Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don’t need their own posts, and first time posters go here (December 12, 2022)

13 comments

1. i am watching the japanese equivalent to love island on abema (dont judge me i love trash television) for context, it’s a dating show. the girls are reading the profiles of the guys, which has a pic of them and a short self introduction

   in one of the guy’s pictures, he’s doing a double peace sign, and one of the girls comments 両手でピースしてる**あたり**が怪しい, but the subtitles read 両手でピースしてる**ところ**が怪しい

   i assume that the subtitles are “correcting” her in some way; my question is, why did she say あたり instead of ところ? is that some type of slang or something? and is the difference in meaning so great that it warranted correcting her in the subtitles (i.e. a native speaker would be confused if they had just left it as あたり…?) i tried looking it up but nothing particularly helpful came up

2. 一緒に積み重ねた、かけがえのない思い出を支えにして。

   Could anyone explain にして in this sentence to me?

   Thanks!

3. I had people recommend to me the Cure Dolly videos to learn about grammar and was wondering if I should watch those videos and do Genki or would just watching me videos be enough?

4. Tango N5 isn’t working for me. Had to set new cards per day to 0 because I was having trouble remembering kanji. Also I wasn’t really learning much because my brain was memorizing the sentence as a whole instead of the kanji. If the kanji was in a different sentence then I wouldn’t even recognize it sometimes. I only got to card #250 and gave up.

5. 貴様のいるキャンプ場に熊とトラとチワワ100匹を放った‌

   What is the purpose of いる here? Not sure if it’s saying something like “If you want, I’ll do X”, honestly not much of an idea of why it’s there, perhaps the no particle hints at its function somehow?

   (Yuru Camp E2 14:00)

6. do potential verbs use が instead of を? i forgor lmao

7. I saw this in a conversation in a book:

   > にくにくしげにいった。

   I know にくにく is smiling but I can’t figure out what しげ is? I only know 茂み but this has nothing to do with that I’m guessing.

   Context: An old man is telling a little girl about a baseball game.

   I’m guessing this means something like, “He said with a grin”

8. うまー！黒みつときな粉が絶妙に混ざりあって‌

   What is the purpose of the ある here? I see it’s in te-form which is fine, but what exactly does it imply here? Is it saying something like: mixing the brown sugar syrup and kinako **have** the qualities of working well together?

9. Ive been trying to read a book called 愛のひだりがわ, can someone tell me the translation for the name and if there’s an English version?

10. The following video has Japanese subtitles, but there’s a particular section where a certain line is missing, one by a girl. (I can somehow figure out the guy part to some extent) Anyone can figure it out? ([LINK](https://youtu.be/ABIyLo4b8mk?t=53))

    Sounds like 「笑って ○○ なよ！」to me but I’m not sure.

    TIA

11. I just played around with ChatGPT to see if it could help me traverse Pokemon Gold in Japanese and it seems pretty good! (Edit* nvm lol see reply)

    Me:
    What does すまんがとけいをみてくれんか… mean?

    ChatGPT:
    The phrase “すまんがとけいをみてくれんか…” (sumanga tokei o mite kurenka…) is a polite and somewhat formal way of asking “Would you mind looking at your watch?” The verb “mite” (見て) means “to look,” and the particle “o” (を) is used to mark the direct object of the verb, which in this case is “your watch” (とけいを). The polite ending “kurenka” (くれんか) is added to the stem of the verb to make it polite and to form a question. The word “sumanga” (すまんが) is an archaic form of the word “sumimasen” (すみません), which is a polite way of saying “excuse me” or “I’m sorry.” This word is not commonly used in modern Japanese, but it may be used in a formal or literary context to add a sense of politeness or formality to the phrase.

    Me:
    What does あら！ mean?

    ChatGPT:
    The word “あら” (ara) is an interjection that is used to express surprise or realization. It is similar in meaning to the English interjections “oh” or “ah.” This word is often used when the speaker is surprised by something or has just realized something. For example, if someone walks into a room and sees a mess, they might say “あら！” (ara!) to express their surprise. It can also be used as a response to something unexpected or surprising that someone else has said or done. In this case, it might be translated as “Oh!” or “Ah!” in English.

    Me:
    What does ウツギはかせがあたらしいポケモンみつけたんだってな mean?

    ChatGPT:
    The sentence “ウツギはかせがあたらしいポケモンみつけたんだってな” (Utsugi hakase ga atarashii pokemon mitsuketan datte na) is a bit difficult to understand because it is not a complete sentence and it contains some grammatical errors. However, I will do my best to provide a translation and explanation of what the sentence might mean.

    The word “ウツギ” (Utsugi) is the name of a character, and the word “はかせ” (hakase) means “professor” or “doctor.” The particle “が” (ga) is used to mark the subject of the sentence, so “ウツギはかせが” (Utsugi hakase ga) could be translated as “Professor Utsugi.” The word “あたらしい” (atarashii) means “new” or “fresh,” and the word “ポケモン” (pokemon) is the Japanese name for the Pokémon franchise. The verb “みつける” (mitsukeru) means “to find” or “to discover,” and the past tense form “みつけた” (mitsuketa) is used to indicate that the action of finding or discovering something has already been completed.

    The sentence ends with the phrase “んだってな” (n datte na), which is a bit difficult to translate because it is not a complete sentence and it contains some grammatical errors. The word “ん” (n) is a shortened form of the word “なん” (nan), which means “what” or “something.” The phrase “だって” (datte) is used to indicate that the speaker is saying something based on what they have heard or been told. The word “な” (na) is used to make a statement or question sound more tentative or polite, but it is often used at the end of a sentence in a way that is difficult to translate directly into English.

    Based on this information, the sentence “ウツギはかせがあたらしいポケモンみつけたんだってな” (Utsugi hakase ga atarashii pokemon mitsuketan datte na) could be translated as something like “Professor Utsugi found a new Pokémon, or so I heard.” However, as I mentioned before, the sentence is not complete and it contains some grammatical errors, so this is just a rough translation. If you could provide more context or a complete sentence, I may be able to provide a more accurate translation.

12. Hi! I’ve been trying to parse this phrase for a while and I just can’t make it understandable.

    There’s a young kid with terrible handwriting trying to make a cipher (it’s illegible). She tries to hide it from her parent and the parent says:

    >暗号がどうとかいう以前の問題だぞ

    from what I understand from the context it means something like :

    >”you have other problems [like your handwriting] to fix before worrying about people reading your cipher.”

    the official translation says:

    >No one’s going to be able to read that,
    let alone crack the code.

    However I have no idea how that comes about. What I see is:

    >暗号がどう + とかいう + 以前の問題だ
    (how the cipher is) + ??? + (is a prior problem)

    When I look up とかいう it says that it relays some uncertainty. So I’m stuck reading the sentence as:

    >”how the cipher is, is kind of a prior problem.”

    I have no idea how ~以前の問題だ ends up referring to something else besides the 暗号. What am I missing here?

    Thank you for your time!

13. I just read a commenter on a news website refer to Asians as 黄色人種 in Japanese. My Japanese isn’t great, but this seems kind of archaic or nuanced. I’m assuming it’s derogatory, but does anyone have any insight into this phrase?