Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don’t need their own posts, and first time posters go here (August 21, 2024)

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9 comments
  1. I am near the end of Genki 1 chapter 10. Can I passed JLPT N4 on December 1st? I signed up for it to push myself. I am doing Genki 1 with my Japanese teacher twice a week but at this pace I will be on Chapter 15 or 16 before the test. I started with u/Ashiba_Ryotsu Genki 2 so I can get there quicker. So there is a chapter 11 and chapter 12 gap right now. I don’t want to push my Japanese teacher because he wants to go through the exercises. He senses that I want to move faster and told me that learning a language takes time.

  2. I was reading sentences on jisho and came across:

    りょうりがさめてしまっています – Which is translated as “the food is cold”.

    Couldn’t they just write りょうりがさめた ?

    Also doesn’t the usage ofさめて and しまています imply the food is still getting cold?

  3. Dont understand these quartet 1 chapter 3 によって grammar example sentences

    1.
    A: 日本の物価は高いと思いますか。

    B: 物によって違うと思いますが、一般的に言って私の国より高いと思います。

    Dont understand what the 一般的に言って means here, I understand this as:

    A: “Do you think japans cost of living is high?”.

    B: “I think its different depending on things, but… because i generally say(一般的に言って?) I think its more expensive than my country”?

    2.
    A: あの映画はどうだった

    B: 面白かったよ。人によって感じ方は違うかもしれないけど

    Confused with 感じ方. Is B saying:

    “It was fun. But depending on the person, feelings(感じ方) are probably different?”

    3. 話す相手によって言葉の使い方を変えたほうがいい

    Confused with 話す相手. “Depending on your talking partner, you should change your usage of words”?

  4. My gf’s family is mean to her about her learning the language and I’m not sure what more to do to keep her motivated.

    We’ve both been learning for about 2 years, we intend on going to Japan for the first time in a few months. She’s dealt with the following nonstop (they’re generally just mean to her about what she likes, we’re moving out together soon):
    “You’ll never go to Japan”
    “So… you don’t think you’ll REALLY be able to talk to a Japanese person will you?” (Nearly exact quote)
    “Learning Japanese is stupid, you’re only doing it because of anime”
    “You know Japan isn’t like anime right?”

    My gf is fairly sensitive and it makes her feel down and demotivated, like it’s embarrassing and she has to hide it. I never deal with this in my home. I do my best to lift her up and keep her going.

    Is there anything else I can do?

  5. 1. This is not “I generally say” but “people generally say”. Or in more natural terms “generally speaking….”

    2. Yes “depending on the person, the way of feeling is different”. Or in more natural English – “different people feel differently about (it)”.

    3. Yes you are correct in understanding. But we would more like say something like “you should change your way of talking depending on who you are talking to.”

    This can already give you a sense that there is no “one way” to translate thing X between Japanese and English. It always depends a lot on the context. This is why in this sub we always ask people to provide context when people ask questions (and you did a great job of providing it).

    The worst kind of question is “what does X mean?” Because the answer is always – it depends on context.

  6. is と in this sentence meant to be a connector “and” or is it a quotation grammar thingy? 

    オマエがいないと寂しい

    I understand the general meaning of the sentence, but lets say if I write it as オマエがいないのは寂しい will it still be correct?

  7. I just started learning Japanese and I find that Japan date numbering is very peculiar. Instead of regular numbering like いちにち、ににち、さんにち、and so on, it use its own numbering such as ついたち、ふつか、みっか、and so on.
    I’m curious is there any reasons or related history why this date numbering used in Japanese?

  8. There’s a line in Spirited Away when the Stink God is entering the bathhouse where Yubaba says to Sen “四の五の言うと、石炭にしちまう。わかったね?” My understanding of this sentence is Yubaba threatening to turn Sen into coal if she complains about taking care of the Stink God?

  9. i was listening to the song kawaikute gomen to learn vocab, there is a line that says 努力しちゃっててごめん (doryoku shichattete gomen), which is traslated sorry for trying too hard.

    My problem is that i cannot understand from where the second て in shichattete comes form, since from what i found the verb shichau しちゃう should become shichatte しちゃって.

    Can someone explain tnx

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