Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don’t need their own posts, and first time posters go here (February 11, 2024)

28 comments

1. I’m heading into N3 studies. Is it still worthwhile to pick up RTK? Or would I be doing a lot of backtracking?

2. Hi! I came across those two sentences, do they have the same meaning?

   どれくらいかかりますか
   どのぐらいかかりますか

   Thanks!

3. How much of a show or podcast do I need to understand for it to be useful? Like if I am picking up 90% or more of what’s being said and what’s going on, then I assume that’s good training. But if I only pick up like 50% or less of what’s being said, is that at all beneficial? I am also studying out of textbooks and workbooks, reading short stories and news clips, etc., I just wanted to know if watching very difficult shows and movies is helpful at all, or if I should stick to simpler things for now? (If it matters, I passed the N4 after living and working an office job in Japan for a year)

4. My Japanese level is basic, maybe halfway through Genki 1. I’m thinking of attempting to power through a Japanese manga since it’s something I like to do anyway (in English…). Is this a dumb idea? Two manga I’m interested in right now are Dungeon Meshi, and Billy Bat or other Urasawa works, so I’m wondering how difficult I will find those. I could also re-read something I’m already familiar with like Chainsaw Man or Oyasumi Punpun. Or go for something aimed at kids like Pokemon. Or just keep studying a bit before I attempt this… probably what I should be doing.

5. how can i learn through textbooks? i have no motivation when i start and don’t really know what to do with them

6. Could anyone insight me on 事実, 本当 & 実際

   To my understanding, as nouns they all mean Fact/true(truth)
   As for 本当 & 実際 as adverbs, here is my understanding:

   実際 – He truly/really is the strongest

   While 本当 is more like: He’s really strong

   thanks for reading

7. Anyone have a good source for visual novels to practice reading?

8. Can someone give me examples of situations where you could use the expression 「この指とまれ！」? It seems to be something related to child’s play, but I still can’t quite understand it, so some examples would really help me.

9. What’s the most common meaning of 貼る? Jisho isn’t helpful because there are just too many definitions, and checking a sentence database (https://www.immersionkit.com/dictionary?keyword=%E8%B2%BC%E3%82%8B&sort=shortness) the use is even more obscure to me (and is 張る the same word?).

10. Is there a good written resource that summarizes the rules around pitch accent? I’m familiar with pitch accent and know the basics, so I understand how it works at a word level. I’d like to read about the rules for compound words, conjugations, and sentence level pitch accent.

11. I’ve been using ringotan to learn to write kanji. I use the custom review to practice all the ones I’m going over but it’s in order, the same order everytime, is there anyway to shuffle them?

12. After several false starts, I have finally found the method of playing games in Japanese that works the best for me, and it was complicated, so I’ll share, in case other people want tips.

    1. I have Game2Text-Lightning looking at my game window. This is quick, easy, and requires no input beyond mousing over what I’m trying to read. However, its OCR algorithm gets tripped up easily, especially with low-res retro games, of which, I primarily play. So…
    2. I have Capture2Text (or Cloe, or Poricom, they all use Manga_OCR, which is really good, but Cloe and Poricom both just were non-functional on my system, and it seem to be me, not them) so I can hot-key capture textboxes that Game2Text doesn’t pick up on. But Capture2Text just gives me the japanese text, and doesn’t give me a translation so…
    3. I paste the output from Capture2Text into Jisho (specifically the word I’m struggling with, usually), to get my definition. I also have
    4. The japanese game script open, so I can use Yomichan or Japanese.io to look up grammar bits, because both of them are better at catching phrases and conjugations than Jisho is.
    5. The English game script, so I can check my work.

    It’s, a lot. But, step 1 gets me there like, 80% of the time, because I’ve got a decent grasp of things, because I’ve been studying for like, 13 years, technically.

    But most importantly, I have all of this, instead of just using the game script, because the game script for Dragon Quest 11 doesn’t have the NPC dialog, or the party chat, and really, why play a dragon quest game if you’re not gonna talk to every NPC in every town, and read every response your party has.

    Anyways, yeah, just sharing all the tools I’m using, in case someone else wants to play RPGs that don’t have texthooks available.

