Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don’t need their own posts, and first time posters go here (April 20, 2024)

8 comments

1. Anyone not receive their JPLT certificates yet from December? I took the test in Vancouver and haven’t received it in the mail yet even though I’m just a city over and the website says that the certificates were mailed out on April 7th.

2. I’s it more polite to use お願いします (onegaishimasu) instead of ください (kudasai) at a restaurant, konbini or retail shop, or is it more weirdly formal and I should instead stick with kudasai for these situations?

   I’m asking as a very early beginner who is traveling to Japan in a few months, and is just trying to get the basics down so I can communicate without looking like a rude foreigner.

3. Is there a correlation between 怖い and 壊す?

4. Hey everyone. This is a question of nuance on quizzes, and how to pick an option over another on an N3 type grammar quiz, even if both make sense.

   For this question, the right answer is 1. It would say “After this we’ll be having lunch”. But my first instinct would be to pick option 2, to use ことです , “as is expected”. So with no. 2, I would be saying “After this, it’s expected we get lunch”. Can someone explain why no. 2 is less natural? I honestly can’t pick 1 over 2 without feeling uneasy.

   Thanks a lot

   これから食事にする（＿＿＿）です。

   1. ところ

   2. こと

   3. ばかり

   4. 頃

5. Reading a dialogue in Genki 2. A guy is trying to buy a cat from its owner & says:

   「じゃあ、三両払うから、どうだ？

   What does the から mean here? I know that it can mean “because” or “from”, but don’t think it means any of those here

6. 彼は人前だと上がってしまう

   From core2k. 「When in front of people he gets nervous」. 上がる means getting nervous, but what does しまう add here?

7. 私の故郷は東京よりとても小さいですけど、本国の町の中で４番大きい町です。山の中にありますから、すごくきれいです。大きい川が町の中を流れています。
   I would be grateful for your corrections here, thank you in advance

8. What is the nuance between

   金曜日**に**勉強します。

   金曜日**は**勉強します。

   I normally study with Tae Kim and do Duolingo for drills, but this is one the rare cases where Duolingo does something I did not see in Tae Kim and quick googling did not clarify:

   Duolingo would translate the first one as “I will study on Friday” (like this coming Friday), and the second as “On Fridays I study” (as in most Fridays). The second option emphasizes the 金曜日, so should I interpret it as “Generally on Fridays…”