Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don’t need their own posts, and first time posters go here (November 07, 2023)

14 comments

1. Hello everyone. I took two years of Japanese in High School, and I graduated last May. I learned a lot over those last two years. My teacher was the one that mainly made the lessons for us and gave us lectures. She is an amazing teacher, and I was always really into it, and I almost always averaged an A in her class.

   Anyways, now that I have graduated, I don’t know where to go from there. Since she always taught by her own curriculum, I don’t know where to go or what I should be doing. She had given me the next year’s work before I graduated. It’s mostly lessons condensed into small packets but if I am being honest, it is not the same as having her around to teach it or to lecture about. I don’t even know how I should pace myself. I don’t want to lose my Japanese skills that I have developed by not practicing anymore. I want to reach a very conversational state in the long future but don’t know where to go from here. I don’t think these lessons will help me.
   Any advice from somebody who has been in the same or similar situation? Thank you in advance.

2. So, there’s this question:

   靴を脱がないで【 】お入りください。

   Which I think means: “Please come in like that without taking your shoes off.”

   And there are two options:

   そのままに and そのまま.

   Should に be used in this case? And if it shouldn’t, why? I was thinking it should because of そのままにする, but I’m not so sure anymore.

3. 書類は正と副の2通あります。

   The translation indicates that there are a total of two papers, one copy and one original. Wouldn’t it also be possible to interpret this as 書類は正と副の2通（ずつ）あります。?

4. I’m having trouble understanding a sentence pattern in my textbook:

   この料理はどうやって作るか、教えてください。

   おみやげは何がいいか、聞きました。

   I think the first is “when you make this recipe, please show me how”, but I’m lost on the second. The instructions in the book says its “when he or she does” or “how it is” but it’s not clicking for me. Theか is the crucial point apparently.

   – copied from previous thread

5. I have no idea how to translate part of this sentence:

   1915年、押すとしんが出る鉛筆が早川徳次氏によって発明された。

   What does 押すとしんが出る mean? I’m thinking maybe 押すと means “when one presses,” but I have no idea what しん means or why it’s used with 出る。

6. >　ああ、名探偵明智小五郎と怪人二十面相の対立、知恵と知恵との一騎うち、その日が待ちどおしいではありませんか。

   Context: The great detective is coming back from overseas and will face off against the thief (who is named the man with 20 faces).

   The part that’s throwing me off is 一騎うち, something about…a horseman?

   Anyway I think it’s, “Ah, the face-off between the great detective 明智小五郎 and the man with 20 faces, wit to wit will (one horseman?), won’t we keep waiting for that time?”

7. Hello! I’m going through the Tango N5 Anki deck. Very helpful resource so far, but there’s one flashcard whose audio is confusing me.

   The flashcard in question: 山田さんは**会議室**にあります

   The furigana indicate that the word in bold is pronounced かいぎしつ, but to my (foreign and untrained) ear the actress seems to be saying かいぎいす instead. I wouldn’t find mishearing things too perplexing if it weren’t for the fact that there’s a different flashcard audio where I can clearly hear the same actress pronouncing the word in accordance with the furigana. I checked the word’s [wiktionary entry](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E4%BC%9A%E8%AD%B0%E5%AE%A4) to see if this might be the result of the word having variant pronunciations but it doesn’t say anything to that effect.

   If anyone can help explain what’s going on I’d greatly appreciate it. Also, sorry for not uploading the audio files from the two flashcards I’m talking about, but I can’t figure out how to do that.

8. I find this grammar construction really interesting:
   料理の時や食事の残りで出る**生ごみ**

   Explanation + subject

   context: tv news
   I see it often used on news when the announcer is introducing the subject, like some omiyage or a place from a town they are.

9. How do I type this: アブドゥル? Specifically I don’t know how to make a ド with a small ウ.

   Edit: Also ウェンディーす, any way to do that “De” with the little katakana i with a keyboard without selecting from suggestions?

10. I’m currently self-teaching Japanese using the Genki textbook and workbook. I feel like I need a test or something that tests on each subject thus far and then can give me a better idea of what I need to focus on (ie te verbs, counting, describing where things are). Is there a resource like that available?

11. There’s this question which I wasn’t sure how to answer:

    A:ちょっとコンビニに行ってきます。

    B:コンビニに【　　】、ジュース買ってきて。

    The options are 行けば and 行くなら.

    I understand it can’t be 行けば because going to the store doesn’t result in this person buying juice.

    So, why is 行くなら the answer here? I would’ve used いったら, and I’ve never seen なら used like this before.

    Does it mean the same?

12. @jlptjapaneselearning5241

    I came across these videos while searching for some real life resources for studying Japanese and I really enjoyed the format. Unfortunately, there are only 6 videos on this particular channel, I guess because it must be pretty time consuming to make them. Can anyone recommend a similar resource where TV clip examples have been broken down to explain grammar/vocabulary?

13. Just now, I saw 好きにさせて being translated as “Let me do as I please” and “I will do as I please”, but wouldn’t the て form in this context be a imperative form, making it “Do as you please”? Was it wrongful translation?

14. Am I just stupid or is TRY! not a good book, at least for learning? It seems it’s maybe more of a review book or useful for its questions or exercises because the grammar explanations absolutely suck.

    I had been struggling with it for a while and eventually got to grammar point 15 in N4 which goes over のに

    The explanation given for it is, quote:

    “のに means the opposite of ので (which as far as I know is because/due to). Use it when you want to expressed satisfaction, disappointment, or surprise.

    So instead of explaining either the meaning of a point or word, or equating it to a similar point in English, it literally just tells you what situation to use it or to use your feelings. As for it being the opposite of のに that just seems like an unnecessarily complicated explanation that doesn’t work in many cases. Nobody would say “although” is “opposite of because”.

    A 5 second google search helped me understand のに more than this book did becaus they explanations are just so ridiculous.

    And the exercises are not about practicing the point. Most of the exercises are simply filling in the blank to conjugate the verb with that point. Rather than trying to test which point you should use, you know that the answer is going to be the grammar point you just read about so all you are doing is conjugation.

    If I’m just dumb go ahead and let me know, but it seems to me like this book is just trash for anything other than exercises