に、言語ってものはできている。

   なーんだけども、古典のコピペでしゃべるってことが減って、昔ながらの決まり文句ではなくなり、めっちゃ自由な時代になってくると、日本語が、ネイティブスピーカーなんですが、何を言っているのかさっぱりわかりませんみたいなものになったりする……やっぱり決まり文句は決まり文句なんだけども、その新たなクリシェが何を言ってるんだかわからんもの（ｄポイントの方はよろしかったでしょうか　など）になって来ている…　

   **かもしれなかったんじゃないですか的な**　←ここオチです。一応、言っておきます。

5. Is it better to study kanji and vocab in the kind of font you see online (日本語　にほんご) or in a more stylized font? The first font seems more common online, in classes, and in textbooks, but maybe a fancy font makes you focus more and learn more?

   Asking because I recently downloaded an anki flashcard deck with a font I’m not used to, am struggling a bit, and was wondering if I should change the font or if this is just a sign that I don’t know certain words as well as I thought I did.

6. How hard is it to be proficient enough to be able to read and understand japanese manga ? What would be it’s equivalent Jlpt level?

   I can understand (not read) basic words and phrases having consumed hours of anime but I don’t feel that helps in any meaningful way

   Also, I plan on learning Japanese as hobby and not a full-time focused study. Do you know anyone who has been successful this way? Any advice? TIA

7. I’m wanting to know how people use Anki to learn new words? I understand how it can help memorising it after you’ve learnt it, but I’m having trouble with the actual learning.

   For example, I use wanikani, and it basically teaches the radical, then the kanji, then the vocab. But with Anki I feel like I get thrown all of it at once, and like it’ll enter my mind for that session, but the next day I’ve just forgotten it again.

   Would you recommend like writing down the characters and the meaning? I’m not sure what else I could try but I’d love to hear suggestions.

8. Is watching vtubers a good way to immerse? Yes, I do enjoy watching them but sometimes I can’t comprehend what’re they saying cuz it’s either I dont know the word/sentence they’re saying or they have a similar way of speaking like 轟はじめ　(I somewhat can understand what she’s saying tho)

9. Hey guys, I’m looking for strategies to improve my pitch perception while consuming japanese content.
   I’ve seen some tips and here’s what I’ve done until now:
   – Watched dogen’s intro to pitch accent on youtube
   – Watched Darius’ video on strategies for acquiring pitch accent
   – Did kotu tests enough to consistently score 100/100 on minimal pairs
   – I’m learning new words with pitch information on anki
   I don’t have money to pay italki tutors for corrected reading, is there anything else I can do to improve my pitch perception? 
   I can barely notice it when watching youtube or dorama. It’s easier with anime, but only when the VA is bright clear like the blonde goddess in this clip https://youtu.be/8QxzzfZXLrA?si=OHuPb4v2_D03uwZP

10. Took a mock test for Kanken 2 on January 23rd and got 113 points. Took another one but was hoping for a little bit higher but I scored 110. I guess I will just lay off the mock tests until I hit 50% mature on the deck. It’s currently at 23% out of about 1500 cards. I still got a lot of time since registration isn’t until mid April. I’m not worried about passing. I’m more concerned about just how **high** I can get my score.

11. Are there any reputable online courses where you can have the accountability of attending classes and practicing one weekly basis, instead of watching recorded sessions and self-learning?

12. 「ちゃんと反省しなきゃと思っているのに、ステージに立ってる間のことはあやふやになりがちで……」

    is this がちで as in truly, in earnest?

13. **”そういうもんなんですか” -** I met this sentence in a novel , but it’s hard for my Japanese level. Hope someone as native could explain what did this character thought correctly ! If you can please explain the grammar and point out my mistakes.

    *Story: Main character is a normal high school student. One day he got kidnapped by the order of his school’s principal (Lucy-san). After brought him to the principal’s office, she explained to the protagonist that 1 of many reasons why she did that is because the fate of the world is depending on the protagonist. His father used to saved the world or something.

    ルーシー(Miss Principal)  「と、いうわけで偉大なお父様の血を強く引いている貴方に色んな人が期待しているわ」

    育 (Protagonist)「俺にそんな期待がかかっているとは…………」

    理事長 「･･････そんなこと言ってしまってはプレッシャーになりますよ?」

    ルーシー 「彼はこのくらいでプレッシャーを感じるような小さな人間じゃないってことは長年の付き合いで分かってるわよ」

    育 「さすがに世界を背負うプレッシャーはかつてない重みだぜ!」

    ルーシー「ビシッて親指立てながら言える時点で、キミはそうとう図太いわよ」

    とは言え、さすがに世界がどうこうは実感が湧かないだけだと思う。

    ルーシー「普通はそんな大きなプレッシャーかけられたら言葉出ないわ」

    **育「そういうもんなんですか」(my guess but not sure what did he meant :”I see why you put pressure on me now.”)**

    育「それで、俺はどうすればいい？」

14. バンドが解散した後、ヒロさんは他でバンドを続けていたこともあり、今でもこうして付き合いがある。

    is this 後 read as ご in this case? is there a trick to recognize this? I’ve noticed with dates or events or certain specific words it’s ご in this case i read it as あと in my mind.

15. I’ve been studying for 2 months, I can read and I’m also improving my vocabulary with anki, but I want to do immersion and I don’t know how. I’m almost a completely beginner, what should I do? Are there any resources for immersing from a low level?

16. Can anyone share resources for listening to customer service sonkeigo? My next trip is coming up and konbini keigo is my primary weakness lol

17. I really hate asking this, and I’m really not trying to be negative or anything, but I have a question about a YouTube channel and whether they’re using real voices or not.

    I just found this channel called “Speak Japanese with Ryo”, and I was thinking of using some of the conversations for shadowing practice. But, when I listened to one of their N3 – N2 level podcast videos the voices kind of sounded artificial or robotic.

    Can anyone confirm or deny? I’d hate to do shadowing practice on robots lol

    Hopefully the daily thread is an ok place to ask this

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