Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don’t need their own posts, and first time posters go here (April 19, 2023)

22 comments

1. For the sentence: もしあめなら (If it’s rainy)

   I was wondering if somebody could help me explain what’s happening under the hood here.

   When I look up もし and なら they both mean “if,” and, obviously in English “if rainy if” doesn’t make sense. I know Japanese works different a lot of the time and you can’t directly translate, so im wondering what’s happening here.

   Thanks!

2. から massacre. I can’t understand this sentence without getting thrown off by the からなので。。から。。 my definition of から here is either since or because, but the なので is also because? either of which does not help me translate the sentence…

   大学卒業してからなので23歳からです　26歳なので一人暮らし3年目ですね

3. Anybody have any idea how the name “Ridthwan” would be written in Katakana?

   Google isn’t helping. Thanks in advance.

4. **Can someone explains to me the meaning of オカンかっ！ here ?**

   MC is a hero, on a dangerous quest to defeat a demon king. He found an old castle and now he’s thinking about his childhood friend and the reason why he chose to travel alone.

   とはいえ敵は、魔王軍を率いる強大な魔王だ。これまでの冒険と違って、危険な戦いになる。勇者の俺だって、命がいくつあっても足りないだろう。

   だから俺はパーティーの仲間と別れ、あえて一人旅を選んだんだ。

   べ、別にフレアを巻き込みたくないって、気をつかった訳じゃないんだからねっ！？

   **MC「てゆーか！フレアがいると女の子とエッチできないし！俺が女の子をナンパしたりフーゾク行こうとしたら、めっちゃ怒るし！　オカンかっ！」**

   ――オカンかっ！　オカンかっ！　オカンかっ！

   思わず上げた俺の叫びが、朽ちた古城の石壁に何度も反響する。

5. In this sentence:

   すると背後から艶やかな声が掛けられた。

   what’s the meaning of 掛けられた?

   I looked through the very long list of meanings for 掛ける and can’t seem to find a suitable one for the sentence.

6. **草木の汁で滑ったり Hope someone can explains the meaning of this to me.**
   A character is explaining the reason why you should not use a sword to clear your path while travel in jungle/ forest.
   剣をナタ代わりにするなんて、とお偉い騎士様に怒られたこともあるが、それは人それぞれだ。
   森ではいつ怪物と遭遇するか分からないから、俺は剣をナタの代わりにする。
   **だが剣が痛んだり、草木の汁で滑ったり、ツタや木々に引っ掛かるのを嫌って、ナタを使うのもイイ。**

7. I like that show 志村けん & 上島竜兵 a lot Not to be confused with 志村けん の大丈夫だ. I don’t know the actual release name. It sometimes makes funny skits around the Japanese language itself. Like main character and his wife discussing which kanji to use. One of the characters trying to write a love letter and asking help from friends which 1st person pronoun will work best. There is one skit I particularly enjoyed where main character plays audio clips of different regional dialects of Japans and his wife tries to imitate them.
   Does anyone know where I can find this exact series in its entirety. Its on YouTube but dispersed. For example this is one episode.
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uSCrM-MUzc

8. Do you guys use any Core deck that’s similar to Wanikani? I cannot remember anything with just a core 2k, while in wanikani I can learn 50 cards a day or more… I need a bit of context for kanjis and/or words…

9. Is ‘お名前はなんですか？’ the informal way of saying ‘あなたのお名前は？’

10. [deleted]

11. I wanna make a custom jersey for Mets pitcher Kodai Senga. Can someone translate his name and number 34 into kanjj?

12. image: https://prnt.sc/-Qi9lkWnJaj4

    I understand the pun/ダジャレ here, you don’t have to explain me the pun.

    my question is: how do I understand the last line literally? I’m aware of 〇〇だけに〇〇, but I don’t get it in this case

13. I just started an isekai manga, and of course on like page 2 the protagonist finds himself in another world. As he comes to in the other world, the text says “気づけば今に至る”. It appears to not be in a speech or thought bubble, so maybe my confusion comes from this being a narrator’s perspective, but I would have expected the text to say, “when I came to, I had immediately arrived (here)”. Can someone help me understand the tense and ば form here? It doesn’t seem like a sentence that would use a non-past conditional, but I know the conditionals can do a lot more than just act as “if”. Naively I would have translated this without context as “If I regain consciousness, I’ll immediately arrive” which doesn’t really make sense

14. What would be a proper way to close an email sent to my Sensei?

    よろしくお願いいたします

    Is what I found online, but I’m not entirely sure if this is the proper context. Thanks!

15. I arrogantly thought my kana reading had reached a level of where I can make sense of the words on the screen/page…So I changed the game language for the new Megaman Battle Net collection to JP…

    Kanji and stylized kana told me otherwise. At least I know a little better what I don’t know!

16. 二級術師として入学した天才も.. 一級のとうど先輩相手じゃただの一年生だもん..

    translation: even though he is a genius who was enrolled as a second grade sorcerer.. up against a grade 1 like todo senpai, he’s nothing but a first year.

    1st sentence i get, but も should be でも right? (天才 is noun) its just omitted speaking ig..

    2nd sentence idk from 相手じゃただの一年生だもん. especially, the じゃ, i have only seen the commonly used じゃあ..

    the 2nd sentence also remind me of this sentence: 私には**君の**遥か上にいる. which grammar point is used in this の？

    sry long question lol

17. A couple sentences from Shirokuma Cafe:

    1.　アイドルにならないかって言われてるんだけど、アイドルと学業の両立がねぇ。

    What is がねぇ? Is it the slurred form of がない?

    2.　僕なんて夢を食べる動物って言われがちだけど、見た人に夢がないなんて言われてさ。

    Is it “People say that I’m an animal that eats dreams, but people who have seen me told me that they don’t have dreams” or “that I don’t have dreams”?

18. just want a few opinions on the following: i can listen to music while doing my job, which means i can also listen to videos on yt, however im a bit distracted with doing my job ofcourse, so what i wanted to get opinions on is: ”do you think there is a point in putting something that helps learn japanese during work?” (something like a vocab series or so)

19. For words sharing the same pronunciation but having different kanji — how do Japanese speakers determine the meaning while speaking? Is it just based upon context of the rest of the sentence?

20. a sentence from the 2k/6k deck: 彼が元気になるよう願っています。the translation on the card: “We’re praying that he gets well”.

    why is it that “we’re praying” and not “he’s praying”? and how do you change it into “he’s praying that he gets well” while changing as little as possible? not focusing on how natural or unnatural it would sound, just want to understand what I’m missing.

21. This sentence has been confusing me for ages:
    けど、そのおかげで、ようやく取り乱せるくらいには目が覚めてきた。

    The 取り乱せるくらいには is the part that’s throwing me off. I tried looking for some kind of explanation for what the くらい could be doing here online but I couldn’t find anything (I’m honestly not sure what to search for to find the right results), so I’d really appreciate some kind of guidance on it. Sorry if this is a dumb question. “Around when I was finally able to lose my composure” is probably what I’d guess, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.

22. How to learn Drawing Hiragana?

    Im a Beginner – I know the sound of a symbol for example if i see: や i know its “ya” but if i see or hear “ya” or any others , i dont know how to draw the symbol out of my head.

    What are your experiences and how can i learn this?