12 comments

1. This will be a rather very specific question, if anyone can answer I will be happy. FF16 is coming to PC soon, meaning I can finally play it but…Im considering playing it in Japanese for my first playthrough. At this point, I feel a sort of guilt whenever I am avoiding japanese immersion in products I know were originally from Japan and I can play/read/listen to them in Japanese.

   My question is: how difficult is FF16 in terms of Japanese? To be clear, I am not sure of my exact level, but I’ve been studying since about January of this year fairly consistently, usually through immersion, textbooks and SRS reviews daily. I don’t expect to understand everything but I want to know if doing so will be more detrimental or if it’ll still be good immersion.

2. Still reading the Quartet 1 chapter 3 dialogue 1 留学生のための富士登山ガイド. Confused with these sentences

   1. 山頂は０度以下になることがあるので、ダウンジャケットやセーターなどを忘れないようにしてください。それに、丈夫な登山靴も、岩が多い山頂の近くを歩くのに必要です。

   Confused with the order of the second sentence, and the 丈夫な登山靴も. If the 丈夫な登山靴 was after のに then the sentence would’ve made sense to me. To me it sounds like:

   “Also, sturdy hiking boots too(丈夫な登山靴も), in order to walk near the summit which has lots of rocks are necessary”

   Is the も after 丈夫な登山靴 like は, something like?: “Also(それに), in order to walk near the summit which has lots of rocks, sturdy hiking boots are also(丈夫な登山靴も) necessary.” ?

   2. 富士山には、日本だけだなく世界中から人が集まります。準備をしっかり行い、マナーを守って、日本一の山に登る感動を味わってください

   Confused with 感動, i learned in genki that it means “to be moved by”, And what does しっかり mean here? First time seeing it. I understand this as :

   At Mt. fuji not only Japan, but people from around the world gather. Steadily do preparations(準備をしっかり行い?), follow manners, and enjoy the excitement(感動?) of climbing japans best mountain?

3. The writer is describing his friend:

   彼の話し方を聞きながら、いつも私は、油を塗りたくったゆで卵が口から勢い良く飛び出して来るところを想像した。はきはきした物言いと、力強い声を聞いていると、彼が自分と同じ、人嫌いだということをつい忘れそうになる。私と違い、彼には人嫌いを周りに隠し通せるだけの賢さがあった。私と違い彼には家庭があった。

   The part ところを in the first sentence, does it have the effect of sort of freeze-framing the moment when the boiled egg is propelled towards the writer? That is the moment that the writer imagines?

   Edit: there was this [explanation](https://imgur.com/a/r9KlUnI) in A Handbook of Japanese Grammar Patterns for Vところを…V that referred to the second verb halting or obstructing the development of the action of the first verb.

4. I have a question about part of the explanation for ~ほど as given in the Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar (pg. 136-137). I generally understand that grammar point, I’m just uncertain about one part of it.

   The first note in the book says that, if whatever immediately precedes ほど is a noun, the following predicate cannot be affirmative, only negative. For reference, it gives the following as examples of a grammatical and ungrammatical sentence.

   Valid: 私はケンほど強くない。(I’m not as strong as Ken.)

   Invalid: 私はケンほど強い。(I am as strong as Ken. X )

   My question is why is that the case? To be clear, I’m not trying to argue that it isn’t true, it’s just that if I don’t understand what grammar rule or reasoning makes the Noun-ほど-Affirmative Predicate pattern wrong, I’m never going to be able to remember this rule. I’ve already caught myself getting it twisted around.

   I checked Tae Kim, but this exception(?) isn’t mentioned there, as far as I could tell. I tried asking people in real life, but I just keep getting told “Well you could use this other grammar point instead…” I know that I could use ~のように or ~みたい or ~と同じ, but I mainly just want to avoid making grammatical errors when I do use ほど.

5. I’ve been using Yomitan and it’s been really helpful! But I want to know, is there an offline program that functions similar to Yomitan? I want to highlight words in a text document, like in Microsoft Word or Notepad and be able to search up the meanings. I don’t want it to be tied to a specific program, so no plugins. Just a standalone program that I can run that allows me to highlight text in other programs and gives me a definition.

6. Having a hard time getting used to using 丁寧語。 All my thoughts come in タメ口 first usually, and I try “translate” it to be more 丁寧. but getting tripped by often by things idk how to make polite. Like, how can I say “didn’t” in slightly polite speech?? Like when talking to someone with who using 食べませんでした feels like too much (ie if with that person I usually say 食べないです instead of 食べません). Any advice for using polite speech?

7. When you **handwrite** 監, does it look more like [A](https://glyphwiki.org/glyph/u76e3-j.svg) or [B](https://glyphwiki.org/glyph/u76e3-g.svg)?

8. Does anyone have recommendations for bands, that have short stories as their lyrics (I don’t know how else to phrase it) similar to the german band ‘Schandmaul’, for example their song ‘Wandersmann’?

9. Hi, I enjoy manga and have been to japan a few times and while I would like to learn to speak eventually, right now I want to just learn to read the manga I brought back. Is WaniKani enough, it did recommend I learn hiragana first but not sure how critical that is or what a good source is.

   Essentially I feel I will be reading lots and retain it, while I wont get to/use the speaking much and wont retain it well.

   If not I’ll grab the Genki textbook I hear people talk about and do some busuu or duolingo, but was hoping to focus on just reading for now.

10. [In this post] (https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/393/differences-among-%E3%81%9F%E3%82%89-%E3%81%AA%E3%82%89-%E3%81%A8-%E3%82%93%E3%81%A0%E3%81%A3%E3%81%9F%E3%82%89-%E3%81%B0-etc) he says about と and ば :

    >The main clause must be a constant non-volitional reaction to the conditional clause unless the conditional clause shows state or if the subjects of the two clauses differ.

    Could I get an example of a use where the subject of the two clauses differ?

11. I asked my tutor this question, and she wasn’t sure what the answer was: What do you call the water pump on a fire engine? Not the hose or the tank, but specifically the engine that moves the water from the tank to the hose.
    Additionally, which verb does this word take, in the sense of expressing “*to operate* the pump”?

12. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0388000196000654

    Anyone know where I can access this paper?