Learning Japanese From Zero

Continue or start your personal language log here, including logs for challenge participants
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
x 3404

Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening

Postby golyplot » Fri Mar 24, 2023 3:30 pm

Not much to talk about lately. I've once again just been going through the motions of my Japanese study routine.

Since I finished Vampire in the Garden, I tried watching Cowboy Bebop (the 90's anime, not the live action version). I knew it was a classic, but I didn't like it much and stopped after two episodes, so that was pretty disappointing. Not sure what I'll watch next.

---

透明クソ迷路が同じマップって気付かずに進んだの逆にすごいww全部手探りだったんだ

I encountered a new word last night, 手探り. The kanji seemed straightforward, but I looked it up on Jisho anyway (groping, fumbling) and was surprised to see that it is read tesaguri. Apparently, in addition to the more common word 探す (sagasu, to search), there is also 探る (saguru, to feel around for), which I'd never heard of before.

---

私は…、明彦が私を愛してくれてるかどうか、試したかったのかもしれません。

I found the use of 試し here interesting, since it is normally translated as "to attempt". But here, it means "to test" (whether Akihiko really loves her) rather than to attempt anything.
3 x

User avatar
brilliantyears
Green Belt
Posts: 480
Joined: Mon Aug 17, 2015 11:52 am
Location: Netherlands
Languages: Dutch, English
Active: Japanese (JLPT N2~N1), Russian (B1)
Maintaining: German (?)
Low-key: Ainu, Mandarin (A2?)
Dropped: Arabic, Korean, French, Latin, classical Manchu, Norwegian, SLN
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=19020
x 911

Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening

Postby brilliantyears » Fri Mar 24, 2023 3:41 pm

golyplot wrote:Since I finished Vampire in the Garden, I tried watching Cowboy Bebop (the 90's anime, not the live action version). I knew it was a classic, but I didn't like it much and stopped after two episodes, so that was pretty disappointing. Not sure what I'll watch next.

I felt the same about the anime and also stopped after two episodes. I'm hearing that apparently the live action is better.
2 x

bolaobo
Orange Belt
Posts: 237
Joined: Fri Mar 05, 2021 5:48 pm
Location: Pennsylvania
Languages: English (N), Mandarin Chinese, German, French
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=19845
x 1089

Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening

Postby bolaobo » Sun Mar 26, 2023 11:36 pm

I wasn't a fan of Cowboy Bebop either. I watched it in the 2000s during my anime phase and it felt dated even then. But most people seem to love it. :lol:
1 x
Perfectionnement Arabe: 11 / 70 New Arabic Grammar: 30 / 51
Le Grec Ancien: 15 / 101
Hindi ohne Mühe: 44 / 54
Le Persan: 85 / 86
Le Turc: 19 / 71
Tobira: 3 / 15

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
x 3404

Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening

Postby golyplot » Mon Mar 27, 2023 5:30 am

 こうしてみると犬猿の仲というよりも喧嘩するほど仲が良いの方が似合っている気がする。

I looked up 犬猿, and it turns out to be read kenen rather than inusara like you'd think. I think I've seen the "ken" reading for dog once or twice before, but not often enough to actually remember it. However, I've never seen the "en" reading for monkey before.

「……怖かったですわ。また、拒絶されたらどうしようと……」

One thing that is annoying is how katakanification makes it hard to guess even foreign names. There's a character named リリム who I had been assuming was "Wiliam" and hence a guy, but here it seems like Sofia is afraid of being rejected by リリム and since Sofia is lesbian, that implies that リリム is also a girl (like every other character in the club). Maybe it's supposed to be Liliam? That's not a name I'm familiar with, but looking it up, it does seem to be a real girl's name. Incidentally, I had to look up 拒絶 as well, as that's a new word for me.

---

Tonight, this video came up in my Youtube recommendations, and I had no idea what it was about or what kind of video it even was, but watched it out of curiosity. I thought it was cool that I could understand enough to more or less figure out what's going on. It appears to be a monologue where someone is talking about how she is trying to move and needed to call in order to schedule a tour, but was afraid of calling for some reason.

It helps that all the text is displayed onscreen, simultaneously with the dialog, which makes it easier to understand, and might make it useful for any other Japanese learners out there looking for practice. Also notable is that 迅速 showed up, a word I only recently learned on Wanikani.




Edit: After further research, it seems that this is probably the main character from the anime Bochhi the Rock!

---

Last night, I started watching a new anime, Spriggan, and watched ep2 tonight. So far, it's just a dumb action series, sort of like a superhero movie except with a lot more guns and blood, so I'm thinking about abandoning it despite the fact that it is relatively short (six double-length episodes) and I'm already a third of the way through anyway.

