Learning Japanese From Zero

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golyplot
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1726
Joined: Mon Jan 16, 2017 9:41 pm
Languages: Am. English (N), German, French, ASL (abandoned), Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Japanese (N2)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=12230
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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening

Postby golyplot » Wed Nov 02, 2022 5:28 am

Tonight's episode of Romance Killer had a note that was not translated in the subtitles explaining that "Miyo" is Anzu's mom. Of course it is clear from context, and I couldn't actually read the names so I just had to guess it from context and it's not really a case where knowing Japanese helped, but it's the thought that counts.

This episode also marks the first time that Anzu managed to defeat Riri, even if only temporarily, so there's hope for a happy ending yet.

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Also, I finished Noriko's podcast again and started listening to Utaco's (4989 American Life). Actually, I first started Haruka's like planned, since recently, I've been alternating them like Utaco -> Haruka -> Noriko -> Haruka -> Utaco -> Haruka -> Noriko, etc. However, I decided to abandon Haruka's podcast after listening to it for a bit, so now I'm just going straight back to 4989. I need to find more podcasts to listen to for variety instead of listening to the same ones 30 times over.
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golyplot
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1726
Joined: Mon Jan 16, 2017 9:41 pm
Languages: Am. English (N), German, French, ASL (abandoned), Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Japanese (N2)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=12230
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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening

Postby golyplot » Thu Nov 03, 2022 5:04 am

This evening, I decided to try to find new Japanese songs by seeing what Youtube recommended. The first one was お人形遊び by IOSYS. I have no idea what the lyrics were about, but it's a catchy song so I added it to my Japanese music playlist (the most recent previous additions were Dadada Tenshi, One More Time from back when I watched 5cm/s, and then a couple of Yoasobi songs way back when). I tried watching a bunch of other IOSYS Touhou songs as well as other songs by Ado and Yoasobi, but I didn't see any others I liked.



Also, I read いつも通りの日常で、、君からすれば ch15 tonight, so I'm finally done with that. It took me about 43 minutes in total, not including breaks.
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golyplot
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1726
Joined: Mon Jan 16, 2017 9:41 pm
Languages: Am. English (N), German, French, ASL (abandoned), Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Japanese (N2)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=12230
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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening

Postby golyplot » Thu Nov 03, 2022 3:04 pm

P.S. I was planning to post this on Halloween to celebrate the season, but I forgot. Oh well, better late than never I guess. Happy Belated Halloween everyone!

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golyplot
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1726
Joined: Mon Jan 16, 2017 9:41 pm
Languages: Am. English (N), German, French, ASL (abandoned), Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Japanese (N2)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=12230
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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening

Postby golyplot » Fri Nov 04, 2022 5:29 am

I had trouble sleeping again this morning and got up and watched another Booktuber Belle video. This one was about Pride and Prejudice, but I didn't understand any of it.

The next season of The Dragon Prince finally showed up on Netflix tonight, and I was tempted to just go ahead and start watching it (in English), but I decided to finish Romantic Killer first.

In this episode, the incredibly haughty prince gets a job at the konbini. It doesn't really come across in the English subtitles well, but based on the way people react, it seems like the joke is that he is using rude language in a customer service role where keigo would presumably be expected. Sadly, it was mostly lost on me, but I think he said "mata koi" at one point, which if I understood correctly, is about the rudest form of Japanese you can get. Not only is not kegio, or even desu form, but I've heard that the imperative is very blunt and should only be used with inferiors or children. I guess the English equivalent would be saying "You better come again!" instead of "Thank you, come again.", but that doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

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golyplot
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1726
Joined: Mon Jan 16, 2017 9:41 pm
Languages: Am. English (N), German, French, ASL (abandoned), Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Japanese (N2)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=12230
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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening

Postby golyplot » Sat Nov 05, 2022 9:49 pm

Today, I looked up three troublesome words I keep missing on JPDB and found the corresponding stories where they appear on Satori Reader. In all three cases, they had an annotation attached in SR, so I guess SR thinks they are difficult words as well.



The first was あえて, which SR analyzes as part of あえて言えば, "if I had to say".

