Learning Japanese From Zero

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

Postby golyplot » Fri May 07, 2021 2:54 pm

kelvin921019 wrote:
golyplot wrote:I watched ep4 of Hunter x Hunter and ep2 of Terrace House tonight. I can't understand much of either one, so I'm still looking for new anime to watch.

If you decide to start Hunter x Hunter, you have to expect that you will never see the ending of the anime your entire life :lol: :lol:


Is this because the manga is on a seemingly permanent hiatus? Or is it a reference to something else?
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golyplot
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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening: 2021 Log

Postby golyplot » Sat May 08, 2021 5:50 am

I decided to give up on Hunter x Hunter, so tonight, I tried watching Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun, and so far, it's pretty promising. My one complaint is Sakura's hair ribbon, and its lazy un-animated polka dots, which are incredibly distracting. The way they appear in every seen stationary and always facing the camera reminds me a bit of those creepy statues that always look at you. I wish she'd ditch the ribbon, but I doubt that will actually happen.


I remember last year when Netflix advertised the Kakeguri anime to me, I was immediately turned off by the grotesque art style, although I also looked it up and read about the plot, which didn't sound appealing either. Anyway, while browsing Netflix tonight, looking for something to watch, I discovered by chance that there's now a live action Kakeguri. The concept of Kakeguri in live action just seems hilariously incongruous to me.

I also briefly picked Yotsubato back up today.

釣り堀って言うから
オヤジくさい所を
想像してたけど
WHEN YOU SAID IT WAS A "FISHING HOLE", IT SOUNDED LIKE SOMETHING FOR OLD GUYS, BUT THIS IS NICE

I was puzzled by the use of "kusai" here. Is this some sort of figurative "this place smells like old guys" or something? Also, the "but this is nice" part in the translation seems to not be present in the Japanese. I assume ending the sentence with "kedo" implies the contradiction at the end?

なんか
ヤラセくさいな
IT SEEMS KINDA FAKE

Here, Miura uses "kusai" again. This time, I wasn't even able to look up ヤラ on Jisho.
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vonPeterhof
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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening: 2021 Log

Postby vonPeterhof » Sat May 08, 2021 11:18 am

golyplot wrote:釣り堀って言うから
オヤジくさい所を
想像してたけど
WHEN YOU SAID IT WAS A "FISHING HOLE", IT SOUNDED LIKE SOMETHING FOR OLD GUYS, BUT THIS IS NICE

I was puzzled by the use of "kusai" here. Is this some sort of figurative "this place smells like old guys" or something?

くさい can be used like the English "smack of smth", i.e. to remind of something or appear to be something, usually with negative implications.

golyplot wrote:Also, the "but this is nice" part in the translation seems to not be present in the Japanese. I assume ending the sentence with "kedo" implies the contradiction at the end?
Pretty much.

golyplot wrote:なんか
ヤラセくさいな
IT SEEMS KINDA FAKE

Here, Miura uses "kusai" again. This time, I wasn't even able to look up ヤラ on Jisho.
The word is ヤラセ, which means a faked or staged situation.
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golyplot
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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening: 2021 Log

Postby golyplot » Sun May 09, 2021 1:57 pm

Last night, I watched Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun. I've started to get used to Sakura's distracting ugly hair ribbon, or at least not distracted by it as much. I do feel like I'm missing most of the jokes though, due to a) being bad at Japanese and b) not being familiar with Shoujo manga.

One thing I've been wondering about is the name Sakura. In Card Captor Sakura, the main character is named Sakura Kinomoto, with Sakura as first name. However, in Nozaki-kun, the main character is Chiyo Sakura, with Sakura as last name. Also, Noriko mentioned an author named Momoko Sakura, also with Sakura as last name. It just seemed strange to me that it would be used as both first and last name, although I suppose the same thing happens in English with Ryan and Madison.

Also, last night I finished my 12th listen of Noriko's podcast and started my third time through 4989 American Life.


