Learning Japanese From Zero

[golyplot]

Tonight, I tried watching the first episode of K-On!. Normally when watching anime, I read through the English subtitle file before watching the episode so I'll at least have some idea what they're saying, but I was unable to find any subtitles for K-On! on Subscene, so I had to do without. I did read the episode plot summary on the K-On! fan wiki though, which helped.

The thing that stuck out at me most though was a brief moment during the montage of Yui running to school at the beginning of the episode where one of the people in the background is wearing a mask. Stuff like that has a lot more significance nowadays. I was also curious why the doors at the school have semicircles marked on the floor in front of them. Does anyone know?

[kraemder]

I also noticed that she refers to the stuffed sheep toys later in the episode as "hitsuji-san", which I found interesting since I thought "-san" was just used for people and mountains. It seemed weird to see sheep being called that.

I love that in anime. I think it's adorable. I like the artwork in these screenshots too (I'm probably going to watch some K-on later tonight)

[vonPeterhof]

I was also curious why the doors at the school have semicircles marked on the floor in front of them. Does anyone know?

They seem to be marking the trajectory of the door's edge when it opens, probably to give people in the corridor an idea of where they should be standing or walking to avoid getting the door slammed in their face. Or maybe it's a fire safety precaution, to warn people against placing obstructions in the way of a potential fire evacuation route.

[golyplot]

Recently someone posted this guide on Reddit of the different ways that よう can be used in Japanese. よう is an especially frustrating word because it doesn't really mean anything by itself, it's just used for grammar BS. Not that simply reading a guide like that will actually make anything sink in or anything - I'm mostly just mentioning it because it shows how intimidating Japanese grammar can be. A seven page guide just to cover the uses of one word!? (Yes, I know most languages have similar issues)

On the bright side, I've noticed that I seem to have been able to understand bits of what is said on 4989 American Life more frequently of late.

[genini1]

Recently someone posted this guide on Reddit of the different ways that よう can be used in Japanese. よう is an especially frustrating word because it doesn't really mean anything by itself, it's just used for grammar BS. Not that simply reading a guide like that will actually make anything sink in or anything - I'm mostly just mentioning it because it shows how intimidating Japanese grammar can be. A seven page guide just to cover the uses of one word!? (Yes, I know most languages have similar issues)

On the bright side, I've noticed that I seem to have been able to understand bits of what is said on 4989 American Life more frequently of late.

Coincidentally I was just thinking about how often よう gets used in different ways. I just finished Chapter 3 of Tobira and there was one each of よう in chapters 1 and 2, two ways in Chapter 3, and 2 more ways in Chapter 4 (I skipped ahead a bit to check). The individual ways aren't particularly difficult to understand, but I have to really slow down and think about exactly what is being said each time which makes listening to it kind of hard.

[ryanheise]

よう is an especially frustrating word because it doesn't really mean anything by itself, it's just used for grammar BS. Not that simply reading a guide like that will actually make anything sink in or anything - I'm mostly just mentioning it because it shows how intimidating Japanese grammar can be. A seven page guide just to cover the uses of one word!? (Yes, I know most languages have similar issues)

This is a common problem in Japanese. But, it's also a common problem in the average natural language. I sometimes imagine being a learner of English and seeing all of these different usages of the word "for":

• a grant for studying medicine
• left for home
• acted for the best
• now for a good rest
• run for your life
• an eye for a bargain
• taken for a fool
• eggs for breakfast
• for one thing, the price is too high
• can't sleep for the heat
• it is not for you to choose
• ready for action
• go to the store for me
• speaks for the court

(Examples from the Meriam-Webster dictionary)

In such cases, I think learning all of the meanings at once by reading a comprehensive definition or grammar entry is not very useful, and I tend to just not be in a rush to learn every meaning upfront and wait until I get enough examples to see the patterns. One or two meanings at a time is enough for me.

But I know what you mean about よう. It's meaning is a bit abstract in some cases which makes it difficult to pin down the exact meaning sometimes (the same exact thing could be said for "for").

[golyplot]

I watched another episode of One Piece. I still don't like the show much, but I did notice something interesting. It sounded like they were using temee quite frequently. I guess shows like this is where the meme about anime using unnatural Japanese comes from.

[tangleweeds]

As another person studying Japanese, I wanted you to know I've been enjoying your cultural and linguistic observations. You've motivated me to find now several (silly girly romantic) live action series to observe for female mannerisms and speech patterns. It's impressive how much more I'm understanding as time passes, though in my case it's old vocab and speech patterns emerging from the graves of 25 years buried memories. Thanks for the inspiration!

[golyplot]

As another person studying Japanese, I wanted you to know I've been enjoying your cultural and linguistic observations. You've motivated me to find now several (silly girly romantic) live action series to observe for female mannerisms and speech patterns. It's impressive how much more I'm understanding as time passes, though in my case it's old vocab and speech patterns emerging from the graves of 25 years buried memories. Thanks for the inspiration!

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it.

[golyplot]

A week or two ago, I was pretty optimistic about my Japanese, but lately, I haven't been feeling it again, so there hasn't been much to write about, unless you want to hear me complain about getting clobbered by WK again. But I did finish going through the N5 grammar points on Bunpro this morning. I think that's a lot faster than my previous time on Bunpro, thanks to increased familiarity.

P.S. Interesting cultural note: In ep58, Sakura signs for a package delivery by stamping it with a seal. I never realized that people still used seals like that in Japan.