Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don’t need their own posts, and first time posters go here (August 02, 2023)

15 comments

1. I know Japanese people often prefer to use indirect language, and I was wondering if -たり form also is used for this at times. I understand the meaning of tari form, to imply other things, but – at least in translation – it kind of seems to make the language less strong and less direct. I think of being a teen and awkwardly telling a girl that “i like you and stuff…” using the “and stuff” to be less confident.

2. Is this sentence written correctly? any tips for making this sound natural is appreciated 😀

   CONTEXT: I`m a big space enthusiast happily talking to a former nasa engineer who I met randomly in public

   ナサでロケットを建てたことがどうですか？絶対楽しいはずでしたね！私は勤めていれば超嬉しいですよ！

   Intention: “What was it like building rockets for nasa? you must of had a great time there! If only I was working there right now, I would be so Happy!”

3. so with the revelation that I’m gonna need to know dakuten/handakuten and the combination hiragana, im feeling a bit overwhelmed. If anyone can offer tips that would be great.

4. I started studying about a month/month and a half ago, and I’m settling into the following study strategy. It feels like it works pretty well so far, but I could probably do with more active listening. Does anyone see any holes/room for improvement?

   JLPT Tango N5 MIA and Core 2000 Anki decks for the bulk of my vocab

   Genki 1 for grammar and expressions

   Japanese with Shun for input, I’ve also been looking at Nihongo con Teppei and もしもしゆうすけ

5. I’ve new to Japanese and I’ve been self-teaching myself using Genki. Right now, I’m trying to figure out how to tell time. Genki taught me how to say exact times like 3am or 3:30am, but not how to form a sentence like “It is 3:15 am”. I think it’s いまさんじじゅうごふん。but I want to be sure I’m not teaching myself wrong here. Do I need to add something between さんじ and じゅうごふん for it to make sense, or is this grammatically correct?

6. Is this the correct way to say this?
   I want to say “I workout every morning, except Sunday”
   Nichiyoubi janakereba maiasa gym o shimasu

7. how do you say middle in japanese?ni keep seeing different words for middle such as なか 真ん中の and 真ん中 I’m very confused by this and i can’t find any explanation anywhere.

8. Currently at 1295 words on core2k/6k. Hopefully I’m almost out of the difficulty spike brought about by all the sudden business terminologies because I’m starting to see more “normal” words and the number of cards that I’m reviewing is slowly lowering.

   Just wanted to get some input, but did anyone benefit from adding pictures into their core2k/6k deck? I didn’t do it because I thought I wouldn’t gain anything from it and a lot of people do say that they’re unnecessary, but I’m starting to imagine the word’s meaning first as a mnemonic tool. Some examples would be for 残る, I just picture a bunch of plates with some food lying around or for 実行, I just picture Kronk pulling the lever to execute Yzma’s plan.

9. i am an artist and have been doing a drawing of 3 girls from an anime that are best friends. I want to put the word for best friends on top of it, but i cannot seem to find a word for this. I have read that 親友　can be used for best/close friend.
   my question is could you add たち to this to make it applicable (親友たち）to a group of best friends?

10. hi, alot of fluent youtubers seem to have started since their teens. Are there any good examples of people who started learning Japanese in their late 20s / early 30s that are now fluent in the language?

    By fluent, I mean, yknow doing everything japanese ppl do like having convos, reading books, thinking in japanese etcs?

    The only one I know of who started in their late 20s is marty friedman, wondering if any other out there maybe I can learn from them or how they did it.

11. When needing to look up what radicals a kanji character is made up of, what resource do you use?

12. Is there a defined age range for 少年/少女?

13. Is 勤める used in context of place of work (ex; I work at the mall/モールに認める) and 就く used in context of occupation/to be hired:employed? If I want to express that I want to work in a occupation which I use Japanese would 「日本語を使える職業に就きたい」or「日本語を使える職業に勤めたい」be correct?　就きたい would be used as I`m emphazing that I want to utilize Japanese in a work postion?

14. What’s the difference between kanji reading and vocabulary reading?

    一’s kanji reading is いち/いつ but 一’s vocabulary reading is only いち, why?

15. Does anybody have good resources for writing essays/reports/presentations in a kishoutenketsu (起承転結) structure? Ideally with actual complete examples (preferably multiple) to get a better feel for how they look, rather than just a few vague guidelines or hypotheticals on what goes in each part.

    I’d even be willing to lay out the money for a reputable book, but I have a hard time sorting out what’s junk and what’s actually useful based just on marketing hype or amazon reviews.