Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don’t need their own posts, and first time posters go here (June 27, 2022)

22 comments

1. what’d he say
   社長や芸能人を＿＿＿
   https://vocaroo.com/1kjUiwx5Ia7P

2. I was trying to think of how I would say “I had to learn a foreign language class in college. so I learned Japanese.

   I came up with:

   大学の時に外語を習わなければいけませんてした. それで日本語をならいました.

   Is that close? Any way to make it better? I used 大学の時 because I remember something about that from class(though ots been years i could be wrong), but I also found 大学時代 as talking about in ones college days.

3. Whats the difference between 外語 and 外国語 I had to look up the word for foreign language and found both but couldn’t find what was different.

4. Hello！If I wanted to say ”Please do not feel any obligation to reply (to my message)” at the end of a message I am sending someone in Japanese, how would I go about it? I’m struggling to find answers via Googling in Japanese or English. Especially proper formality (all results I got were in dictionary form.)

5. A guy was given one hour to prepare for an exam but unfortunately he didn’t do anything in this period. So when the time came, he said

   > そんな…まだ…俺…何にも

   What is the possible missing verb after 何にも? I thought it was してない at first but there is に.

6. I’m trying to learn as many Japanese words as I can. I am using flashcards with a spaced repitition system but reviewing each 100 words for a week before I let the spaced repitition system do its job. My memory is very bad. Is this method fine or are there better ways to get the words into long term memory?

7. ＞ランニングシュユーズを履いて思いっきり走りまくろう！

   What does まくる mean here? I couldn’t find a translation for 走りまくる.

   [https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/捲る_%28まくる%29/#jn-207679](https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/捲る_%28まくる%29/#jn-207679)　Would it be the 4th definition?

8. I’d like to explain why I came to Japan, but i’m not sure how to get it across in the most effective way. This is what I came up with.

   五年前にアメリカの軍として日本に来ました。軍を止めて　日本が好きだし　妻も日本人だし　日本に戻りました。今まで日本に住んでいます。

   I’m not sure if I’m taking the right approach to mentioning being in the military or “quitting”. Any corrections or even complete reconstruction is greatly appreciated.

9. It’s about a two months I started to study Japanese (as a hobby, not work related, nor travel). I’m using a course to guide me studies, but I’m having some trouble reading the sentences on the exercises. Is there a tip, a guide, anything, to better understand how to read a japanese sentence? I try to practice Hiragana and Katakana everyday.

10. Could someone please help me understand the following paragraph?

    はるかさんが、性行為を繰り返すきっかけとなった先生との出来事。
    > 先生と生徒」「大人と未成年」という上下の関係がある中で、SOSを出しにくいと分かっていながら関係を迫ったのだとしたら、それは気持ちを踏みにじる行為です>

    What point of view is the writer speaking from here? Is he speaking in more general terms to readers or referring to Haruka/sensei? For example, in the following sentence

    > “SOSを出しにくいと分かっていながら関係を迫ったのだとしたら”>

    I am guessing the わかる and 迫るis referring to the teacher? “Urging” and “knowing” x but It is not very clear

    Is deep L incorrect here?

    > The incident with the teacher triggered Haruka’s repeated sexual acts.If she had approached him knowing that it would be difficult for him to give her an SOS in the context of a hierarchical relationship of “teacher and student” and “adult and minor,” it would have been an act of trampling on his feelings.>

11. Is there a good website where I can drill N5 and N4 conjugations (mostly N4)?

12. Can you always replace 〇〇ないです with 〇〇ません? Or are there times when only ないです can be used?

13. I feel like a moron for asking, but what’s the difference between, say, 一時間で and 一時間後 when expressing “[something] happens in one hour”? I can think of two examples that are confusing with these patterns:

    1. 電車は一時間で発車します。

    2. 一時間で会議があります

    Does the で particle particle make sense in either context? Would either sentence benefit from having 一時間後 or maybe 後一時間で as opposed to 一時間で? I know 後 has connotations of “happening after this time” in this context, but I’m just not sure how で functions here.

14. What is the difference between 要は and 要するに? I’m guessing one is more polite/formal?

15. Two questions:

    何度もママのスケジュールを説明された。でも、僕には全然理解できなかった。

    Why is it 僕に here? Understanding seems like someone one does, not that is done to you.

    パパも寂しがってたよ。僕に隠れて、パパが泣いているのを見ちゃった時があったんだ。

    How do we know it was just one time? I assumed that 時があった meant “there were times that…”

    [source](https://www.satorireader.com/articles/oku-nikkou-episode-6-edition-n)

16. In Dragon Quest 3 in one of the towns I talked to a girl who used to work as a belly dancer in a club in another town who told me

    あたしは昔　アッサラームで　人気だった　おとり娘のレナよ。でも　いやな　お客にせまられて　にげて来たの。

    I’m a little confused by the おとり娘 part. Does she mean she was one of the youngest dancers? Or that she was one of the less talented dancers there in Assaraam? Great name for a town btw lol.

17. [deleted]

18. How do you write the chinese pronunciation of 孫悟空, aka “Sun Wukong”, in Japanese katakana? ソンウコン?

19. Regarding the usage of こそあど in written Japanese. Based on my reading experience, そ often refer to previous sentence and あ can either refer to something far from the main text (either previous or further). But what about こ? Does it *always* refer to next sentence? If not, can you show me examples when it can refer to previous sentence?

    For a bit of context, I just started reading [新しい躾](https://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000311/files/3257_10904.html) and I struggle with this part

    > これからの私たち日本人は、世界に恥しくない市民として、どういう風でなければならないでしょうか。新しい躾の問題も、こういう広い、雄大な立場から考えられなければならないであろうと思います。躾という字をみますと、美しく身をもつ、ことと思えます。美しく身を持した生活態度というのは、どういうことをさしていうのでしょう。

    I think「こういう広い、雄大な立場」is referring to the next sentence but I am not sure if it can refer to the previous sentence.

20. So I was watching the new kurzgesagt channel in Japanese when I came across this sentence:

    コンクリートの場合、CO2排出量の8%はコンクリート製造業から排出されているので、コンクリートを使うのはやめようとなります。

    [Here’s the link to the original video/scene
    https://youtu.be/puoWpxZNMC8 (4:10)]

    Now what I’m confused about is the やめようとなります.
    I know that しようとする means as much as trying to do something, but what does the volatile form combined with と+なる mean?

    Any help is appreciated!

21. Does イベントをやる mean “to host a event” or “to participate in event”?

22. Is there a word for words like やれやれ, キラキラ, 一つ一つ, そらそら, etc where the word repeats itself? Onomatopoeia doesn’t seem like the right word