Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don’t need their own posts, and first time posters go here (March 30, 2023)

14 comments

1. Hello! This is from 聞き耳ラジオ in Satori Reader:

   テントの中には、もっと様々な商品があり、私はゆっくりと見て歩いた。

   My question is why does the second part of the sentence end with あり instead of あって?

   I did try searching and saw some people suggest that あり is a more formal way to connect clauses than あって, but the story notes emphasized that it is written in an informal, conversational tone.

2. Does anybody have any suggestions for a monolingual dictionary for Yomichan? I intend to take the training wheels off very soon :^)

3. I have a question about greetings, I was watching Genki Lesson 1: Greetings – Japanese with Video Games by Game Gengo ゲーム言語 and his context doesn’t seem to line up with the translations provided in Genki.

   よろしくおねがいします is listed in Genki as “Nice to meet you”, but Game Gengo listed it as “treat me well” to be used after introduction.

   はじめまして is listed as “How do you do?”, but Game Gengo describes it as “Nice to meet you(for the first time)”

   Are these all correct and just contextual or am I missing something here?

4. 読みやすいライトノベルのおすすめがありますか。漢字が500文字ぐらい読めます。たくさん分からない単語はだいじょうぶですが、もう少しいかんたん文法おねがいします。授業でTobira1+2を勉強しました。

5. Is there any Chinese textbook for learning Japanese like Genki or should I use Genki?

6. Greetings! Newbie question here 😀

   I have Genki 1 textbook+resources, but they’re second edition. Is there any significant reasons to update to the most recent revision, or it’s perfectly fine to stick with this one?

7. realistically speaking how many kanjis do you learn/ can you learn in a day? and do you forget if you don’t use it for a long time? I had full points on my kanji exams first semester but I realise that I tend to forget stroke orders nowadays (not meanings, i can identify nearly every kanji once i see them and their meaning) do you have any ideas or recommendations for memorizing kanji/especially stroke order?

8. Question about という名前 grammar.

   This is in a graded reader about kabocha squash (which btw is delicious in a thai style red or yellow curry if you can find them, and don’t even need to be peeled!)

   ポルトガル語の「Cambodia（カンボジア）」が「かぼちゃ」という名前 になりました

   My reading of this is something like “The Portuguese word Cambodia became the name kabocha”.

   ポルトガル語の「Cambodia（カンボジア）」が = The Portuguese word “Cambodia” is the subject of the sentence. I feel pretty good about this.

   になりました = became.

   So that leaves 「かぼちゃ」という名前 as a target for になりました to work on? My understanding of という is new to this sentence, but I see it’s used like “B called A” or “B known as A”. So it’s literally something like “the name known as kabocha” or “name called kabocha”. I feel like I sort of understand how that translates roughly but is this a specific case of the phrase using という名前 to be aware of? Is there a better translation for this?

9. This kabocha reader is kicking my butt lol

   Need help parsing a phrase from this

   日本では一年で一番昼が短くなる日にかぼちゃを食べる習慣があります

   I had to run it through a translator, but basically it means “In Japan, it’s customary to eat on the shortest day of the year”. I’m having trouble piecing out “shortest day of the year”.

   I get that it’s 一年で一番昼が短くなる日 but figuring out where the phrases are is tripping me up.

   Literal translation I see “one year で most daylight が become short day”. So is 一年で一番昼が短くなる in its entirety describing 日 ? Then how does 一番昼 become the least daylight? Is it that 一番昼が短くなる is broken up like 一番 “the most” applying to 昼が短くなる entirely? So it’s the most occurrence of daylight which is become short?

   So I guess it’s like 一年で (一番(昼が短くなる))日 ? In a year, the most (daylight which becomes short) day?

   Any tips for how to improve on spotting the breakup of these phrases? Is thinking of it like nesting phrases outwards from particles going to work in general, or just here? Or just more reading?

10. 審査会の毎週開催はサルがやることで、蛮族の行為だ

    What does サルがやることで? Does it literally mean “it is what monkeys do?”

11. What’s the meaning 置く in this sentence?

    みんなから一目を置かれていたからな‌

    More context:

    みんなびっくりしたね

    A子はとてもクールで勉強もスポーツもでき

    みんなから一目を置かれていたからな

12. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn4GqsKs9U0

    At the start of the video the kid says this:

    (ふうしゃ)って本当に壁で防げるの？

    I can’t figure out the part in parenthesis.

    I know it’s supposed to mean sandstorm but I only see windmill in the dictionary which doesn’t make any sense. Are they using a made up word in the translation, am I mishearing it or what?

13. **There are 2 sentences which confused me in this conversation (relating to marketing stuffs). Much thanks if anyone can explains their correct meanings if mine were wrong.**

    **1/「しかも、いまなら秋の気配が色濃くなって参りました紅葉真っ盛り９９％ＯＦFキャンペーン実施中だってさ」(my guess: ” But the ad says, that right now they’re having a 99% discount campaign for maple leaves , until the end of autumn.” ???)**

    **2/季節はずれにも程があるキャンペーンだった。(my guess: “This is an absurd out of season sale campaign” ??)**

    **Context: MC is the president of his school’s student council. Right now he must solve a difficult paranormal case/ incident at his school , by the order of the Principal (might involves with ghost /悪霊 as the culprit of these strange incidents that happened within MC’s school)**

    **When he’s retuning home, he met an suspicious old woman who’s handing out pocket tissues for people (maybe she’s marketing for some company – she said that there’s a discount campaign ). MC tried to avoid her, but this old woman blocked his way ,and gave him a pocket tissue pack.**

    **When MC came home and eating dinner with his little sister, he talked about this with her and opened the tissue pack. Inside he found an ad flyer for a “Exorcist Referral Office /Agency” (Ghost Buster ?) . It has a telephone number + a discount campaign description for customers.**

    ポケットティッシュに挟まれた広告には―

    ■　悪霊にお困りの人いらっしゃい　■　労働大臣許可　大沢退魔師紹介所　■

    などと、簡素なフォントで記してあった。

    Little Sister「えー…このタイミングで？」

    MC「あからさまだよな」

    **Little Sister「しかも、いまなら秋の気配が色濃くなって参りました紅葉真っ盛り９９％ＯＦFキャンペーン実施中だってさ」**

    MC「いま六月だぞ」

    **季節はずれにも程があるキャンペーンだった**

    そもそも、悪霊と紅葉に何の関係があるんだ。

14. Silly relationship Japanese question!

    How can I explain to my boyfriend that he really hurt my feelings? He said some crazy mean stuff to me during a fight and I want to say I’m finding it difficult to forgive him because what he said really hurt me.

    I’d usually say something like こころに傷ついた but I think I need something stronger.

    I want to apologise for making him angry in the first place, but I want to explain that what he said when angry isn’t acceptable to me. I’m almost break up level upset but don’t know how to convey it.

    I’d say maybe 私の欲が強かった。それは悪かったのでごめんね。でも(his name)が言ったことが本当にひどかったからI’m still really upset/I can’t move past it/I feel concerned about our relationship or something similar. 本当は私のことが好きだとは思わない今。maybe

    I’ve never had to say something like this before (and I don’t want dramas hahaha). Any help would be really appreciated! 🙂

    Sorry to dump this heavy question in the daily thread by the way haha