I also saw "shousa" (major) show up in the wild for the first time. I've long struggled with 少佐/中佐/大佐 on Wanikani, since the English translations are all meaningless military terms to me so I pretty much had to memorize them just by brute force.

Image
6 x

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
x 3404

Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening

Postby golyplot » Tue Mar 28, 2023 5:09 am

I finally finished read Secret on Satori Reader today. I plan to catch up on Jam Maker and John and Friends again and then perhaps tackle Closeup: The Tokyo Subway Attack.

---

Tonight, instead of anime, I watched Secrets of Summer, a Spanish language show. I watched it without subtitles, so there was a lot I didn't understand (like what the deal with Matrix was*), but it's nice to see I can still understand a lot, even many years after studying Spanish (RIP Duolingo).

The reason I mention it however is one moment where a character showed her phone to another and said "mira!" and it struck me how similar it was to the Japanese 見る. What an interesting coincidence.

I also noticed one character say "ashuda" when asking if someone needed help. I knew that Argentine Spanish said "sho" instead of "yo", but I didn't realize the y->sh transformation could also apply to other words.

* Edit: I read the SoS TvTropes page, and it sounds like Matrix just has anger issues, hence her blowing up and ripping up the contract. Also, she and the twins are there to promote the hotel for some reason.

Image
5 x

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
x 3404

Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening

Postby golyplot » Thu Mar 30, 2023 6:33 am

Last night, I started watching my next anime, High Score Girl. It's an interesting show. It is set in 1991 and follows a pair of kids who bond over their love of videogames.

I found it interesting that the class is shown having to clean the pool at the beginning of ep2. I know that in Japan, students have to clean their classroom, but I hadn't heard of pool cleaning before. I know there was an episode of School Live! where they cleaned the pool, but that's not exactly a normal school situation.

Also, why do they all have signs saying "6-2" on their chests? It seems like only one class is present, so there should be no need to have tags to indicate which class people are in.

Also, I was surprised that my screenshot of Secrets of Summer above didn't have the usual video playback slider at the bottom. Normally that pops up whenever I take screenshots on Netflix. I did some experimentation, and it seems like pressing the keys to take a screenshot does bring up the playback slider but if you do it fast enough, it will take the screenshot before the controls appear, as you can see again here.

Image

Does anyone know what the "just like in manga comics" comment refers to here? I didn't get that bit at all.

Image

Ono, the deuteragonist of High Score Girl, makes Komi look like a regular chattermouth. She communicates only in grunts, nods, pointing, and punching people. Two episodes in, and the only time she has said anything at all was while eating the pancakes in episode 2, when she says "moga". However, I don't think it's meant to be something she actually said in-universe, but rather a sound effect for eating.

I know that mogu mogu is the usual onomatopoeia for eating, and I guess "moga" is just a variation of that. However, it's really weird to hear the voice actress say moga. It reminds me a bit of the time in Glass Mask when a character says "chuu chuu" to represent the sound of mice during a play, even though mice obviously don't actually say "chuu".

Image
4 x

User avatar
brilliantyears
Green Belt
Posts: 480
Joined: Mon Aug 17, 2015 11:52 am
Location: Netherlands
Languages: Dutch, English
Active: Japanese (JLPT N2~N1), Russian (B1)
Maintaining: German (?)
Low-key: Ainu, Mandarin (A2?)
Dropped: Arabic, Korean, French, Latin, classical Manchu, Norwegian, SLN
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=19020
x 911

Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening

Postby brilliantyears » Thu Mar 30, 2023 8:09 am

golyplot wrote:Does anyone know what the "just like in manga comics" comment refers to here? I didn't get that bit at all.

Image
I'm guessing the fact pancakes rarely look like this in real life but always look this perfect in manga/anime? So this comment is just shy of 4th wall breaking self-awareness? Or, alternately, a reference to the fact most people don't really eat pancakes like that on the regular but they seem to do it all the time in manga - but I don't know what they've shown in this anime so far.

But it could be a more specific reference I just don't know :)
3 x

vonPeterhof
Blue Belt
Posts: 879
Joined: Sat Aug 08, 2015 1:55 am
Languages: Russian (N), English (C2), Japanese (~C1), German (~B2), Kazakh (~B1), Norwegian (~A2)
Studying: Kazakh, Mandarin, Coptic
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1237
x 2833
Contact:

Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening

Postby vonPeterhof » Thu Mar 30, 2023 10:08 am

golyplot wrote:I found it interesting that the class is shown having to clean the pool at the beginning of ep2. I know that in Japan, students have to clean their classroom, but I hadn't heard of pool cleaning before. I know there was an episode of School Live! where they cleaned the pool, but that's not exactly a normal school situation.

