Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don’t need their own posts, and first time posters go here (May 15, 2023)

18 comments

1. When do I read 描く as えがく and when do I read it as かく? For example, I would read it as えがく in その小説の筋はよく描けていない and as かく in 微調整しながら描き進めていく. I can’t explain how I decide other than “it feels right”.

2. I use Duolingo and LingoDeer for my learning. Duolingo introduced 会社 to mean office. LingoDeer used 事務室.

   Are they both correct or is there a better translation for one of them? LingoDeer also said that 会社員 was “office worker” so I assume that 会社 would be more accurate?

3. I’ve been studying Japanese for roughly 2 years. I’ve only been using the Tango Anki Vocab decks, completed N5-N2, for my active study. Any other time has been spent watching Japanese streamers and Vtubers for listening comprehension and entertainment.

   I was finally able to put all that into practice today in the middle of a hike on a mountain when a guy right behind me on the trail went “良かった!!”. I turned around and asked “日本人ですか”. Then proceeded to have a chat with their group as best as I could.

   I haven’t studied a lick of grammar, I just picked up some grammar patterns from the Tango sentence examples and listening to native speech. The spontaneous conversation showed me where I need improvements but I’m happy that I was able to convey my main idea despite my limited grammar knowledge and they got to practice their English so win win!

   This experience has given me a great boost to dive into grammar and practice speaking more.

   Plus I finally received my 日本語上手 card lol

4. My study program had this example sentence:

   この国の政治は終わっている

   and it translated it as:

   The governance of this country is a disaster.

   Which didn’t make sense to me. The translation on google translate was closer to what I imagined:

   Politics in this country is over

   Is the first translation correct? Can 終わる be used to mean “disaster”?

5. Is it worth it to try reading books for someone who is still pre-N5 level? I want to try doing more reading but I’m not sure what kind of content to read. Any advice?

6. I’m watching Japanese from Zero and I have a quick question about being polite.

   There was an example conversation made that went:

   Person A: “たなかさんですか?”

   Person B: “たなかじゃないです”

   Why was the -san suffix dropped in Person B’s response? Wouldn’t it be more polite to include it because you’re not Tanaka and are referring to someone else? Or do you drop it just as if you were referring to yourself?

7. Why do Japanese resources keep referring to green things as blue? Green light is called “aoi”, and green peppers are called blue in this random Tadoku story. [https://tadoku.org/japanese/book/4155/](https://tadoku.org/japanese/book/4155/)

   ​

   Please let me know

8. I’m using the core 2.3k anki deck, and am confused about how a sentence was translated.

   the sample sentence for “手段” is “彼は目的のためには手段を選ばなかったわね”　and it says this means “he used every trick in the book to achieve his aims.”

   basically, i’m confused. if i translate this sentence word by word, it (i think) literally means “he goal purpose method couldn’t/didn’t choose” and if i use what i know about grammar i would guess it means “for the sake of his goals, he didn’t choose a method” which i know doesn’t make sense, so i’m just wondering what it is that i’m missing/messing up. is this a language specific thing in which to say not choosing a singular method = trying lots of methods or something?

9. Is there a website, application or video (video series, even) that someone could recommend for learning pronunciation? Specifically with prolonged sounds? I cannot for the life of me differentiate words that use things such asしょう and しょ, or other prolonged sounds such as in the words わかんない and わっかない. Or how/why わっかない doesn’t use a ー, instead using a small tsu?

   All of the examples I listed sound almost the exact same to me, both when I (try to) speak them and when I listen to them. Does anyone have something to help with this?

10. Is “今晩は夜空が特に綺麗ですね” a natural sounding sentence? Or maybe did I put the 特に in the wrong spot?

11. これからこのメスガキと楽しいコトすっからさ

    What does すっからさ mean?

12. How to start reading? I get lost trying to translate a sentence or a whole article.

    Should i break it into sentences? And then should i recognise verbs noun etc and then make the translation in my head? I can pick up the words(if i have the vocabulary but i am getting lost in making it into comprehensible context).

13. So in the song 僕のこと from the group Mrs. Green Apple there are the following lyrics:

    ああ なんて素敵な日だ
    幸せと思える今日も 夢敗れ挫ける今日も
    ああ 諦めずもがいている
    狭い広い世界で 奇跡を唄う

    My question is about the last part

    歌を歌う means to sing a song with 歌 being marked as the direct object, right?
    So with 「奇跡を唄う」「 奇跡」is marked with を so as the direct object.

    So can 狭い広い世界で 奇跡を唄う be understood as “to sing miracles in a small, wide world” ? Like in the sentece that the song/singing itself is considered the miracles.

    Or is it more like “to sing about miracles in a small, wide word”. ?

    Link to the song: https://youtu.be/xefpHEg5UIA

14. I recently started learning japanese and I am now on the chapter 4 of Genki 1. What does the あの in the second sentence mean? Sorry if this is a dumb question but I didnt notice the word in the vocabulary section or anywhere else.

    あそこにホテルがありますね。マクドナルドはあのホテルの前ですよ。
    Translation: There is a hotel over there. McDonald’s is in front of the hotel.

    Help would be appreciated 🙂

15. 死んでもいいっつーのはやっぱなし

    Is the っつー part slang for って?

16. I’m using Genki II to prepare for N4 JLPT. In the last few chapters, they have dedicated chapters for けいご/honorific/modest language. Just wondering, is this something that is important in the N4 test?

17. Am I thinking of Kanji and vocabulary accurately?

    Should I be learning the meaning of a word by Kana firstly, and investigate the Kanji secondarily? This way I’m familarizing myself with the sound/meaning first and symbol (Kanji) second?

    I’m using simple stories with limited Kanji that have Kana above it.

    北風 = きたかぜ. If I familiarise myself with the Kana phonetically, it would then be easier to make an association to the Kanji. Does that make sense? Rather than learning a Kanji first and happening upon it in a sentence where I have to decipher which meaning applies to it.

18. Yesterday, I asked who in this sentence is being described by たまま (either 僕’s face or ○○’s face)

    だが、僕がそう思うのと同時に、恐怖に顔を強張らせたまま○○がポツリと口を開いた。

    To which I received the reply:
    > 顔を強張らせたまま is describing 〇〇 (solely because she’s the subject of the sentence.)

    There are two がs so I’m assuming the person meant to say “clause” not “sentence.” What I need clarification on is: how do we know at which point the sentence isn’t focusing on 僕 as the subject anymore?