Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don’t need their own posts, and first time posters go here (March 12, 2024)

16 comments

1. funny misread on my part. I had this:

   > きた。確かプランがこうだった。

   And I misread it as this at first:

   > きた。確かプリンがこうだった。

2. Good morning everyone from Yamaguchi Prefecture! I have two very beginner questions:

   1. Is Yomichan still the best tool of its kind and purpose? Are there other tools that do its primary roles better?(imediate identification of Japanese when on pc and assisting with anki deck mining). I ask because Yomichan is no longer officially supported nor are the other great tools from the person who developed Yomichan.

   2. For just starting on the path of learning Japanese after learning the kana and reading my first grammar guide, Tae Kim’s, I have chosen two Anki decks as my first foray into using anki and its SRS. They are kanjidamage+ and the core 2k/6k decks. Should I focus exclusively on the kanjidamage+ first and then start the vocabulary deck, or can I do both on the same days?

   Thank you very much!

3. hm what’s the difference between using the original verb 見える vs conjugated 見る＞見られる
   I could ask the same question with 聞ける 聞こえる

   My thinking is

   聞こえる　見える are probably just when stating the fact that something is visiable.
   and られる conjugations when you’re talking about how you can see them.

4. Having some trouble with the second sentence:

   > 「な、なんだろうな。ちょっと、おれにもわからん」

   > もしかして妖怪でも住んでいたから、割と格安なのかな。

   Context: Main character thinks a monster is coming out from under the tatami mat.

   It seems like it’s, “Perhaps even a ghost lives here so, it’s relatively cheap.” But IDK how that makes sense.

5. How can I use Tadoku readers with something like Yomitan to actually translate things?

6. I’m struggling to differentiate between 切れる and 折れる. Both are in Jisho as to break or snap, then 切れる also has split/crack, and 折れる has fracture. These… seem the same to me? I’ve tried googling outright for the difference, but no results (they all end up being transitivity questions)

   I’ve also tried reading some respective example sentences, but the main difference I can see is that 切れる can also be used in a less literal sense (e.g. to *break* a record). The other thing I have noticed is that 折れる mayyybe emphasised the motion of the broken parts moving away from each other where 切れる is more about the break itself? but that feels like a stretch.

   I’m not at the point of J-J dictionaries yet. Is anyone able to help clarify if i’m on the right track or not?

7. I’m struggling to differentiate between 切れる and 折れる. Both are in Jisho as to break or snap, then 切れる also has split/crack, and 折れる has fracture. These… seem the same to me? I’ve tried googling outright for the difference, but no results (they all end up being transitivity questions)

   I’ve also tried reading some respective example sentences, but the main difference I can see is that 切れる can also be used in a less literal sense (e.g. to *break* a record). The other thing I have noticed is that 折れる mayyybe emphasised the motion of the broken parts moving away from each other where 切れる is more about the break itself? but that feels like a stretch.

   I’m not at the point of J-J dictionaries yet. Is anyone able to help clarify if i’m on the right track or not?

8. **「ん……まあ遺言つーかな、独りにしといたら寂しいだろーし」**
   **I got confused by this sentence, which has no subjects from the author. Hope somebody could explain correctly its meaning if mine was wrong.**
   The childhood friend just ask a character about the reason why he came back to his hometown, after so many years living in the city. I think his grandfather / the only family relative he got just passed away and he had to bring his grandfather’s ashes back to his hometown to bury it ? – i’m not familiar with Japanese’s tradition about funeral.
   (Childhood friend)「で、なにしに戻ってきたの？」
   (Protagonist)「ん？」
   (Childhood friend)「おじいちゃんが亡くなって、それだけ？」
   **(Protagonist)「ん……まあ遺言つーかな、独りにしといたら寂しいだろーし」(my guess :” uhm…well I have to follow his last will i guess, also I would be so lonely if i’m the only one left in my family”??)**
   故郷の墓に入りたい、というじーちゃんの遺言。
   四十九日の納骨はすませたが、このまま身寄りのない都会に戻るくらいなら……と、俺も引っ越しを決意したのだ。

9. Are there Anki decks for N5/N4 vocabulary with sample sentences? I’m also confused about what JLPT Core 2k/6k covers.

10. I imagine there’s a finite number of pairs of Trans/Intrans verbs. Is there any list that I can look at?

11. I found this on the container of a YanYan snack.

    知って楽しい

    日本の一年クイズ

    つきクラッカ

    I’m confused about the first part 知って楽しい. Is it modifying クイズ along with 日本の一年? If so what does 知って in this case mean? Like its enjoyable to know? Or something like that

12. Is there a modern version of anki core6k deck? I assume some terms esp. nouns will never appear in daily life, and I have heard that some terms are considered old-fashioned. Not to mention terms like 日ソ (japan-soviet).

13. In Japan, do female friends call older male friends ‘Oni-san’?

    From my understanding, ‘Oni-san’ is used for the following: –

    1. To call your/someone else’s brother

    2. To call a man older than you if the man is a stranger to you

    But I have never heard of it being used in a friend-to-friend situation.

    For context, a Japanese female friend of mine who is younger than me, started teasing me with ‘Oni-san, what kind of help do you need?’ or ‘Oni-san, why you seem so funny today?’. Before that, she will always address me as “True_Shop3315-san” like friends do. That said, she has been very helpful to me. I suppose it seems weird for someone from a Western background.

14. What should be my next step after learning hiragana and katakana as of now I can’t afford to buy genki 1 book and most people recommend that should I just start reading vocabulary?

15. **Eye Love You** on Netflix is a beginners dream. It’s set in Tokyo, the FL is Japanese but the ML is Korean. They have very slow and carefully enunciated conversations together in basic Japanese. Bonus points if you know any Korean, you can enjoy when the ML speaks slow, carefully enunciated Korean to himself.

16. So is it just me or is it stupid that nobody seems to really teach kanji according to how frequently they are used? I’ve been teaching myself the kanji I think I can use frequently rather than whatever order I’m supposed to learn them and I think this is the best way to remember them. Like for example I’m at N5 level, I taught myself 昨日, and apparently 昨 is considered an N3 level kanji even though it’s “226 of 2500 most used kanji in newspapers.”