Also, why do they all have signs saying "6-2" on their chests? It seems like only one class is present, so there should be no need to have tags to indicate which class people are in.

I've seen pool cleaning as a plot point in a few anime. It usually involves a teacher appointing a particular class (or, more rarely, a club) to clean the pool before the start of swimming season. Sometimes there's guilt-tripping involved ("You guys don't wanna deprive the whole school of their pool time now, do you?").

As for the tags, they're just part of their gym uniforms.
5 x

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
x 3404

Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening

Postby golyplot » Sat Apr 01, 2023 5:11 am

Today I finished Noriko's podcast for the 24th time. However, rather than starting 4989 American Life again like usual, I decided to try the Yuyuの日本語 podcast, which I recently saw recommended on Reddit.

---

Hi Score Girl spoilers: In ep3, it is revealed that Ono is moving to Los Angeles. I figured that there was no possible way that one of the main characters of the show, who appears in the title and the ending OP could possibly leave for good, so I watched it wondering how, not if, she would end up staying after all. They even do the thing at the end where Haruo dramatically runs to the airport to see Ono off and she hugs him and starts crying. I assumed that that would so impress her parents that they would let her stay, but nope, she has to leave anyway.

Therefore, I started ep4 wondering how they were going to immediately bring her back. The answer was something I never expected - instead of Ono's return, episode 4 begins with a two year timeskip and switches to a new character. Congrats on surprising me, I guess. It reminds me a bit of the unexpected timeskip in Forest of Piano.

---

急用が入ったので更新遅くなりました!!

悪役令嬢が私をいじめるのには訳があるそうです。ch80 had this note from the author, presumably apologizing for the delayed update. What I found interesting was the use of 入る. It's an example of how Japanese uses hairu way more often than English would use "enter". In English, we would never say "Urgent business entered so the update was late" but apparently that's how it's done in Japanese.

---

I came across this random song in my Youtube recs. I suspect it's from Bocchi the Rock and that Youtube has been recommending lots of Bocchi the Rock videos ever since I watched that one I mentioned here a while back about calling to schedule a home tour. But in any case, the reason I mention it is that I encountered a new word, 星座 (constellation, not to be confused with 正座). Or at least it was new to me in the sense that I didn't know it and decided to look it up on Jisho. I'm guessing that it's a common enough word that I've seen it in the past, but it doesn't count if you don't remember it.

Image

---

Hi Score Girl ep3 had a moment where the subtitles said "vamos, vamos". The actual dialog was something that sounded like "retsu go", i.e. "Let's go!" in English, though it took me a couple times to figure it out. It makes sense that they would translate English in Japanese into another foreign language to keep it foreign, but it's still funny to see when it happens.

Image

---

Another random video that showed up in my Youtube recommendations tonight. This one caught my eye because it said it featured Toby Fox, famous for making the hit videogame Undertale. I couldn't imagine what Toby Fox would be doing in a weird Japanese animation/song video and wondered whether it was some other Toby Fox. But nope, apparently it is the Toby Fox.

It seems that he wrote the song and wrote lyrics in English, and then got someone to translate them to Japanese and then sing them. I can't imagine why you would do it this way though. It doesn't seem like this is a cover or anything. The Japanese version is the original song, he just put them through translation instead of getting someone to write original lyrics in Japanese for some reason.

3 x

vonPeterhof
Blue Belt
Posts: 879
Joined: Sat Aug 08, 2015 1:55 am
Languages: Russian (N), English (C2), Japanese (~C1), German (~B2), Kazakh (~B1), Norwegian (~A2)
Studying: Kazakh, Mandarin, Coptic
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1237
x 2833
Contact:

Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening

Postby vonPeterhof » Sat Apr 01, 2023 10:45 am

golyplot wrote:Another random video that showed up in my Youtube recommendations tonight. This one caught my eye because it said it featured Toby Fox, famous for making the hit videogame Undertale. I couldn't imagine what Toby Fox would be doing in a weird Japanese animation/song video and wondered whether it was some other Toby Fox. But nope, apparently it is the Toby Fox.

I actually first experienced Undertale through Houshou Marine's playthrough of its Japanese localization, and until I read up on the game afterwards I didn't even realize that it wasn't a Japanese game originally. Granted, this was partly due to the setting being heavily inspired by JRPGs, but also the writing and the humor were localized so well it didn't read anything like I was used to seeing in works translated from English into Japanese. But yeah Toby Fox is pretty well-known in the Japanese gaming world and has done quite a few collaborations in the entertainment industry. He even co-produced a viral song for Marine, albeit incognito (hidden under the pseudonym "U.Z. INU", real subtle ;) ). Not going to embed the video because it's a little NSFW.
2 x


Return to “Language logs”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests