Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don’t need their own posts, and first time posters go here (August 08, 2023)

8 comments

1. I was watching a bit of 銀河英雄伝説, and in the second episode there’s a sentence that caught my attention: 艦形から見てワレンシュタインと思われます. I had no idea that かんけい could also mean that, and only a few Japanese dictionaries seem to have that entry. I of course immediately thought that かんけい was 関係. I’ve noticed this phenomenon many times before while watching anime. The Japanese language has too many homophones, too many prefixes and suffixes appended to words, which change their meaning slightly but often make it look as though they belong to another word entirely. An example is ようへいか, 用兵家, basically 用兵 with the suffix 家. The word 用兵家 is not commonly used, so the first time I heard it I thought it was 陛下 with some よう prefix, but it was the opposite, it was another word with a suffix instead. This word appeared in the same episode of 銀河英雄伝説.
   My question is this: **when Japanese people watch anime, do they understand 100% of what’s being said without needing subtitles at all? Don’t they sometimes get confused by “unorthodox” constructions/variations? Don’t they sometimes end up scratching their head, trying to figure out just what the hell that word they just heard means** (“is it that common kanji compound I know, or perhaps is it something else entirely?”).

   Notice that this problem simply does not exist in writing. With kanji, it becomes trivially easy to differentiate between words and identify suffixes and prefixes. But in speech that often becomes extremely tricky, especially in fast-paced anime.

2. This is a question more about typing the language than about it’s concepts. So its a grey-area as to whether this is against the rules or not for me.

   Anyone have tips/suggestions on getting used to kanji when typing them? for example when typing this word 勝つ, its so hard to tell what 勝 looks like without moving my eyes closer to the screen, since it has so many strokes and such a small size.

   For those asking “*why can’t you just move CLOSER to the computer? HUH!? “* my goal with this question is to get a typing method that **doesn’t** damage my vision while at the same time giving me a clear image of each kanji, so that typing gets easier and more straight forward.

3. Hello,

   I recently got back into japanese and wanted to type some stuff on my computer.

   I changed the keyboard setting from my language (French with AZERTY Keyboard) to japanese.

   Normally, the japanese language is in QWERTY. However, I’ve changed that a few years back in the windows register to have it in AZERTY…

   Sadly, it seems like a windows update broke everything and now, even with the modified register, japanese is in QWERTY…

   I’ve tried going into my language settings but found nothing. Unlike other languages, there’s only 2 keyboard option for japanese : English or japanese keyboard.

   Does anyone have the same problem? Any luck finding a solution?

4. Is there a reason why the pronounciation of 母 changes when you use お母さん? I used Jisho to check my stroke order and realized that isn’t listed as either Kun or On. I know, obviously, that the latter is more polite, but why does the actual word change?

5. 1点に抑えていた here, would it mean: the pitcher Takahashi Kazumi had given up just one run, or that he managed to hold the Tigers batters down by one run? I feel like it is the latter but I am not sure. If the latter, would it need to be 1点差?

   試合は田淵幸一の逆転満塁ホームランで阪神が勝った。スコアは6ー5。 それまでタイガース打線を1点に抑えていた高橋一三が6回表、阪神の後藤和昭にソロホームランを打たれ、続く望月充にセンター前ヒットを打たれたところで降板した。 丿丿ーフのマウンドに立った倉田誠投手は代打の桑野議、トップバッターの藤田平に連打され、満塁。

6. (Graphic video warning)

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuDTlMM-raE

   What is the crowd yelling at 0:26?

7. What’s the best Anki deck for Remembering Kanji?

8. How do I edit my IME (or am I doing something wrong?) The standard windows 11 IME won’t let me type 角行, the shogi piece which moves diagonally. I’ve been taught it as かくぎょう(that’s what jisho says as well) yet I cant seem to get my IME to type it. If I am just typing it wrong how *am* I supposed to write it? I was only able to type it by using separate words for each kanji then putting them together.

   Thanks!