うちの両親も、おじいちゃん、おばあちゃんも、まああえて言えば、仏教の行事はするけれど、特に、宗教として信じているわけでもない。

あえて言えば

The word aete plus a verb means that the speaker is not totally comfortable doing the verb, that there is some kind of resistance that the speaker breaks through in order to perform the verb.
Therefore, aete iu means "to venture to say," that is, to say even though it might be difficult. In natural English, we might say, "if I had to say."



The second "word" was だっけ, which turns out to actually just be an instance of a grammar pattern which indicates trying to recall information.

しかし、桜の母ちゃん面白くって好きだなあ。2年前だっけ?俺が、初めて桜の家に遊びに行った時も、桜の母ちゃん、「うちの娘、本当に何もできない娘ですが、いいんですか?」って俺に聞いてたもんな。

We saw the -kke tag, which means the speaker is searching his memory, in Episode 18, but to review briefly, it must always attach to a verb or conjugating adjective in the past tense, with a special exception for da (not desu, not de aru, only da specifically).



The third is そのもの, which seems like a generic grammar type thing, but actually specifically means "the very thing itself".

写真の私の顔は、今朝洗面所で見た自分の顔そのものだった。

The phrase sono mono attaches directly to a noun to mean "that very thing; that thing itself."

父は健康そのものだ。
My father is health itself. = My father is the picture of health.

In the episode, the narrator says that the face he sees in the photograph is "my own face that I saw in the bathroom this morning, itself" = "the very face that I saw in the bathroom this morning."
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golyplot
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1726
Joined: Mon Jan 16, 2017 9:41 pm
Languages: Am. English (N), German, French, ASL (abandoned), Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Japanese (N2)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=12230
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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening

Postby golyplot » Sun Nov 06, 2022 4:11 pm

Once again, I couldn't sleep last night and got up and watched a Booktuber Belle video, this time about 流浪の月, a book that was adapted into a movie. As usual, I didn't understand anything, but I did notice her saying chuujitsu at two points, which I inferred to be talking about the adaptation's faithfulness to the book or lack thereof. At one point, she also put the text "あえて言いません" onscreen, a word I (re)learned yesterday, so that was cool.

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After that, Youtube recommended a video about the same movie from a channel I'd never heard of called 最新映画感想レビュー - 茶一郎, and I watched that as well. He talks very fast and I couldn't understand anything, but almost all the commentary is written out in Japanese text at the bottom of the video, so I guess I could have figured out most of what was said if I had bothered to painstakingly pause the video and try to read everything.

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golyplot
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1726
Joined: Mon Jan 16, 2017 9:41 pm
Languages: Am. English (N), German, French, ASL (abandoned), Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Japanese (N2)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=12230
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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening

Postby golyplot » Mon Nov 07, 2022 6:13 am

Today, I looked up another troublesome JPDB word in Satori Reader, まとも. This time, SR didn't have any specific annotations, but the word did appear in three stories I'd read, and each time, it meant "properly" (as in speak English properly, eat a proper meal, function properly), so I guess that's what it means.

出発前に、色んな人に、「27歳での留学なんて、遅すぎるよ」とか、「今更、留学なんかしたって英語なんてまともに話せるようにならないと思うよ」とか、「日本に帰って来てからどうするの?三十路前に帰って来たって就職先なんて見つからないんじゃない?」などと言われて、留学を反対された。

今日はまともなものが食えそうだ、と康平はコンビニに入ると、弁当のコーナーに直行した。

その後、手術は無事に成功しました。そして、幸いにも、後ろ脚は切断されませんでした。しかし獣医さんは、「まともに動くようにはならないでしょう。でも、ないよりはいいですからね」と言いました。


Romantic Killer:

For some reason, there's a sign saying "Happy special day"[sic] in English. Anyone know what that's about? Anyway, tonight's episode had a lot of reveals and character development. The show is more interesting than I expected.

Also noteworthy is that when Anzu shows up to the school reunion in non-cat-themed clothes (due to being forcibly dressed by Riri and Junta), her classmates are amazed that she dressed "properly" and I think they said まとも. So that was an interesting coincidence.

