Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don’t need their own posts, and first time posters go here (March 06, 2024)

19 comments

1. In the classic song 雨上がりの夜空に by rock legends rcサクセション there is a line I can’t figure out.

   いつものようにキメて、ぶっ飛ばすぜ。

   I think it’s because I’ve never seen キメて

   It seems like always something ぶっ飛ばすぜ(which depends on whatever キメて means)

   The song is about not getting a car to start for context

2. I have spent weeks on pronouncing Japanese R and I have gotten to the point where I can say Ra Ri Re Ru Ro by themselves but generally fall apart when trying to do it with words because… I don’t even think most native speakers and teachers are consistent with it and I have no clue what the proper way is!

   —

   For example: Ikura. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbgmBEH_u8U&t=10s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbgmBEH_u8U&t=10s)

   This definitely sounds like “ra” like an english person would say it. I don’t hear any amount of “L” or “D” in her pronouncation. Is this the correct way to say that word? Because that is not how you say “Ra” in everything I have been taught so far.

   Here is another example: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVa9cmaBRdA&t=18s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVa9cmaBRdA&t=18s)

   Again, this sounds like he is saying RA like an english person would. I don’t really hear any amount of L or D in there.

   —

   Neither of those examples sounds like the “ra” example in this video, which has much more “L” sound. [https://youtu.be/V2wzUuGm7yw?t=61](https://youtu.be/V2wzUuGm7yw?t=61)

   Or these examples, which have a **very hard** L sound for ra, and definitely not how the above people Ikura. [https://www.thoughtco.com/how-to-pronounce-hiragana-japanese-hiragana-with-audio-files-4077351](https://www.thoughtco.com/how-to-pronounce-hiragana-japanese-hiragana-with-audio-files-4077351)

   —

   I am losing my mind? I am convinced that the “halfway between R and L” isn’t a set rule but a guideline because it seems some words heavily lean towards an L sound and others an R sound.

3. Hello, I had a question for anyone who has used the Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Course. I have been studying Japanese for around a year and a half at university (a little on my own, a lot through classes) and want to take studying more seriously. I have been reading 湯神くんには友達がいない completely in Japanese, while looking up any unknown grammar and vocab and adding them to an Anki deck.

   I began using the Kodansha course in conjunction with reading so I can improve my kanji repertoire, but am slightly confused on exactly how the author wants me to go about learning. So far, I have been reading all of the information, writing each one until reproduceable on my own, then adding any vocab I want to remember to a separate Anki deck (which I do at the end of the day). What I am scared of is forgetting Kanji further down the line (maybe like 40+ pages ago, the author says to review the last n pages for every n pages you do a day). Does my strategy seem sound? Does anyone have any tips on how they utilized the book? fyi, I am more focused on reading and typing.

4. [deleted]

5. how many words is equivalent to the top 90% of words in VNs? what about 95% / 99%?

6. Context: Someone is asked to name their town in a video game and they think this:

   > 決めてくれと言われても、どうすれば決めたことになるんだ？

   Is this kinda like, “Even if you ask me to decide, in what way is it established that I decide?” Or basically “Even if you ask me to decide, how can I decide?”

   Not sure what’s throwing me off here but something seems wrong.

7. I am looking for a good pre-made anki deck, currently 80% done on Tango N4 and 90% done on a Genki deck while studying Genki 1 and 2.

   What would be the next logical step?

   Thank you in advance.

8. I’d like to try to translate short stories/tales to Japanese and get them corrected/reviewed, is there any site where I can do this?

9. I am at a point were I am very comfortable with hiragana and katakana. Including dakuten and handakuten. I am however stuck where to go from here. I have the first vol of genki, but honestly I suck at self learning from a text book. How should i use it effectively. Or is there another method i can use to learn.

10. Is there a good emulator for the 3ds on a Mac? I want to play the kanji games but I don’t have a DS 🙂

11. With the “wa” particle, is it used in every single sentence ever? As every sentence has a topic/subject.

    Help would be much appreciated, please and thank you.

12. Where do you find a language exchange? I know of italki, but where else would you look for other cheap or free options to speak with others?

13. I’m confused about what step should I take in learning vocab/grammar. I don’t know if I should just learn random variety of words and see if I could find them in sentences or only in a specific ‘category’. Any advice for progressing? Also what are the good resources I could learn with such as Bunpro?

14. **「それに、ここまで数を頼みに押されてはな」**
    **This sentence is lacking subjects so it’s hard to understand for me. Hope someone could correct me if i was wrong. (My guess but not sure : “Also, I can’t believe I/ we’re being pushed back when enemy only rely on numbers” ??)**
    Context: The generals on protagonist’s side is launching a surprise attack on the bandit army. But for some reason , the bandits are fighting with very high morale (normally when these bandits got attacked by surprise , they will fall into chaos and run away )
    黄巾党Ａ「うおおおおおおおおっ！！」
    愛紗「むぅ…………これは」
    黄巾党Ｂ「張角さまのためならーっ！」
    黄巾党Ｃ「大賢良師さま、ばんざい！！」
    鈴々「うぅ……こいつら、倒しても倒しても向かってくるのだ。なんかこわいのだーっ！！」
    **趙雲「それに、ここまで数を頼みに押されてはな」**
    雷々「愛紗ちゃん！鈴々ちゃん！助けに来たよーっ！」
    電々「敵も後退を始めたから、奇襲部隊も戻って来てってー！」
    愛紗「わかった！こちらも敵陣を離れるぞ！」

15. I was watching a video about the expression 気に入る and the person in the video started talking about using お気に入り as a noun. What’s it called when you turn verbs into nouns using お+-i stem and are there any more rules for it? I know I’ve heard お持ち帰り too, in that case why isn’t it お持って帰り given that the verb is 持って帰る?

16. is ホーム or フォルム the correct word to use when talking about a train platform? keep seeing conflicting things

17. Are there any good Japanese language-learning apps for Spanish-speakers? I’m trying really hard to become multilingual, and I’ve reached a point where I feel decently competent enough in Spanish that I think I can benefit from learning Japanese from Spanish (to note, English is my first language, and I have been learning both Japanese and Spanish from English for several years). Does anyone have any suggestions for useful apps or programs that can allow me to use Spanish as my base language? I’ve tried searching for things myself, but could not really find what I’m looking for, and I feel like I could probably trust the opinions of folks from this sub.

18. the 確かに／確か　grammar rule popped out during practice the other day. not sure how it extends to other words and phrases. any advice welcome

    確かに – has a “definitely” sort of meaning; 確か – has a “if I’m correct” sort of meaning. this is the rule, but any agreement/disagreement welcome. a question below please:

    do 本当に／本当 have a similar difference between each other? otherwise, do they both mean “really?” 　

19. So I started learning Japanese almost a decade ago now and was really into it for two years, after which I sort of went into a mode of just consuming media without studying and just looking up things in the dictionary or googling when I ran into something I didn’t understand. Now I’m wanting to tackle the JLPT but am sort of in a weird spot.

    I picked up the N1 series of then Shin Kanzen Master books and while I feel it’s doable to a certain degree, I feel like I should shore up the foundations before building on top of it because mine is very shaky after years of just coasting. I guess my main question is, how far back would it be a good idea to go? I feel like I have a grasp on various concepts when reading intuitively but if you asked me to explain them or produce proper Japanese I couldn’t do it very well. What would be a good way to gauge my levels in the various aspects of the language so I can start working on my weak points? My first instinct is to go to around N3 level resources and work back up but I feel with some aspects I might need to go even lower. Anyways, thanks y’all!