Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don’t need their own posts, and first time posters go here (February 27, 2024)

31 comments

1. is ならない in this sentence sorta like, “won’t become” or “won’t work as” or “won’t work for”

   > それは使い方が悪い。そして、使う相手も悪い。おれや水戸部みたいな一般社員が口で言っても、上を説得する材料にはならない。

   I think it’s like, “That’s not how you use it. And not who you use it with. Even if general employees like me and 水戸部 say it, it’s not the right material to convince the higher-ups.”

   But IDK

2. Could someone please explain to me why [my question](https://www.reddit.com/r/LearnJapanese/comments/1az9jnu/comment/ks0qnop/?context=3) got downvoted? I’m totally clueless as to why.

   Is it that you can only ask about grammar and vocab in this thread and other questions like the one I asked above (furigana) aren’t allowed?

   Edit: this one too?

3. What is the history between the names for Kyushu and Shikoku?

   I get that 九州 and 四国 literally mean “9 provinces” and “4 provinces” respectively, but why the difference between 州 and 国 when the latter is usually translated more as a country as a whole, not just a province? It’s like it literally means “4 countries”.

   Or are they just synonyms? Because I also learned how there’s a much less uncommon name for Australia, 豪州, referring to the entire country as a whole, not using 国.

4. 迂回もできるけれど随分と遠回りになる. 地図を見る限り距離だけで言えば倍では済まなそうだった。

   Two sentences for context, but I’m focused on the second one.

   地図を見る限り距離だけで言えば This part I pretty much get, but then once it gets to 倍では済まなそうだった I get completely lost as to what the sentence is saying. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

5. [https://glenn-sun.github.io/japanese-vocab-test/](https://glenn-sun.github.io/japanese-vocab-test/)

   has anyone used this before? i’ve been using it consistently for ball park estimates of how much vocab i know, only this time it suggested i learned 4000 words in the last month (not at all possible). does anyone know if this site has update recently to cause such a change? or was this just a statistical anomaly? thanks

6. I just started learning Japanese. I’m so overwhelmed with all the aspects to learn and I’m really unsure of what order to learn them in. I know hiragana, and pretty much know katakana. Now what. I’ve been reading that “a year to learn Japanese” document on this sub, but

   It’s a LOT of info. Should I focus on grammar? Vocab? Kanji? All of this? I don’t even know! Everyone says to immerse myself but when I know nothing that’s not really possible

7. I have been doing a wanikani ordered Anki deck since I wanted to go at my own pace, but after a year of doing about 15 cards per day (a few periods where I got busy and did 5 or 10 for a month) I’m only on level 16 and feel demoralized. I think if I’d used another program I’d be much further ahead.

   How many Anki cards should I be doing a day? Should I bump up the number when it’s vocab which is a bit easier? Should I just switch to a different platform at this point? Looking for any tips as I’m realizing my grammar is far ahead of my kanji and vocab and I’m struggling with Quartet for reading without Furigana.

8. February 29 is the last day for *Lang-8*

   I’m guessing that users interested in migrating their data from Lang-8 to Nyan-8 have already done that, but just in case:

   https://beta-japan.com/nyan-8/

   Disclaimer: not my site

9. Can anyone help me with this?

   The context for this passage is that the author is talking about how the Japanese language being too vague can be a troublesome thing and how it was more common in older japan than now.

   今でもこういった語法を利用す る人が多いが、これ**では** コミュニケーションに多大の支障をきたすという認識も 強まっている

   I understand the meaning of the passage, but I was curious about why では was used here? Any help would be appreciated.

10. If anyone is looking for some gaming in japanese I recommend Balantro! Been really enjoying reading all the card descriptions in japanese, great katakana practice. The game being addicting is forcing me to read more too 🙂

11. my colleague just received a customer’s message. it had portions of sentences ending of with だわ/だわね

    the way of speaking was very anime, she said. she then said that such a customer is odd, and showed that the person has poor upbringing.

    im surprised by that statement. i never heard the position/argument that anime speak/お嬢様(?) speak showed (poor) upbringing. any corroboration?

12. yaho~

    I was wondering if you guys have any suggestions about japanese books that are written in the form of a diary or journal? any genre., something easy to read. Arigatougozaimasu!

13. ひとりだとあんまりみないです

    ひとりであんまりみないです

    Is there any difference between these two sentences?
    How is だと used? I can’t find anything online that makes sense.

14. What is WS2017 exactly? It seems to list kanji variants (異体字)

15. Hello Everyone! Can you help me on phrases that I could use when I’m meeting my Japanese boss? For context there coming here to my country. What are the Japanese phrases that I could use like “Nice to meet you in person” and “Welcome to our country” for example. Im learning Japanese but I’m not confident enough.

16. i learned the phrase: まさにそれです from asahi JP news when a native JP witness (middle aged, woman, Tokyo) was speaking to a news reporter. this was from a video, and i’ve used the phrase ever since. i use it to communicate “that’s exactly right!” to my colleagues, teachers, JP friends. no one corrects me. in fact, too little feedback has been given to me about this phrase, that im starting to be self-conscious.

    how weird using まさにそれです?

17. 知っていそうで知らない、日本酒の製造工程を完全解説!

    I’m uncertain about that first part, before the comma. Is it like, “You think know, but don’t”?

18. **Hope someone could explain for me correctly this part in a novel, feel free to correct me if i was wrong o/**
    **こちらも慌てず、連中を引き離さない程度に加減して構わんからな！**
    **(my guess but not sure : “Don’t panic either, feel free to adjust your run speed so we won’t lose sight of our enemy ! “)**

    Context: 2 commanders ordered their army to make a tactical retreat, seems like they want to bait their enemy to chase after them, and fall into some kind of strategy trap.