    ​

    EDIT: I managed to get Cloe working today, and it rules much better than the rest. So The workflow has adapted:

    1. Game2Text-Lightning for hover text
    2. Cloe for snips
    3. Yomitan window with clipboard monitoring
    4. Game Scripts

13. “There are all sorts of bags in this store.”
    “この店は鞄が色々あります” is what Duolingo gives.
    “この店は色々な鞄があります” is not accepted, and な、と、and no particle after 色々 are also not accepted. It really wants 色々to be after the が particle. Why?

14. JLPT N4の質問があります。なぜ不正解答えは違いますか？

    彼女は朝 ＿ はやくて、6時から勉強しています。

    １．おきる ２．おきるが ３．おきるのが ４．おきて

    正解：３ 不正解：４

    お母さんに ＿、台所に手伝いに行きました。

    １．呼ばれて ２．呼ばれた ３．呼んで ４．呼んだから

    正解：１ 不正解：2. couldn’t 3 mean “i call mother then go help in the kitchen” and 4 could mean “Because I called mother, i will go to the kitchen to help.” 上に、なぜ 「台所に」が使われましたか。「台所で」も正しい？

    私は彼のいけん ＿ さんせいです。

    １．に ２．が ３．で ４．を

    正解：１ 不正解：3, 4

    「で」の場合は、「I agree, because it’s his opinion」という意味だと思いました。

    「を」の場合は、「I agree his opinion」こういう風に違いますですね。

    この服は 私の 妹 ＿ ぴったりです。

    １．を ２．の ３。と ４．に

    正解：４ 不正解：1, 3

    あなたの 電話番号は これ ＿ 正しいですか？

    １．を ２．で ３．に ４．の

    正解：２ 不正解：3 「が」という助詞も使えられますですね。

    あの道を 歩くなら、くるま ＿ 注意してください。

    １．に ２．が ３．の ４．へ

    正解：1 こんな文中は「で」も使えられますか。”Please watch out for cars” is に and “Because there’s cars, please watch out” is the translation with で, correct?

15. I think ive got this down but the pronunciation feels a bit weird when i say it out loud so i wanna hear from some more experienced people. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    Basically i want to try and make the sentence: Today I am going to play Persona in my room.

    Currently; that sentence looks like this. 今日は私の部屋でペルソナにします

    I think i might of overcomplicated it for myself by adding Kyo Wa to the beginning, but i wanted to try it out.

    (Side tangent): If i wanted to add a word to the sentence such as; TokiDoki, Zenzen, or Taitei, where would i put it? I cant tell if i put it before the verb or the topic or what. Thank you 部屋でペルソナをします

16. Question about grammar:

    The [NHK.jp](https://NHK.jp) website says that

    雪が見たいです means I want to see the snow

    However, I would have personally translated it as

    雪が見って欲します

    What’s the difference between the two? Is mine less accurate and/or misleading in the meaning I want to convey?

17. Hello 🙂

    After finishing Chapter 6 Genki, I decided to go back and do some review.

    I ran into something that I forgot and want to double check.

    I know that long vowels in Katakana are represented by “ー”: so コーヒー is basically stretching the “o” in “ko” and “i” in “hi”.

    And I know long vowels in Hiragana are basically followed up by the same vowel, like すうじ, おかあさん, and etc…

    My question is what happens for words like ソウル, basically words in Katakana without the ー? Would you pronounce the “ウ” in ソウル? Or would you follow the same rules for hiragana and the “ウ” stretches the “ソ” to be (sooru), kinda like the word ぼうし (where the う stretches the ぼ)?

    Basically – I’m wondering, does katakana words with vowels that follow each other オウ、イイ、アア and etc do they stretch like hiragana or does it get pronounced?

    Thank you in advance!

18. My grammar app says that ~ことにしています means “Someone decides to make a routine or policy of doing something.” So in the following sentence: 毎日6時半に起きることにしています。Does the person already started waking up at 6, or will he start waking up at 6

19. Cool new words I leanred recently:

    ​

    逆ナン:

    I’m suprised about the 逆 Part. Is ナンパ definied as being done by Men?

    ​

    海外かぶれ:

    Can I describe myself as 日本かぶれ? Or does that sound weird? wwwww

20. Why does ジョギング need an お before する? Is that normal?

21. In this sentence, why is suru used for the adjective?
    彼は意地悪な性格をしている

22. If I’m telling someone my phone number and it starts with 080… Are the 0s pronounced まる?

23. I’m currently learning Japanese through LingQ. Will turning Furigana on help me retain pronunciation for Kanji and the ability to remember them, or hinder it?

