Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don’t need their own posts, and first time posters go here (April 30, 2024)

8 comments

1. > 長年風雨さらさらたまま放置されていたので、腐っていたのだ。

   Context: We’re describing the wooden cover on an old well. I guess it has been left out in the rain and wind for so many years it has become a bit rotted.

   but I’m not really sure what さらさらた would mean

   it seems to mean things like smoothly and I don’t see how that fits here

2. Hello!

   I’m watching Tokini Andy Genki 1 Lesson 8 as a supplement to the Genki book itself.

   Andy uses these two sentences in a conversation example:
   A: じゃあ, ビールを買いに行く？-> Well then, Shall I go and buy beer?

   B: あ，行かないでください -> Oh, Please don’t go.

   These are his translations in English.

   I am confused by this ビールを買いに行く？ sentence. I know in formal form its: ビールを買いに行きますか. What I am confused by is that I always thought these question sentences were putting the person you are talking to as the subject.

   I thought ビールを買いに行く is asking, “Will you go buy beer?” or like, ビールを飲みますか , is asking, “Do you drink beer?” I always thought the subject is the person you are talking to.

   Can these sentence’s subject be yourself by context depending on the conversation? Like in Andy’s example, if Mr. B knew Mr. A was going to buy beer (because it was mentioned previously), so the conversation is understood he’s asking about himself when Mr. A said ビールを買いに行く？?

   Thank you so much in advance!

3. what would 壊れかける mean? I saw it here:

   やがて壊れかけた階段にぶつかった。

   context: someone is crawling through an abandoned tunnel.

   I think this says something like, “Finally, he bumped into a (destroyed?) staircase”

4. **My original post is still pending approval, so I’m going to continue posting here.**

   Hi all,

   I’m a graduate student currently living in Kobe. I’m looking for volunteers to help out in a short pronunciation-based study for my thesis.

   Criteria:

   * Native speaker of English

   * Living in Canada (and preferably attending university there)

   * Have never **lived** abroad in Japan (travel experience is fine)

   As a part of my study, I would like to ask for approximately one hour of your time to conduct a one-time, one-on-one “interview-style” online session. The interview itself will only focus on the pronunciation aspect of Japanese ‒ it is NOT a test of your proficiency, so there is no need to be nervous or brush up on anything beforehand. As a part of this study, I will be providing free pronunciation coaching and feedback, as well as helping out with general questions you have about studying the language!

   If you satisfy the criteria and are interested, please send me a DM and I’ll fill you in on the specifics!

5. Trying to answer some of the questions from genki 2’s 厄年 dialogue, got some questions.

   1. この人と若い日本人の留学生は、どんなところが違いますか

   does this ところ mean place? Is the question asking： in what kind of place(things?) are they different?

   2. この人の夢は何でしたか

   my answer: オーストラリアで勉強するのは長い間の夢でした

   Answer key: 外国で勉強することでした。

   Is my answer ok? I just wrote what the character said in the dialogue. Also, could i have said 外国で勉強するのが夢でした as an answer instead?

6. When writing ラーメン vertically is it ever displayed with the ー as-is, or is it always written with it as a vertical line? In the context of a sign outside a ramen shop. Just want to know if it’s incorrect to keep it horizontal, or just unusual, but still correct.

7. ‘泰平の世のため、この槍を振るわん!’

   ‘For the sake of a peaceful world, I will wield this spear!’

   What does ‘わん’ mean here?

8. Can the causative-passive be used in the sense of ‘let’? like:

   子供の頃お母さんに好きなだけお菓子を食べさせられたから太った

   (Please correct any particle mistakes😅)

   I feel like I’ve only seen it used to mean ‘make’, but I’m curious