    Commander 1「総員、私に続け！落ち着いて動けば問題ない！」

    **Commander 2「我らは出来るだけ派手に砂埃を立てて走るぞ！こちらも慌てず、連中を引き離さない程度に加減して構わんからな！」**

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20. Can’t get out of beginner loop

    I have been trying to learn Japanese for the last two years and find myself stopping with adjectives and verbs, namely remembering conjugation. I will read the lesson and do exercises and a day later won’t remember anything. I have both genki and tobira beginning and just can’t make progress. My vocab is decent thanks to anki but grammar is just at a halt. I am very motivated to push through this time and was hoping for any tips or tricks.

21. Is quartet really as massive a jump as it feels? The first reading was tough, especially because they don’t have hiragana for kanji I’m supposed to know. Does this mean it’s the Genki 1 and 2 kanji they assume you know all of?

    Any tips for quartet? Read it once, make mistakes, do the lesson and then read it again?

22. これはもはや住宅街だ, とわたしはおもった

    What is これはもはや or もはや doing in this sentence?

    According to an online dictionary もはや means already or no longer but I don’t see how that makes sense here.

23. What is the meaning of “たるいぜ”?
    There is not much context, i just saw someone tweet with just that word.

24. 気が付いてもよさそうなもんだがな

    This is said after a specific character lays out a trap for another character and they fall right into it.

    I understand the general jist of “I thought you would have noticed” but can’t quite pick apart the interaction that よさそうなもん plays in the equation.

    Sorry if this is a vague question and please tell me off if it’s a little silly but I would really appreciate some help.

25. Help on my self introduction in Japanese

    So there is a Japanese language course in my college but as there are a lot of participants they are gonna shortlist the participants by conducting a competition (basically we have to give a jikoshoukai or self-introduction) based on how we do they are gonna select us. I have one prepared with the help of chatgpt but I’m not very optimistic about it. I have some doubts on how native or authentic it sounds. Can yall help me improvise it?

    “Minasan, ohayō gozaimasu. Watashi wa Arudan Darrasu desu. 19-sai desu. Kōgaku no gakusei desu. (where i live) kara kimashita. Nihon de shūshi katei o manabitai node, Nihongo o manabitai to omotte imasu. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.”

    For reference, this is the intro I gave chatgpt to translate to

    “Good morning everyone, I am Aldan Dallas. I am 19 years old and an engineering student. I come from xxx. I want to learn Japanese because I’m hoping to do my postgraduate studies in Japan. Thank you.”

26. すごく vs　たいへん vs とても

    What’s the difference? すごく and　たいへん both seem to mean “awfully” but can be used to emphasize positive words. Is とても less extreme? Are some less formal and used more in everyday convo?

27. I am currently working my way through Genki I. Every lesson contains a list of about 15 kanji, and I have been memorizing them, along with the shaded reading(s) which are meant to be learned. (In addition, I have been picking up some of the unshaded readings as well.) My question has to do with the vocabulary lists for each lesson. These present many words in both hiragana and kanji, but the introduction to both volumes states that “students are not required to memorize the kanji orthography” Really? So then…why am I learning these kanji? Is it simply in preparation for the intermediate level? All of the kanji words, even in Lesson 23 (the last lesson) of Genki II are presented with furigana beneath them, so you could, in theory, work through both books without learning any vocabulary in kanji whatsoever, but would that be wise, given that I plan on going on to Quartet afterwards? Quartet uses much fewer furigana, phasing them out almost entirely by the end of book II. So, my question is, should I be learning the vocabulary in Genki as kanji rather than only as hiragana from the start? If not, when should I “phase in” memorizing them as kanji? FYI, this is not my first rodeo with Japanese, but I have spent the last few years learning to read Latin to the point that I can comfortably read Caesar now, so it has been a while since I have engaged with the language.

28. Why does 目方 mean “weight”?

    Normally vocabulary which uses kanji is quite intuitive. However, the word for “weight” is written with the kanji meaning “eye” and the kanji meaning “direction/person”. I’m curious as to what the logic is behind this.

29. Hope someone can help me with some questions:

    1 Does からというわけでもなく mean in these sentences that “not from one place/one person” or is it more like “it can’t be said from where/whom exactly”. Or to put it in a different way, is it saying that it isn’t from one source but multiple or that it isn’t possible to pinpoint the source.

    どこからというわけでもなく、教室全体からかび臭い独特の空気が漂う。

    誰からというわけでもなく、教室全体から驚いたような声が上がる。

    2) Is 中 read is なか here or ちゅう even though it is after a verb?

    クラスがにわかに騒がしくなる中、数少ない平然としている人物の一人….

    3) What does ようにして mean here? 小柄な身体をさらに縮こまらせるようにして声を上げる姫路さん。

    Is it ようにする for “to try” or is it よう(な) “as if”. I feel like it is the second “She raises her voices as if to make her small even more small” but I don’t understand why して is used in this case since 小柄な身体をさらに縮こまらせるように声を上げる姫路さん would also work.

30. context: a girl wants to make a name for a herself (as an actress, to make her parents proud)

    i understand 出る part, but what is それなりのもの refeering to?

    attempt: ill do whatever it takes to get my name out there..

    出るからには
    それなりのものにはしたいし..

31. I’ve grown accustomed to using 10×20 grid notebooks for writing practice, but they seem pretty big. What size grid would a Japanese college student be expected to use?