この川も上の方行くと
天然のもいるらしいけど
THERE ARE WILD ONES FATHER UP THE STREAM AND SALMON AND CHAR TOO

I was very puzzled by this line. Where did the bit about salmon and char in the translation come from? It doesn't appear to be in the Japanese.
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kelvin921019
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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening: 2021 Log

Postby kelvin921019 » Sun May 09, 2021 2:45 pm

golyplot wrote:
kelvin921019 wrote:
golyplot wrote:I watched ep4 of Hunter x Hunter and ep2 of Terrace House tonight. I can't understand much of either one, so I'm still looking for new anime to watch.

If you decide to start Hunter x Hunter, you have to expect that you will never see the ending of the anime your entire life :lol: :lol:


Is this because the manga is on a seemingly permanent hiatus? Or is it a reference to something else?

Hunter x Hunter is super notorious for frequent hiatus. The current one started from late 2018 and perhaps only our grandson will know how the series will end. :lol:
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alaart
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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening: 2021 Log

Postby alaart » Sun May 09, 2021 3:29 pm

golyplot wrote:この川も上の方行くと
天然のもいるらしいけど
THERE ARE WILD ONES FATHER UP THE STREAM AND SALMON AND CHAR TOO

I was very puzzled by this line. Where did the bit about salmon and char in the translation come from? It doesn't appear to be in the Japanese.


I was curious about 天然 and looked it up.

天然 here as a description for the type of fish, (天然魚 - natural/wild fish, as opposed to 養殖魚 ようしょくぎょう - fish from a fish farm).
"This river too, as you go upstream, I heard there are wild fishes too"

I think the translator might have added the fish names because a westerner not familiar with fish (like me a south German), might not know what fish are wild and what fish are bred, and wanted to give a subtitle that is just less complicated, where one doesn't have to think.
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golyplot
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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening: 2021 Log

Postby golyplot » Sun May 09, 2021 5:44 pm

alaart wrote:天然 here as a description for the type of fish, (天然魚 - natural/wild fish, as opposed to 養殖魚 ようしょくぎょう - fish from a fish farm).
"This river too, as you go upstream, I heard there are wild fishes too"

I think the translator might have added the fish names because a westerner not familiar with fish (like me a south German), might not know what fish are wild and what fish are bred, and wanted to give a subtitle that is just less complicated, where one doesn't have to think.


But salmon are farmed too! I assumed what he meant is that there are wild versions of the fish they were releasing in the stream as well.
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golyplot
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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening: 2021 Log

Postby golyplot » Tue May 11, 2021 2:58 pm

Well, I finally made it through Yotsubato ch23. It was a real slog, especially the middle part with all its fishing terminology.

Incidentally, it's so easy to forget that Miura is a girl. During the middle part, I thought it was playing with stereotypes about boys and girls, by having Miura get grossed out by all the fishing stuff, while Ena, a girl, is just fine with it. Then I remembered that Miura is actually a girl too, despite looking like a boy.

今焼ぎ始めた
ばっかじゃ
ねーか
Is the bakka here a variant on bakari?

Also, it's kind of frustrating how similar a lot of different Japanese things sound to an English speaker, with subtle vowel changes making a big difference in meaning. For example, -ta bakari and -te bakari mean completely different things. As another example, I noticed Utaco say "nigate" while talking about her poor English skills. I initially assumed it was the -te form of "to escape", but I looked it up anyway and found that it is actually a completely unrelated word. What a difference one little vowel makes.


人の話聞け
NEXT TIME, LISTEN TO ME

The Japanese seems like it just means "listen to people" here. Could someone explain this please?


みうらが夏休み
どっこも連れてって
もらってないって
言うからさ

Wow, a nested quotation. I don't think I've seen that before. As if understanding quotations wasn't hard enough already!

俺が思い出作りに
一肌脱いだってわけよ

The meaning of "一肌脱い" seems to be completely divorced from the component kanji. I wonder where it came from.

