Learning Japanese From Zero

[golyplot]

I learned the word teiban today after hearing it on Utaco's podcast this morning and looking it up, and then noticing her use it several times in other podcast segments later on. She used it when talking about Thanksgiving traditions, as well as grocery shopping, but I was really surprised to see her apply it to rain. It doesn't seem like that fits the normal meaning, so maybe I just misheard.

I also missed 自己 on WK today, thinking it was jiki rather than jiko. I was kind of disappointed afterwards when I realized that I should have known it due to jikoshoukai. I later noticed Utaco say "jikobenkyou" as well.


I gurued 狼 this morning, the 4th new rad/kanji to be gurued. It seems like they’re coming faster now, which is ironic, since I’ve been doing badly on Wanikani lately in terms of general accuracy.

[golyplot]

これで完璧だ～！

I found it interesting to see 璧, since that's one of the new kanji Wanikani added this summer. I learned from WK that it meant "jade disc", but I hadn't guru'd it yet, so I haven't unlocked any words with it on WK. As it turns out, WK only has one word for it, and that is 完璧. Apparently, the kanji itself means jade disc, but this is archaic, and the only word it appears in which is commonly used means "perfect" of all things. Go figure.

[kelvin921019]

これで完璧だ～！

I found it interesting to see 璧, since that's one of the new kanji Wanikani added this summer. I learned from WK that it meant "jade disc", but I hadn't guru'd it yet, so I haven't unlocked any words with it on WK. As it turns out, WK only has one word for it, and that is 完璧. Apparently, the kanji itself means jade disc, but this is archaic, and the only word it appears in which is commonly used means "perfect" of all things. Go figure.

This is a word more of a Chinese historical origin
完璧 = 完: complete + 璧: jade disc, since 璧 historically is something very valuable, a complete jade disc means something absolutely perfect

[Sumisu]

これで完璧だ～！

I found it interesting to see 璧, since that's one of the new kanji Wanikani added this summer. I learned from WK that it meant "jade disc", but I hadn't guru'd it yet, so I haven't unlocked any words with it on WK. As it turns out, WK only has one word for it, and that is 完璧. Apparently, the kanji itself means jade disc, but this is archaic, and the only word it appears in which is commonly used means "perfect" of all things. Go figure.

I've found this to be a good word to know, particularly in educational settings. I first heard it on a Nihongo no Mori lesson on YouTube. I then used it during an italki session, and ever since then my tutor uses it all the time, now that he knows I know it. I've also heard it used to describe a well-cooked dish. Finally, because 璧 is easily confused with 壁, I'm just going to write them both here to reinforce the difference for all who are reading this. It's nice that they've left the dot in the jewel in 璧 to make it a little easier to distinguish.

[golyplot]

This morning, I noticed that while talking about buying discounted chocolate after Valentine's Day, Utaco used the word hangaku a lot. Wanikani taught me that 額 meant "amount" (or "framed picture"), so it was really interesting to see it used in a context where it clearly meant "half price" rather than "half amount" like I would have expected. It's cool to see words in the real world and understand more of the nuance around them.


Speaking of which, she has said ishiki a lot in many of her videos, and I've never been able to understand it. One time she said "ishiki takai", and the standard definition of "consciousness" doesn't make much sense there. (Sadly, this was on the pre-89 episodes with no transcripts, so I can't check to try to figure out what she was saying).

[vonPeterhof]

Wanikani taught me that 額 meant "amount" (or "framed picture"), so it was really interesting to see it used in a conext where it clearly meant "half price" rather than "half amount" like I would have expected. It's cool to see words in the real world and understand more of the nuance around them.

Yeah I don't think I've ever encountered 額 being used for amounts of anything other than money.

Speaking of which, she has said ishiki a lot in many of her videos, and I've never been able to understand it. One time she said "ishiki takai", and the standard definition of "consciousness" doesn't make much sense there. (Sadly, this was on the pre-89 episodes with no transcripts, so I can't check to try to figure out what she was saying).

It usually refers to a very specific phenomenon. Yuta had a video about it.

[golyplot]

I have a question about the tweet shown in the video: why do they always write "toka" instead of "to" for quoting?

[vonPeterhof]

Here it's used like a somewhat softer quotation marker, like saying "they'll say something like...".

[golyplot]

While watching Komi Can't Communicate ep2 tonight, I encountered an unfamiliar kanji at the end: 拗ねる

[golyplot]

私はどもりながら、「あ…、つ、筑波山に、高尾山くらいかなぁ」と答えた

Here's another unknown kanji - 筑. It looks like this is just used in a name though, so I don't have to feel bad about not knowing it.

明子は、付いて来られるだろうか？怪我でもされたら大変だな」と話し合っていた。

And here we have what appears to be yet another meaning for demo. According to SR, it means "or something". Just how many meanings can demo have?!