Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don’t need their own posts, and first time posters go here (February 14, 2023)

16 comments

1. In the lyrics for Galileo Galilei’s “Imaginary Friends”, there’s this sentence near the start:

   シダの葉と木漏れ日の道を汗をかいて息を切らし走ってどこかへ行こうぜ

   And then later on the lyric is:

   いつかのシダの葉と木漏れ日の道は畦を刻み時と共に年をとったらしい

   The part “畦を刻み”, does this mean a ridge is formed by the cutting/engraving action 刻み as time passes (時と共に). The focus is on the ridge, not the groove?

2. Hi, I have another question about the script from Final Fantasy IV which is here: http://ff4com.s4.xrea.com/ff4conve/conve010.html

   > あれほど憎しみで戦うなと言っておったのに・・・・馬鹿者が・・・・

   I was wondering, in this sentence, why exactly is な after 戦う and what is it’s function there?

   I believe this sentence is something like “Despite me saying that fighting with hatred…moron…”

   And it would say this because one of the characters fought so hard for revenge that it killed him.

3. I have a couple questions.

   1. Say I’m at an event and there is food (for example) on a table and I want to ask “Can I just take anything from here?” would this Japanese sentence be correct?
   1. ここから何でも取ってもいいですか？
   2. Say I’m at some futuristic restaurant and the ordering process is complicated and I want to ask “How does this whole thing work?” would it be correct to say this?
   1. これはどうやって動きますか？

   Thank you so much！

4. Hi everyone! I’m very new to Japanese, been studying around a month. I’m about to reach level 3 on WaniKani and started Core2k/6k two days ago, set to 10 cards a day. Alongside this, I’ve been soaking in Tae Kim’s Grammar and doing Genki occasionally. Also, I try to decipher any unknown Kanji i cross in Anki sentences/grammar online.

   My reviews and new cards take 20 minutes a day, max. Anki is going slow so far, since I haven’t learned much vocab yet. What more could I be doing to study? Should I increase my daily cards on Anki?

   While I don’t want to study for hours a day, I think an hour a day is a good spot. Basic grammar has been super fun to study, but without more vocab I can’t do much with it.

5. Was wondering about this from the Final Fantasy script:

   > クリスタルを奪われたのも、僕らの責任です！ 何か力になれるなら・・・・

   The script is here for context: http://ff4com.s4.xrea.com/ff4conve/conve011.html

   I think the second part is “If there is anything we can do for help…”

   And this part 僕らの責任です I think means “It’s our duty”

   But the first part seems weirdly out of place and I think I’m reading it incorrectly. I think it just says “The crystal being stolen too” or something like that, but it doesn’t all connect well for me.

   Any help appreciated!

6. Question for anyone who’s used Bunpro, I just started and I’m not sure it’s clicking with me but I want to like it. I thought I’d give this a try because I’ve really been enjoying WaniKani a lot, and this seemed similar, but something about the structure of the review questions is weirding me out. I find myself looking at a review prompt not thinking that I don’t know the answer but instead that I’m not even sure what question is being asked. What is it asking me to do to this verb?

   木は＿＿＿。「あるく」

   Not the best example, it just took me a second to figure out that it was asking me to negate it because trees don’t walk.

   Another one that tripped me up is:

   今日は雨____[polite assertive]。

   It was looking for でしょう and reject my ですよ, which to my knowledge also fits both polite and assertive or am I mistaken? Is that absolutely obvious and I’m just wrong, because I feel like what’ll happen for this one is that I’ll just end up memorize the prompt itself as looking for でしょう rather than internalizing what it’s trying to teach and using that knowledge to answer.

   This seems kind of nitpicky, but I’m concerned if I end up just memorizing the prompt questions rather than internalizing the rules they’re trying to teach that I might be wasting my time. Or is that normal and I’m just not familiar with the process? Does this get better as the grammar rules get more advanced?

   Worst case I’ll probably stick with it until my trial is up to see if it feels better, but I’m not sure it’s doing it for me like WaniKani does.