ハワイいいなー
私まだ海外って
行ったことないもん
I WISH I COULD GO TO HAWAII. I'VE NEVER BEEN OVERSEAS

I'm guessing the "I wish" part is implied by the って, and the part after that is a whole new sentence?


でもハワイって
べタじゃねェ?

Jisho says that べタ can mean both "cliched" and "Betta fish". In fact, it lists the later as a "common word", but not the former. I wonder if the use of a fish name here was meant as a pun. Probably not, but it's still interesting.


KAME-HAMEHA IS THE NAME OF THE FIRST KING OF THE HAWAII
I KNOW THAT!

... well I didn't. I thought it was just a Dragon Ball reference.


Also, are they seriously just eating whole roasted fish, scales and all? That seems disgusting to me. I had no idea that was something people actually did.

Image
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白田龍
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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening: 2021 Log

Postby 白田龍 » Tue May 11, 2021 5:07 pm

golyplot wrote:でもハワイって
べタじゃねェ?

Jisho says that べタ can mean both "cliched" and "Betta fish". In fact, it lists the later as a "common word", but not the former. I wonder if the use of a fish name here was meant as a pun. Probably not, but it's still interesting.



I've found this explanation for a similar context: "In this context I'd say that べた means cliche or typical. This is a group of tourists whose next destination is Chicago, which is described as べた because it's a common tourist spot"

https://japanese.stackexchange.com/ques ... ng-of-beta

I thought it came from french bête, as in stupid, uninteresting... [edit: perhaps it comes from heta (下手) that also has this meaning]
Last edited by 白田龍 on Wed May 12, 2021 10:54 am, edited 4 times in total.
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vonPeterhof
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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening: 2021 Log

Postby vonPeterhof » Tue May 11, 2021 6:20 pm

golyplot wrote:During the middle part, I thought it was playing with stereotypes about boys and girls, by having Miura get grossed out by all the fishing stuff, while Ena, a girl, is just fine with it. Then I remembered that Miura is actually a girl too, despite looking like a boy.

Well it's still playing with expectations, just not so much for boys and girls as for the character types of "tomboy" and "girly girl". Plus a common trope in Japanese fiction to make a strong and assertive character more endearing by giving them a mundane fear like bugs or heights (the term for this is ギャップ萌え).

golyplot wrote:Is the bakka here a variant on bakari?

Yes, well good catch. More specifically it's a clipping of ばっかり, which is a more emphatic form of ばかり

golyplot wrote:人の話聞け
NEXT TIME, LISTEN TO ME

The Japanese seems like it just means "listen to people" here. Could someone explain this please?

A lot of the time 人 is used in the sense of "other people" (for example 人んち meaning "someone else's home"). So 人の話聞け can be interpreted as "listen to what you're told". But yeah, most of the time the implication is "listen to what I tell you".

golyplot wrote:みうらが夏休み
どっこも連れてって
もらってないって
言うからさ

Wow, a nested quotation. I don't think I've seen that before. As if understanding quotations wasn't hard enough already!

I'm only seeing a single quotation here. Just to be sure, the って in 連れてって isn't the quotation って, but a clipping of いって, from 連れて行く.

golyplot wrote:俺が思い出作りに
一肌脱いだってわけよ

The meaning of "一肌脱い" seems to be completely divorced from the component kanji. I wonder where it came from.

The idiom is 人肌脱ぐ, with 脱いだ being the past tense (verbs ending in ぐ have a somewhat unusual conjugation pattern; thankfully there's not that many of them).

golyplot wrote:ハワイいいなー
私まだ海外って
行ったことないもん
I WISH I COULD GO TO HAWAII. I'VE NEVER BEEN OVERSEAS

I'm guessing the "I wish" part is implied by the って, and the part after that is a whole new sentence?

The "I wish" part is implied by いいなー, as that phrase is often used like a slightly envious "good for you!" The って here plays essentially the same role as a は.
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