Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don’t need their own posts, and first time posters go here (February 14, 2024)

23 comments

1. Does anyone know how difficult the Japanese is in Mobile Suit Gundam? The original from 1979

2. is stem+得る effectively any different than potential form?

3. Hi! I just finished mastering kana, and I’m wondering where I should go next.

   Just for a little context, I’ve been studying Japanese on and off for the past 2.5 years, but up until recently, all of my studying was just doing a Duolingo every once in a while (I’m currently about halfway through Section 2 Unit 1,) or, if you count it as studying/learning Japanese, watching anime & listening to city pop lol.

   I want to start getting more serious with my Japanese learning, and devoting more time to it, so now that I can read and write kana without any extra thought, I don’t know where to go next. I feel like so many different paths just opened up, and I don’t know which one to take.

   Should I focus on learning/improving my grammar before anything else? Should I just focus on learning different vocabulary/kanji first, if so what type of vocab do I start with? Should I do a mix of the two, and once again, if so, where do I start?

   Also, where is the best place for me to learn all of this stuff? I do have the Genki Volume 1 Version 3 book, but I don’t know if I should start with that, or enter with some more knowledge before hand. Also, what’s up with Anki? How exactly do you use it efficiently, do you just download a pre-made deck, or make your own?

   TL;DR I have no clue what I should focus on studying next, and would like some guidance on what to work on.

4. I’m struggling to build a routine to study, as I am a full-time college student with a lot on my plate right now. I was doing Kanji and Anki flashcards for about 30 mins a day, but I frankly found it a bit boring and time-consuming, and am currently in an activity that requires me to memorize a lot. I use Renshyuu occasionally, have Genki I, and several native Japanese friends to practice with. What be the best way to allocate my time with these resources?

5. I keep mixing up に, を and が with verbs, is that common? What do I do?

   For context, I just “finished” Genki 2. By that I mean that I went through all the vocab of the two books on Anki, all the Kanji and read/took notes of all the lessons in the books. I also watched some Tokini Andy’s Genki lessons. I’m currently focusing on the Workbooks.

   What’s really frustrating is that I kinda can progress on the grammar apart from the particles. I’ll get the verb conjugations, structures, vocab and kanji correct during the workbook exercises, but then I’ll make extremely stupid particle mistakes.

   For example, I couldn’t figure out either it’s X に探す or Xを探す. Every time I try to read more about particles, it is explained in a way that makes it seem easy. I feel like “yeah, I get it”, and I can get the exercises/examples of the particles lesson right. But then I try to write anything in another exercise and I mess it up.

   Should I just stop stressing about it and focus on getting more vocab and grammar down so I can understand native content asap and the particles will become easier? Is it normal to keep making particle mistakes like that throughout your learning journey or did I just miss something?

6. 縁緑禄線 soo anyone know any tricks/mnemonics for differentiating these kanji? feel like i’ve ‘known’ them for so long yet no matter how many times i write them out i can never really properly distinguish them.

7. もうゴロゴロしてるときに将来の話なんかしないでよ

   What is the role of the なんか here?

   Provided translation is “Jeez… Could we not talk about my future when I’m relaxing?” and I feel like I get every part of this besides the なんか .

8. Hi. I have a simple question. My knowledge of Japanese is obviously 0.02% ha. So I need help. I want to write “Godzilla Seventy Years” in Japanese. 

   My issue is the word “seventy”. I’ve tried doing research on how to spell out seventy in Japanese but I’m finding a million different answers and it’s all mixed up too with which script you use, so I have no clue. 

   I run it through various translators, and back translated it and when I spell out seventy in English and back translate it too, it just gives me “70” in Japanese.

   Also, if there’s an answer, and if it’s available in the script that ゴジラ is written in, could you use that? Thank you so very much 😊

   So something like this
   ゴジラ Seventy 周年

   …if the above is even correct-it was run through Google translate 

9. そういえばアルバイト 募集してるんだって

   What’s the だって for here?

   Translation: By the way, I heard you were looking for a part-timer?

   I get everything except the だって.

10. ‘今晩　いっときますか？’

    What does ‘いっときます’ mean here? There isn’t any more context around it.

11. パンダ 君 って 割りと 図々しい よ ね

    Translation: Panda’s pretty shameless, isn’t he?

    What is the って for? Is this quoted speech?