7. Is it redundant to use both Renshuu and Wanikani at the same time?

   From what I can tell, Wanikani just teaches Kanji and Vocab, where as Renshuu teaches grammar rules, as well as Kana, Kanji, and Vocab. Is this correct? Would it be a waste of time to try and use both at the same time? Or should I use just one and find a different resource for what the other doesn’t cover?

8. Where are the correct particles for もらう

   AはBに買ってくれた

   BはAに買ってあげた

   AはCに買ってもらった(?)

9. I was wondering if the word いれたて is conjugated? If it is, how it is conjugated? I understand that いれた means brewed. But what confuses me is the て。

   The sentence is:
   「おしりたんていは、いつものようにいれたてのこう茶とスイートポテトを楽しみながら、新聞をよんでいました。」

   Thank you so much.

10. X: what did you do yesterday?
    Y: ______

    hope you dont mind and share what you think of the answers i wrote below?

11. In Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu, Professor Oak says this as you try to leave his lab:

    >こら　どこへいく！　戻ってこんか

    What is “こんか”?

12. もっと勉強すればよかった

    もっと勉強したらよかった

    Genki teaches the first as “should have____” but does the meaning change when using a different conditional form?

13. Hi

    Could someone help me parse the second part of this sentence ?

    嘘ばっかり言ってんじゃねえ

    言って is the continuous form of 言う right ?

    And I believe ん is the contraction of something.

    じゃねえ is a slang version of じゃない but I know it can have several meanings. Which one is it there ?

    Thanks in advance !

14. Hi, I’m new to learning Japanese and have been studying on my own using Genki and whatever online resource I can get my hands on. I think I noticed a mistake in Genki’s answer key but I was wanting to ask to confirm if this really is a mistake or if something went over my head.
    In lesson 2 practice III on pg70 focusing on the usage of この その And あの
    The lesson shows pictures of items in relation to the character speaking and asks you to respond with their positioning to the speaker and spell out how much the item costs.
    #4 shows a book next to the speaker costing ¥3,500 so my answer was:
    このほんはさんぜんごひゃくえんです。

    But the answer key said it was:
    このじしょはさんぜんごひゃくえんです。

    Is the answer key correct? I couldn’t figure out what
    じしょwas supposed to mean since it hasn’t been covered in the book yet and I couldn’t find any results on the web about this.
    Any help would be appreciated!

15. So… this is awkward to post since I’ve been grinding so much as of late. I’ve gone through about 8k new words in the last month and a half (13k total vocab), but I want to start writing Japanese and I simply cannot produce. I struggle to form the words and type them out – its like the Japanese IME is crushing me because I do not understand how to use it, then I forget my thought and I can’t form a sentence. I sort of cycle through words, but I have pretty much no idea on how to start output. All the still ‘fresh’ words in my head become a cloud and I cannot figure out how to write them to even get them to pop up. I can recognize the right Kanji instantly… but its often not on the IME list. Someone mentioned about using other words and backspacing to get the Kanji you want… but this sounds kind of crazy to me.

    Also, when I try to write my thoughts are in English and I try to force it into Japanese and everything just… breaks down. Anyone got tips on how to start outputting effectively? I do not even really know what “literary” and “spoken” words really are, so I am not sure what to even use in a way when I write.

16. How does these examples for [ittekuru](https://www.nihongomaster.com/japanese/dictionary/word/110776/ittekuru-%E3%81%84%E3%81%A3%E3%81%A6%E6%9D%A5%E3%82%8B-%E8%A1%8C%E3%81%A3%E3%81%A6%E6%9D%A5%E3%82%8B-%E8%A1%8C%E3%81%A3%E3%81%A6%E3%81%8F%E3%82%8B-%E3%81%84%E3%81%A3%E3%81%A6%E3%81%8F%E3%82%8B) work?

    I’m off; see you later

    Example sentence

    理髪店に行って来たところだ。 I have been to the barber’s.

    to go (and then come back)

    Example sentence

    郵便局へ行ってきたところだ。 I’ve just been to the post office.

    I can understand that ittekita means that you’ve went somewhere, but I don’t understand the role of tokoro here.