Learning Japanese From Zero

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SophiaMerlin_II
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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening

Postby SophiaMerlin_II » Mon Sep 20, 2021 4:28 am

golyplot wrote:Another interesting point was that Yuki had her bed covered in some sort of net. Is this common in Japan? What is it for, keeping out insects?

Image



This is a mosquito net, yes, it keeps out bugs.

If they live in a traditional house in the country this would be odd but makes sense.
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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening

Postby golyplot » Thu Sep 23, 2021 5:28 am

I finally gave up on JPDB.io today. Also, I tried Satori Reader again.
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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening

Postby golyplot » Fri Sep 24, 2021 5:21 am

Tonight, I tried watching the first two episodes of Death Note (without subs) to test my Japanese comprehension skills. I watched Death Note long ago as a youth, so I already had a vague idea of what happens, especially in the beginning, which really helped. Incidentally, I was amused to discover that Light occupies The Stock Anime Protagonist Seat (on the left edge by the windows, second from back row).

I also found out (by failing the reviews on Wanikani) that Japan has both a Kanagawa Prefecture and a Kagawa Prefecture. Arggh, why!?! And of course, to add insult to injury, the readings are completely different from the normal kanji readings.


Speaking of annoying things about kanji, there's also apparently two different "bell" kanji (鐘 and 鈴), both using the metal radical, but with two completely different readings, something else that has caused me grief on Wanikani.
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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening

Postby golyplot » Sat Sep 25, 2021 5:05 am

Tonight, I subscribed to Satori Reader ($9/mo), continuing my plan of reading one chapter (easy + hard) of Akiko's Exchange Diary every day. This time, I listened to the audio for the easy version after "reading" it and was disappointed to discover that despite having already ready it and known what it all meant, there were still some parts I couldn't understand while listening to it. I'm also annoyed by 分ける, which I've been confusing for the much more common 分かる a lot lately. And that's without even getting into the confusion with 訳, which has the same reading.

Wanikani reviews went poorly today. It's interesting how much my luck on WK has ebbed and waned day to day lately. I suppose at least I can be proud that I managed to remember the reading for 湖 (last seen on Sept 3rd).

Also, I finished listening to Teppei and Noriko and started listening to Noriko's podcast again today.
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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening

Postby golyplot » Sun Sep 26, 2021 5:25 am

Last night, I was watching a 日本語の森 video and was surprised when she mentioned that in the Hokkaido dialect, it was common to change tara to takke, and ended by saying "shitakke ne". In the anime Erased, the boys always said "shitakke" to each other when leaving, so I found the explanation interesting. Of course, saying it's a conditional just raises more questions, like how a conditional would turn into "good bye". Apparently, it's short for soushitara, but I don't understand what that means or how that became a goodbye either.

Also, I didn't get around to doing any Satori Reader today. That streak sure didn't last long. At least I got pretty lucky on my WK reviews today.

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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening

Postby vonPeterhof » Sun Sep 26, 2021 9:02 am

golyplot wrote:Of course, saying it's a conditional just raises more questions, like how a conditional would turn into "good bye". Apparently, it's short for soushitara, but I don't understand what that means or how that became a goodbye either.

Technically the standard word for "goodbye" is also a conditional (さようなら). Coming from Russian it's actually not hard for me to imagine this sort of expression as a parting formula, but it does come across as a bit comical when mapped to its most literal Russian equivalent "Раз уж так...". It's a phrase that could in theory be used as a form of "goodbye", but it would heavily imply that you really don't care to be polite with the other person, stopping just short of telling them that you have no use for them anymore for the time being, since you'd basically be telling them "Well, if that's how things are... [then I guess we're done here and I'll be taking my leave now]".
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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening

Postby golyplot » Mon Sep 27, 2021 5:53 am

To make up for yesterday, I read two chapters of Akiko's diary on Satori Reader today. I was surprised to see an unknown kanji (揃って) in the easy version of ch5. Since I went through Wanikani last year, it's very rare for me to see unknown kanji in works aimed at beginners. The hard version of ch5 had two additional unfamiliar kanji, the middle two in 爪の垢を煎じて飲んで. When I looked them up on WK just now to check, I discovered that 煎 actually is on WK, but I have no memory of it. I suspect it's one of the recently added kanji.

While watching LWA tonight, I noticed Amanda say what sounded like ussee (shut up). I was reminded of reading about Usseewa and how it apparently has language not suitable for children. My Japanese isn't good enough to really tell, but it does seem like Amanda is probably using rough language.
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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening

Postby crush » Mon Sep 27, 2021 1:43 pm

"ussee" (うっせー) is just 煩い (うるさい) with that "sai" -> "see" shift and the "ru" changed to little tsu. It's just a more informal way of saying urusai. I hear it all the time in anime, i'm not sure if it's mostly limited to anime or if it's used in informal speech in real life as well.
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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening

Postby golyplot » Mon Sep 27, 2021 2:21 pm

That reminds me. I always thought it was odd how people in anime often said "urusai" to mean "shut up".
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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening

Postby vonPeterhof » Mon Sep 27, 2021 4:16 pm

From what I remember from That Japanese Man Yuta's video about Usseewa, the issue was less with the specific words used in the song and more with kids annoying their elders by talking back to them using quotes from the song. I do find it amusing that a song about the frustrations in the life of a young adult low-level white collar worker, originally sung by a 17 year old, is being enthusiastically memed by tweens :lol:
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