Learning Japanese From Zero

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golyplot
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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening: 2021 Log

Postby golyplot » Tue Aug 24, 2021 6:02 am

crush wrote:How are you finding your comprehension of the two? Have you been finding it go up compared to six months or a year ago?


It's definitely been going up over time, although that's obviously a slow process. Noriko is understandably much easier to understand than Utaco but I'm finally getting to the point where I can sometimes understand Utaco.
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german2k01
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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening: 2021 Log

Postby german2k01 » Wed Aug 25, 2021 7:27 pm

Did you achieve the goal that you stated in your first post? Thanks
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golyplot
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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening: 2021 Log

Postby golyplot » Thu Aug 26, 2021 12:23 am

german2k01 wrote:Did you achieve the goal that you stated in your first post? Thanks


What do you mean?


Japanese certainly proved more difficult than I expected, but I have made progress.
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golyplot
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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening: 2021 Log

Postby golyplot » Thu Aug 26, 2021 3:20 pm

I watched another of Hayato's Cities: Skylines videos this morning, and I have some questions:

Image

I thought that 真っ黒 meant "pitch black". Why is he saying it about something that's just brown here? Can it be used more figuratively?


Image

結果:漁船は垂直の滝でも登れる!

I'm really puzzled by the use of でも here. My English mind would have expected an object marker here, but even apart for that, it seems like maybe a direction or location particle would make more sense here. Is this saying something like "It can climb even though there's a vertical waterfall"? It's such a strange way to phrase things from an English perspective, although I think I've seen that pattern before.

Edit: I looked it up on Tae Kim, and apparently, the potential form does not use object particles:

The potential form indicates that something is possible but no actual action is actually taken. While the potential form is still a verb, because it is describing the state of feasibility, in general, you don’t want to use the direct object 「を」 as you would with the non-potential form of the verb. For example the following sentences sound unnatural.




Anyway, it's not quite the same pattern, but 中二病でも恋がしたい is another notable use of でも in a place where English speakers would never use "but".

P.P.S I was really confused when I typed out the dialog above, because for some reason in 船, the "fins" in the top right are connected at the top with a flat bit like an anvil, making me think it was a different kanji entirely. It looks a bit like 般, which I constantly get it confused with on WK. In fact, in this font, the top right sections of those kanji look nearly identical (I think the boat one is slightly longer, but you'd need a magnifying glass to tell!) despite the fact that on WK, they're two completely different radicals. Why Japanese people, why?!
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crush
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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening: 2021 Log

Postby crush » Fri Aug 27, 2021 12:31 am

golyplot wrote:I'm really puzzled by the use of でも here. My English mind would have expected an object marker here, but even apart for that, it seems like maybe a direction or location particle would make more sense here. Is this saying something like "It can climb even though there's a vertical waterfall"? It's such a strange way to phrase things from an English perspective, although I think I've seen that pattern before.

I think it's more along the lines of "The fishing boat can *even* climb vertical waterfalls!" ("even if it is a vertical waterfall, it can climb it!")
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golyplot
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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening: 2021 Log

Postby golyplot » Sat Aug 28, 2021 5:18 am

I watched another two episodes of Erased tonight. So far, it's one of my favorite anime. Anyway, I looked up Kayo's catchphrase "baka nano" out of curiosity. However, everything that came up was results about Erased. Does this mean that it is not a common phrase?


Another thing I was wondering - is it correct to say "bousui no tameni kabe" for a flood prevention wall? (I looked up "levee" in Jisho and it is actually "teibou", so I doubt Japanese people would actually say that, but I'm curious if it is grammatically correct or not.)
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crush
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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening: 2021 Log

Postby crush » Sun Aug 29, 2021 12:05 am

I think it's basically what's described here:
https://japanese.stackexchange.com/ques ... 81%AE-nano

Basically i understand it as "are you stupid or something?"

For your other question, i have no idea. But why would you think 堤防 isn't used? Jisho lists it as a common word and has example sentences for it which seem to be used for that meaning:
https://jisho.org/search/%E5%A0%A4%E9%9 ... 3sentences

And glad you're enjoying it, that's one of the few anime i enjoyed enough for time to actually fly by while watching it.
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golyplot
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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening: 2021 Log

Postby golyplot » Sun Aug 29, 2021 12:28 am

crush wrote:For your other question, i have no idea. But why would you think 堤防 isn't used?


Sorry, I guess my phrasing was ambiguous. I meant that they wouldn't say bousui no tameni kabe because they would just say teibou instead.


By the way, inspired by the current smoke conditions (I've stayed inside for the last day and a half due to unhealthy smoke levels), I'm wondering if it is correct to say "kemuri ga hidoi"
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golyplot
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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening: 2021 Log

Postby golyplot » Wed Sep 01, 2021 5:20 am

I watched the last four episodes of Erased tonight, back to back. I was only planning to watch two, but once it got to the reveal in ep10, I felt like I couldn't stop watching. I didn't understand the stuff about the spider's thread, but it's still one of my favorite anime.
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vonPeterhof
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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening: 2021 Log

Postby vonPeterhof » Wed Sep 01, 2021 8:02 am

golyplot wrote:Another thing I was wondering - is it correct to say "bousui no tameni kabe" for a flood prevention wall? (I looked up "levee" in Jisho and it is actually "teibou", so I doubt Japanese people would actually say that, but I'm curious if it is grammatically correct or not.)

Technically if you need this to be a standalone noun phrase it should have の instead of に. に makes the preceding phrase into an adverb, so you would expect there to be a verb following it, at least an implied one (in this case you could technically interpret the phrase as saying something to the effect of "we needed to block out the water, so here's a wall [that was built to that end]").

golyplot wrote:I watched the last four episodes of Erased tonight, back to back. I was only planning to watch two, but once it got to the reveal in ep10, I felt like I couldn't stop watching. I didn't understand the stuff about the spider's thread, but it's still one of my favorite anime.

The Spider's Thread is a very well known short story that's referenced a lot in Japanese and other Buddhist-inspired fiction. Although reading the Wikipedia article is the first time I learn that it's actually inspired in part by a bit in The Brothers Karamazov. I've only ever seen a TV miniseries adaptation of that novel though, and probably not even in its entirety, so no surprise that I never realized that.
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