Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don’t need their own posts, and first time posters go here (January 22, 2024)

5 comments

1. >　馬は、あるかなしかの細い道を辿り、蹄の下で、シャク、シャクと落ち葉が鳴った。

   Context: Some travelers are going through a forest. The season is fall, and they are riding horses.

   Was wondering what is あるかなしか

   Maybe, あるかな is something like “what I wonder”, but I don’t see how しか (just?) fits in here exactly

   I think this is overall something like, “The horses going along the narrow path, under their hooves, the fallen leaves made the sound shakushakku.”

2. Question about RTK by Heisig?

   Does it really worth it switching to it, if already memorized 500 kanjis (without pronunciation) and if I have a good retention of what I already memorized by learning just kanjis and their all meanings that I got from jisho? I can’t sometimes recall all the meanings, if a kanji has, say 8 of them (though, most of the time I can, given that I use Anki), but I always can remember more than one ‘keyword’ provided by RTK.

   The main downside of RTK for me is that has its own order and I learn kanji as they appear on Tango deck that I use.

   So should I switch? Also, if I were to switch, how precise should I recall mnemonics for each kanji for it to be effective? Would, just a general idea of mnemonic, suffice or I have to remember details of a story?

3. Feeling like I’m doing poorly even as a beginner. I take one on one lessons with a teacher, and it’s helpful and I do my homework as told, but when i study on my own time I feel like I’m doing it wrong. My comprehension is a little better than my actual speaking/texting and grammar.

   I’ve been wanting to listen to more Japanese audio, because I’ve heard that’s a pretty efficient way to pick up on the language as that’s how babies learn to speak (shadowing?). But I struggle to find Japanese audio content with English subs, that are about a topic that interests me. Does anyone have any recommendations on YouTube channels?

   Also, I’m looking to really up my study game as much as possible. It feels like what I do on my own time isn’t enough. In your opinion, what has been most efficient in helping you learn Japanese? I have some manga and a manga novel adaptation fully in Japanese. Furigana included. Would you think it’d be beneficial to try and power through reading a few pages, even if I understand almost nothing? Likewise, would it be helpful to pick out a few pages of those books to study?

4. I feel like I’ve asked this before but the answer didn’t make it to my notes but… for a sentence like

   ‘ June is my favorite month. What’s your favorite month? ‘

   Would I say 月 , read as つき？(well the second sentence can be rephrased as 何月が好き but I can’t think of a way to rephrase the first)

5. Any good websites to practice intermediate-advanced Japanese?