Daily Thread: simple questions, comments that don’t need their own posts, and first time posters go here (May 09, 2023)

12 comments

1. Having some trouble with this:

   > 泣き虫か、怒りんぼか、どちらか一方なら、 まだましなのに。

   Context: Someone doesn’t want to look after their baby brother and is thinking this to themselves.

   I can’t figure out what まだましなのに even is…

   The rest might say: Crybaby or short-tempered person, either way, [something]

2. I’m not sure if this belongs here but maybe someone knows. I was watching a Japanese carpentry video about building traditional wooden homes and the carpenter labeled the joined end of one of the main ground horizontal supports (a 大黒柱 specifically) リ六. The beam had a 120mm square profile. Does anytime know what リ六 might mean?

3. Is there a trick to reading 正 in unknown on-compounds? I usually just go with せい. It’s apparently pretty even according to jpdb (https://jpdb.io/kanji/正: 42% vs 40%) but of course, it could be the case that it is again heavily skewed if you disregard all the well-known words (for which you don’t have to guess).

4. It’s a small thing, but I think about it…is this, correct transcription please at 3:47 in this [clip](https://youtu.be/4lS7qLiYZ-M?t=227):

   ねーお選手なんだ頃も遠征して固定お

5. Is there a good resource to learn some very basic phrases/words? I know the barebone basics (like hello, goodbye, thank you, etc) but I’ll be staying in Tokyo for a week and a half and I’d like to know what else I should learn. Thank you.

6. How useful would A Dictionary of Advanced Japanese Grammar (DAJG) be for someone learning Japanese to consume media that primarily uses conversational Japanese (anime, vtubers, etc.)? Thinking of picking up at least the Basic and Intermediate books since having them in hard copy is convenient, but not sure how much use I’d realistically get from the 3rd.

7. Is this a realistic way to think about **JLPT**?

   I added 5 advanced tiers to help myself contextualize where the N1 is in relation to fluency. (from the perspective of an English only speaker)

   **NS** = Native, Literary Major/Scholar

   **NU** = Native, University Educated

   **NF** = Native Fluency, High School Educated

   **FL** = Fluency

   **N0** = Advanced

   N1 = Intermediate

   N2 = Novice

   N3 = Survival

   N4 = Basic

   N5 = Intro

   Basically, a N1 level of proficiency gives you the ability to begin learning Japanese in a more natural, less hindered manner(N0) that can eventually lead to fluency(FL).

   I’m also not considering fluency(FL) on the same level as native fluency(NF). I want to be as realistic about my expectations as possible to avoid disappointment.

   Am I thinking about this right? Or at least in the ballpark?

8. Can someone help me understand the use of な in the dialoge below from 男子高校生の日常? It starts at 5:25

   A: もうあきらめて俺に任せろ

   B: でできるのか

   A: 見ていろ

   C: あってない

   A: な

   B: 何が

9. I vaguely remember a website resource where you could type in a Japanese word and videos containing that word would come up. The video database also came with the script of that video. Any ideas?

10. Are there any Japanese short story magazine anthologies worth subscribing to? I was watching an anime where a character was reading a monthly mystery story and I though “hey that sounds like a good idea” and coincidentally I got an e-mail add from Honto about an issue of such a magazine that an author I like apparantly contributed to this month, but it doesn’t seem like there’s many back issues available digitally, so I don’t wanna jump into something where everything’s halfway through a started story, so something that’s mostly one-shots would be cool.

11. I saw this as a title on youtube today:

    >初めて兄弟 **で** 同じ布団で寝ようとしてみたらまさかの事態になりました

    To my understanding it translates to something like “Brothers try sleeping in the same futon for the first time and something unexpected happened”

    Why is that で there though? instead of は for example. Not sure what its usage/meaning would be in this case.

12. Would 「キッチンで包丁でネギを切っています。」be an okay sentence?

    It looks a bit weird having two times で particle in it.
    Is it okay or should I avoid having で two times and have something like 「キッチンに包丁でネギを切っています。」