8 comments

1. How are you supposed to read Kanji on a computer screen? Just doing some Google searches of different Kanji is hard to read because of how tiny some of the strokes are

   Do you frequently zoom in when reading Japanese, or do you get the gist of it from experience, even if you can’t make out every minute detail?

2. In Genki II Workbook (Lesson 15, Section 5), I have to use “a sentence to qualify nouns” so I’m writing “roommate who is good at cooking is good” in which I produced “そうじがすき**だ**ルームメイトがいいです。”

   1. The textbook didn’t provide an example for this (every word that precedes the main noun is a verb) and the answer key isn’t helpful for this either but I’m unsure whether to use だ or な (or if I have to use those at all) before ルームメイト.
   2. I’m assuming I don’t have to put する（の）after そうじ?

   I hope this isn’t a FAQ. Thanks

   edit: i just realized i put the wrong example sentence (not good at cooking, I meant roommate who likes to clean) lmao i still got my answer though.

3. > あの子は他の誰より特別に人々を魅了した

   This “特別に”, does this essentially function as the 連用形 as “特別” here, as in a more formal version of “特別で”, similar to “特別であり” meaning something like “He was more special than anyone else, thus charming everyone.” or must it be interpreted as an adverb, meaning “He charmed everyone more specially than anyone else”?

   And if it simply be the 連用形 of a na-adjective, can we then for instance say something like “特別に綺麗な人” to mean something broadly similar to “特別で綺麗な人” the same way “可愛く” exists as a more formal alternative to “可愛くて” in that context among other things? Can we also say something like “掃除するのが好きに家は綺麗。” as an alternative to “掃除するのが好きで家は綺麗” or say “弟はいい子に可愛い。”?

4. What level of japanese would you need to read “幼女戦記”? Or would you need to learn some old japanese for it? like I’ve heard stuff like “貴官” or some old grammatical structure like -せむ, but I’m not sure how much of that stuff I’d need to know.

5. > 図書室を後にしてからこっち、俺たちの間で会話が途切れることはなかった

   What is こっち referring to here exactly? I figured that してからこっち probably means “since we did that thing” as a whole, but this use of こっち is pretty unfamiliar to me

6. What does あこがれのひかり translate to in English?i translated on different apps and they all seemed to have different translations. I thought maybe a correct translation is “the light I long for” but maybe I’m completely incorrect, I’ve only been learning for around a month.

7. I can across this in the blurb for a light novel and I had some trouble with it.

   “君には夢があるかい？残念ながら、ぼくにはそんなものはない。でもこの物語に出てくる少年少女達は、みんなそれなりに願いを持って、それが叶えられずウジウジしたり、あるいは完全に開き直って目標に突き進んだり、また自分の望みというのがなんなのかわからなかったり、叶うはずのない願いと知っていたり、その姿勢の無意識の前向きさで知らずに他人に勇気を与えたりしている。

   Here is my attempted translation:

   Do you have a dream? Unfortunately, I don’t have something like that. Though the boys and girls appearing in this story, all of them have their own dreams, that they waver without being able to fulfil, or they completely become defiant push on towards their goal, or they don’t know what their wish is, or they know their wish won’t be fulfilled, that attitude of unconscious positivity unknowingly gives courage to other people.

   The main points of confusion for me were:
   ウジウジする
   I found conflicting meanings for this, with some dictionaries suggesting it meaning something like to hesitate/waver, and some forum posts or translations suggesting more like to be upset. I’m not sure what meaning is correct.

   叶うはずのない願い
   I kind of guessed what this bit meant “impossible to achieve dream/wish that can’t come true” because that was what most made sense from context, but I don’t really understand everything that’s going on in it. E.g. what the はずのない is doing, I found results for はずがない but not that.

   前向きさで知らずに
   I don’t really get さて and what it’s doing here

   Any help or corrections would appreciated.

8. Well I’m almost done with this 318 page novel I’m reading and I’m on the あとがき section and it seems….impossible to read. It’s way, way, way harder than the novel and doesn’t seem to use any of the words in it (The novel is about the video game dragon quest). I don’t even understand almost any of the words at all.

   As a last resort I typed some of them up and put them into google translate. Ugh do I even know any Japanese at all?

   >「昭和」が「平成」になり、「竹下相辞任」のあと「宇野首相」がピンク・スキャンダルで二ヶ月で降板」、「参議院選挙のマドンナ旋風」が吹きましたが、なんとか「海部内閣が成立」。「オバタリアン」と「おやじギャル」。「セクシャル・ハラスメント」という言葉が上陸し、キケン、キタナイ、キツイの「３Ｋ」が嫌われ、男は「アッシー君」から「ほたる族」を経て、「濡れ落ち葉」。「宮崎勤」と「オタク族」。「一杯のかけそば」なんてものもありました。

   >「川の流れのように」が巷に流れ、「セイコ伝説が崩壊」し、「中森「明菜が自殺未遂」、「プリンセス・プリンセスのＤｉａｍｏｎｄｓ」が売り上げno1．

   This is like, only 1/3rd of it. I’ll slog more tomorrow. I’m flattened.