Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don’t need their own posts, and first time posters go here (May 09, 2024)

15 comments

1. Advice for studying JLPT N5

   I have been preparing jlpt n5 for the past 2 months. I have attempted once last year, but my preparation was not good enough to pass.
   I already learnt basic Japanese hiragana and katakana for reading manga and understanding anime . But I wanted to do it on a more serious level.

   I’ve purchased online N5 course and i have been revising it. I also subscribed to MIGI JLPT app. I’ve been practicing daily. My question is Would this be enough to score fairly in jlpt n5 ? Would i need to get some more learning material?

   I have been checking this sub for the past 2 days regarding this and i couldn’t find a clear answer. Thanks in advance!!

   course : https://www.udemy.com/course/japanese-n5-course/

   App :
   https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eup.mytest..

2. How would you express ‘it’s close to everywhere’? Especially if you were to use 近い？(I know people just say 便利 or 交通の便が良い etc but I’m more curious about grammar) I asked about this a while ago and got this answer:

   >どこ に/と 近い: What place is it close to?

   >どこ に/と も 近い: it’s close to every place.

   But looking it up on Massif it seems these expressions are not in use, and given what I now know about the usually negative polarity of どこも it also seems unlikely to me.

3. I just started playing Ni No kuni on switch, i live in japan and it was only available in Japanese. Is there a Ni no kuni Anki Deck I can study?

4. I’m having trouble understanding 飲み込まれる in this sentence

   新小結の大の里は「巡業中はまったく大関陣と稽古できなかったので、飲み込まれることなく自分の稽古ができた。上位と相撲を取って自信にもなった」と話していました。

   Source: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20240502/k10014438661000.html

   He’s saying “During the tour I wasn’t able to practice with the ozeki at all, so I was able to practice on my own without ????. Doing sumo with superior ranks gave me confidence”.

   Or is it more like “As a result I practiced on my own without learning” and できた is not “was able to do” but more like “was completed”? The main definition of “to swallow” or “gulp down” doesn’t make sense to me.

5. Which kanji is more common for “to climb” – 上る or 登る? WaniKani uses the first one, my book uses the second one, and the Nihongo app uses the first one.

6. reading the 顔文字と絵文字 dialogue from genki 23. Dont understand sentences

   1. また、絵文字には、食べ物やスポーツなど生活を表すものがたくさんあります。感情以外にいろいろなことが表せて便利です。ところで、絵文字は、日本で作られたものです。知っていましたか。

   Dont understand 1st sentence. Also, why is には used there? I understand the sentence as: “Also, emojis express a a lot of life(?), food and sports, etc.” ?

   Whys there a に after 以外 in 2nd sentence?

   What does もの mean in 1st and 3rd sentence?, does it mean “thing” in both of those? もの is used A LOT throughout the entire story/dialogue. Or can it be similar to こと？

   2. このように顔文字と絵文字は違いますが、言葉や文化によって使い方や意味の違いも見られます

   Whats によって mean?Not sure i understand the sentence well, to me sounds like it was saying: “Emoticons and emoji are different like this, but in language and culture…によって…we can see the difference in usage and meanings, too”?

   3. 日本には「目は口ほどに物を言う」ということわざがあります

   Does ほど mean “more than”? Is this saying”In japan theres a proverb/saying [The eye says/tells more things than the mouth]?

7. There’s 1 hard part when a character is describing the origin of 1 historical character, hope somebody could help me understand this correctly.
   **呉郡の一兵家に過ぎなかった (my guess but not sure: “He was born from a normal soldier family in Go district/county” ? / i’m especially confused with this kanji combination 一兵家 )**
   Context: 2 character are discussing about the origin of 1 historical character (**孫堅 )**
   A「すごいなぁ……孫子の末裔なんだ」
   B「ふむ。じゃが、炎蓮様は単にその家柄にあぐらをかいていたわけではない」(*炎蓮様 is another name of **孫堅)**
   **B「孫武の流れとはいえ、あの方も元々は、呉郡の一兵家に過ぎなかった」**

8. I’m trying to say “Tohru praised her friend’s onigiri making skills, but he couldn’t accept the compliment.” I came up with
   ある日、とおるは友達がおにぎりを作るのが上手と言ったが、その友達はその褒める言葉を受けいられない。

   Is this grammatically correct? The sentence feels kinda awkward and unwieldy.

9. Any typos or mistakes this time?:

   ーーーーー

   （based on 私がりんごを食べる, which would be eaterがappleを）

   ーーー

   ***causative and てほしい ※：***

   eaterにappleを

   ***passive：***

   eaterにappleが

   ***causative-passive：***

   “eaterが makerに appleを

   ***”(so-called) suffering” passive＊：***

   eaterにappleを

   ***honorific “passive”：***

   eaterがappleを

   ーーーー

   ※ with intransitive verbs the person being made to do something can take を

   ＊ this grammar can be used with intransitives and other verbs that cannot literally be interpreted ‘passively’ purely to impart a feeling suffering / vulnerability (or however you want to argue it 😅)

10. Are there are extensions for safari IOS that allow you to lookup kanji in-app (in the web browser)? I can’t find one 🙁

11. u/Isami Remember a comment where you mentioned being a Migaku legacy user since the beginning basically so you are a good person to ask. Same to anyone else who may use it as well.

    Any problems recently? I have quite a bit, the player has been wonky and right now i basically can’t login to the addon anymore so its been unusable. I know its not an issue with the credentials either as i have not only changed them multiple times at this point they currently work fine with both the new “dashboard” version and the website, but that new addon is kinda weak i hate the UI and its still missing feature parity, like the player, which is all i use.

    Edit: Just reconsidering the entire service at this point honestly, im staring down at that “dashboard” and every week its something new, while more and more problems are happening with the “old” thing that i actually pay for that is not only being ignored but is still better than what they are trying to recreate. The anki addon is way out of date as well.

12. This question is about the use of particle は.
    Refer to the following example:

    A: “Ueno eki wa doko desu ka?”

    B: “Koko desu yo.”

    A: “Ueno koen **wa?**”

    B: “Soko desu.”

    Why, when A said as a followup question to where Ueno Park is, he omits the rest of the question and leaves only the subject + は?

13. how do i fill in the blanks using the words from brackets? did the rest of the sentences but i cant really figure those out
    1. 私が子どもを先にタクシーに　　　　　　て、それから自分が　　　　　　　ます。そのほうが安全です。（乗る、乗せる）
    5. 人がドアの前に立つと、ドアは自動的に　　　　　　　　ます。手で　　　　　　ことは出来ません。（開く、開ける)
    4. まどが　　　　　　　　　あります。（閉まる、閉める）
    2. こんなところに財布が　　 　　　　　　ています。だれのでしょうか。（おちる、おとす）

14. How did you get faster at reading?
    I’m N5 to low N4 level. My reading of Hiragana and Katakana is slow, when reading aloud I’m often going by the seat of my pants. 

    This leads me to garden path my sentences.
    My brain looking for shortcuts  think it recognises a patern and reads something that isn’t there, leading me down the garden path.

    In fairness that’s how we read natively we don’t read letter by letter. But I want to learn from those who can read in a more fluent fashion, what was thing that helps you most get past this stage?

15. How would I comment (Character) is so cute/pretty/beautiful?

    “Xちゃんめっちゃきれい”
    “Xちゃん超きれい”

    Should I be adding desu?
    Should I be using kawaii? because kirei sounds wrong.