24. I’m trying to understand the following sentence (or maybe sentences?):

    なろう系と異世界ものはほぼ同じ意味となっており、「なろう」、「なろう小説」、「異世界転生系」、「異世界転生もの」とも呼ばれるが、杉本穂高は投稿サイト以外の商業作品でも上記のような枠組みを利用した作品は多く、その言葉は「なろう系」よりも広い範囲を指すため「異世界転生もの」の中で大きな勢力を持ったのが「なろう系」ということになるとし、広い意味で異世界へ行くオンライン小説作品をなろう系だとすると往時の作品群がインターネットに掲載されていたら該当するため、カルロ・ゼンはそれらと異なる点として、異世界へ行って帰ってくる往時のようなものより、なろう系は異世界へ行ったままなことを挙げている。

    from a [Wikipedia article](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%81%AA%E3%82%8D%E3%81%86%E7%B3%BB). And although I probably understand some pieces… the whole point kind of escapes me.

    —

    What I could gather, which is likely wrong to some degree. If we take the end of the sentence:

    …なろう系は異世界へ行ったままなことを挙げている。

    it looks like Mary Sue novels raise a まま question about going to other worlds.

    The preceding part:

    …異世界へ行って帰ってくる往時のようなものより、…

    looks like something is compared to going to another world and returning to the past.

    …カルロ・ゼンはそれらと異なる点として、…

    looks like カルロ・ゼン says (or considers) that それらと異なる点, whatever that means.

    And because right before that we have ため, I assume that

    …広い意味で異世界へ行くオンライン小説作品をなろう系だとすると往時の作品群がインターネットに掲載されていたら該当する…

    is the cause for what follows (although I’m not sure about the boundaries) and goes on about publishing works about going to other worlds in the internet and wide scope or great significance.

    Then 杉本穂高 says that since

    …投稿サイト以外の商業作品でも上記のような枠組みを利用した作品は多く、その言葉は「なろう系」よりも広い範囲を指す…

    it follows that

    …「異世界転生もの」の中で大きな勢力を持ったのが「なろう系」ということになるとし…

    Which probably means something along the lines of, “since they reach a wide audience, they have big influence.”

    And in the beginning

    なろう系と異世界ものはほぼ同じ意味となっており、「なろう」、「なろう小説」、「異世界転生系」、「異世界転生もの」とも呼ばれるが、…

    they seem to list different ways to refer to なろう系と異世界もの (Mary Sue novels about going to other worlds?), although the ways they do it transcends my understanding of Japanese grammar.

    —

    There are probably too many questions I could ask here. The one I should start with is probably, is this one sentence or what? Where do the clauses start and end? The way I understand it there should be a general structure of the sentence, each part of which can be further… deconstructed? split into parts? explained?

    Also I’m not sure I always understand if something is a particle, a conjunction or maybe something else. I believe I know the basics, but the sentence is just to large to be sure. Consider e.g. が at the beginning, does it really mark the subject? Where does the subject start and end?

    Explaining what the sentence conveys (not necessarily translation, a general idea maybe) could also help.

    I understand that explaining every part of it is likely asking too much, so maybe you can explain something about it, give some hints? You can answer the questions just above to the degree you see fit (some of them?). Or maybe you can explain parts of the sentence you think are complex or worth attention. Thanks in advance.

25. I’ve looked up the word 歲 in multiple online dictionaries and it won’t show any results. I think it means “age” or “years old” but I can’t find any readings or specific usage’s of it. Why is it not in dictionaries?

26. Is there a rule when 端 means beginning or end and when it’s read as はし or はな?

    In this case I know 部室棟の一番端から、新設されたと思われる新しい建物が続いていた。that it can only be the end because of 続く and read as はし. But how does one know if 端から2番目の列に並んでください is second from the start (はなから) or second from the end (はしから)?

27. Does anybody know when the JLPT summer signups usually start?

    The JLPT site says the US isn’t doing summer test sessions, so I’m looking to book probably Canada, but I’m open to traveling for it (would be a good excuse to finally take time off)

28. 星が消えた空より隣を見てよ 気付いて
    思い出? それより確かなものがある
    多分 そうなんだ
    (Lyrics are from 星の消えた夜に)

    Is this trying to say that “Something more certain than memories, perhaps it really does exist” or did I interpret this wrong?Having a bit of trouble with the そうなんだ at the end…