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golyplot
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1726
Joined: Mon Jan 16, 2017 9:41 pm
Languages: Am. English (N), German, French, ASL (abandoned), Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Japanese (N2)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=12230
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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening

Postby golyplot » Wed Nov 09, 2022 5:58 am

Romantic Killer:

The show is a lot better than I expected, and also a lot different, particularly in the later episodes. In the last few episodes, the antics of Riri were downplayed, and the show instead focused on exploring the backstories of various characters, first Junta, then Saki, and now Tsukasa. In ep11, it is Tsukasa's turn and he is apparently victim of a crazy evil stalker. It's an amusing coincidence that the story I am currently reading on Satori Reader, Koibito, is also about a stalker.

Anyway, ep 10 is from Saki's perspective, and there's one moment where her brother kicks her out of their house to have a party with his friends and she cheerfully wishes that they've "crossed over to the other side" when she returns. I caught the word "Sanzu" in there, which I know thanks to the Satori Reader story, The River Sanzu. The River Sanzu is apparently the mythological border of the afterlife, but of course that reference would be lost on Westerners, so the subtitles presumably just translated it as "the other side" instead.

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In tonight's episode, there's a moment where Anzu tells Tsukasa that they'll overcome the stalker thing together, and I noticed she said "norikoe" or something like that, which stood out because 乗り越える is a new word I've been struggling with on JPDB recently.

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golyplot
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1726
Joined: Mon Jan 16, 2017 9:41 pm
Languages: Am. English (N), German, French, ASL (abandoned), Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Japanese (N2)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=12230
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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening

Postby golyplot » Thu Nov 10, 2022 6:12 am

I (re)read part of ch1 of 聖女? いいえ、やったのはこっちのくまです! ~可愛いもふもふくまさんと行く異世界浄化旅~ this evening. (I guess I'll just call it Seijyo for short). It is listed as the easiest web novel rated on JPDB (difficulties are determined by some sort of AI algorithm, but only a subset of web novels are on JPDB). I'd previously read ch1 back on (checks log) April 2nd, but it seems a lot easier so far this time, though I still ended up looking up a bunch of words and not getting far.

Also, I finished Romantic Killer tonight. As previously mentioned, it's a lot better than I expected. It does however end with an open-ended ending that sets up the show to continue for future seasons, and I do wonder how they'll keep things fresh in future seasons.



Also on JPDB this morning, for some reason, it either failed to stop the session after the limit I set of 13 new cards per day or else I missed the message, so it instead continued until I reached five minutes and I ended up doing 35 new cards today (as usual, this number doesn't include all the cards I blacklisted or marked "never forget" instead.)

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golyplot
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1726
Joined: Mon Jan 16, 2017 9:41 pm
Languages: Am. English (N), German, French, ASL (abandoned), Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Japanese (N2)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=12230
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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening

Postby golyplot » Sat Nov 12, 2022 2:05 am

Last night, I started watching Dragon Prince (in English) as planned. For some reason, Netflix started me off again at s1e1 and I sat through three minutes of the show's opening narration before it mentioned the egg being destroyed and I realized that they hadn't just decided to repeat the same sequence for s4 and switched.

Unfortunately, it was lackluster. I don't know how exactly, but the animation just felt off the whole time. Also, the writing was dumb and childish, and there was barely any plot or worldbuilding either, due to the decision to spend the whole episode reintroducing the characters in case people hadn't seen the last three seasons (which seems like a strange decision for a Netflix show in the streaming era).

Afterward, I went to the Reddit discussion thread for the episode and found that the reaction was almost uniformly negative, with post after post describing the same issues I'd felt subconsciously and no speculation about the actual story. There were also a bunch of comments complaining about one issue I didn't notice - the inclusion of a Fortnite dance meme (twice), which I wasn't hip enough to today's youth culture to pick up on, and one post pointing out several animation errors presumably due to last minute edits (e.g. replacing a wine glass with a cup). And of course there were other issues people pointed out that I had only noticed subconsciously, like the weird thing where there were only three voices singing during the giant surprise birthday party scene. Anyway, I really hope the show gets better again in later episodes.


Also, I read the rest of Seijyo ch1 yesterday.


Also, I was looking for more Japanese music recommendations on Youtube and watched this one. I'm not so sure about the singing, but the background music is killer. I wonder if I can find an instrumental version somewhere.
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