12. Matched with a girl on dating app, she often likes my stories/posts on insta etc. asked her out, got hit with:

    “私も真剣なんですけど、最近仕事が忙しいんです🙃

    落ち着いたら連絡しますね😊”

    Is this just the Japanese way of politely saying a flat out no?

13. 嫌 だ よ 、 僕 泳げ ない し

    What is the し for?

14. Small questions about fragments

    1. ソファに掛けながら、持って来た長方形のプラスチックケースの蓋をあけた。ナイフといくつものチーズのかけらが入っている。

    Would かけら here mean that the cheese are all in irregular-shaped pieces? (Kind of like this [picture](https://jp.123rf.com/photo_195498955_%E3%83%91%E3%83%AB%E3%83%9F%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A3%E3%83%BC%E3%83%8E%E3%83%AC%E3%83%83%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A3%E3%83%BC%E3%83%8E%E3%81%BE%E3%81%9F%E3%81%AF%E3%83%91%E3%83%AB%E3%83%A1%E3%82%B6%E3%83%B3%E3%83%81%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BA%E3%81%AE%E3%81%8B%E3%81%91%E3%82%89%E3%80%82%E3%82%B9%E3%83%A9%E3%82%A4%E3%82%B9%E3%81%97%E3%81%A6%E3%81%99%E3%82%8A%E3%81%8A%E3%82%8D%E3%81%97%E3%81%9F%E3%83%91%E3%83%AB%E3%83%A1%E3%82%B6%E3%83%B3%E3%83%81%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BA%E3%81%A8%E3%83%AD%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BA%E3%83%9E%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%80%81%E3%83%A9%E3%82%A4%E3%83%88%E3%83%86%E3%83%BC%E3%83%96%E3%83%AB%E3%80%81%E3%83%AD%E3%83%B3.html)?)

    2. There’s this book, 凪の片 by Issei Suda. The English translation on the [cover](https://made-in-wonder.com/item_detail.php?item_id=2433) is nagi no hira – fragments of calm. And I wondered, would 片 here mean fragment? ~~I looked up the definitions and thought maybe it would be~~ [~~definition 1~~](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E7%89%87_%28%E3%81%B2%E3%82%89%29/#jn-188244)~~: 紙・葉・花弁など、薄くて平らなもの。~~

    edit: maybe this definition here for [へん](https://jisho.org/word/%E7%89%87-1)(?)

15. Im curious if I’m using Anki wrong and if I need to change my approach. Recently I’ve been mining really common words (10k-20k level apparently to an app I’ve been using) but I’ve noticed that some of my words have extremely obscure kanji in them. For example 竦む and 粟立つdoesn’t seem to have any common kanji at all. Im curious to see as a beginner if I’m wasting my time learning kanji words like this.

16. How do you deal with kerning and size of kanji and kana when writing?
    I’ve heard of “write kanji and Jana in the same size” and also “kanji bigger while kana smaller”. Which one is better? And it’s quite hard to find good examples of Japanese hand writing.
    And I’ve heard that Japanese people don’t use semi-cursive or writing in everyday life, which is super common among Chinese people. Is that true?

17. Hello.
    Is it possible to tell who is talking – a boy or a girl? Based on the text below

    ずっと、何かを探している。

    夢中になれるような何かを。

    必死になれるような何かを。

    全部を捧げてもいいと思えるほど、好きで好きでたまらないものを。

    it is not clear for me who is speaking – whether it is a boy or a girl. Correct?

18. そこ 驚くとこ

    What is the function of the とこ here?

    Translation: Are you really that surprised?

19. What is the difference between ごかぞくand かぞく?

20. I’m currently reading Vagabond and was wondering why 武蔵 had たけぞう as furigana? Usually when there is furigana different from the original reading (which is not the case here because both readings are correct?) it is to add some context, is this the case here or is it just that the author wants us to use that reading for the character’s name? I haven’t read the english version of the manga but do they call him musashi or takezō?

21. I wanna ask Japanese natives;

    Let’s say you’re playing an online ranked game in Japan server, and there is a Chinese person on your team, they don’t speak any Japanese and try communicate w you.

    Can you actually communicate only using kanjis ?

    It doesn’t have to be complex. Simple words like; Slow, retreat etc.

    Thanks in advance.

22. What’s the difference between 貴族 and 高貴 ? Heard both being used, but I’m not sure about the uses

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