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Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening: 2020 Log

Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2020 12:15 am
by golyplot
devilyoudont wrote:There are still a handful of words using 英 in its more traditional sense/unrelated to England. 英雄 is maybe the most common word where it does not mean "england" :)


The funny part is that 英雄 actually is on WK, it just tells you that it's a random meaning you have to memorize.

An English brave person. Okay, there are probably other kanji meanings that aren't as common being put into effect here, but if you just think about this as King Arthur, an English brave person, then you can get the meaning of this word. King Arthur is probably England's most well known hero.

Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening: 2020 Log

Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2020 3:14 pm
by golyplot
When I learned 克服 (conquest), I thought it was a bit odd that "conquest" would contain the "clothes" kanji 服, but didn't think much of it. However, yesterday, I reached the word 征服 (conquest) on WK, and it made me suspect that 服 actually has a secondary meaning of conquest.

Other than WK, I haven't done much Japanese stuff since Saturday, hence the lack of updates. Hopefully I can get back to it soon.

Edit: I looked it up and found this stackexhange post. It appears that the dual meanings date back to ancient Chinese, and people aren't really sure how they came to be.

Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening: 2020 Log

Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2020 4:07 pm
by golyplot
Today, I watched the sixth Nihongo no Mori video, and was pleased to see that I could understand most of it without even pausing or looking up any words. I recall being completely lost the first time I watched one of these videos, not that long ago. I think it's just a matter of getting used to it. Also, it helps a lot that I already learned お陰で from Wanikani and thus already had a pretty good idea what the grammar points in this lesson meant.


Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening: 2020 Log

Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2020 5:44 am
by golyplot
I've really been struggling with the mounting load from Wanikani lately. At least there's only five weeks to go there. To lift my spirits, I watched ep3 of K-On! tonight. It's a pretty fun show to watch. I noticed that when Nadoka stops by, Yui says "okagesama". I remember that being mentioned as an advanced (N1) grammar point in the Nihongo no Mori video this morning, though I couldn't understand that part of the lesson, so I don't know what exactly it means. I also noticed Yui using the regular "okagede" when thanking her bandmates after she passes the make up test.

P.S. I looked up the opening theme of K-On! since it was really catchy. Apparently, it's named "Cagayake Girls", which I immediately recognized as 輝く, a word I recently learned on Wanikani. It's funny how things like that come up sometimes.

Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening: 2020 Log

Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2020 4:26 am
by golyplot
I had to keep forcing myself to keep going to get through a giant pile of WK reviews this evening. At least I had fun watching ep4 of K-On!. I also tried watching the first episode of Polar Bear Cafe, just to see what it was like. I can definitely see why people recommend it to Japanese learners. It seemed like they were talking more slowly and using simpler language than normal. I don't think I'd continue watching it even if it were on Netflix rather than Crunchyroll though. Perhaps it's a bit too slow for me. I was surprised there weren't any ads or playback issues despite the fact that I don't have a Crunchyroll account - maybe my ad blocker took care of that.

Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening: 2020 Log

Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2020 3:29 am
by golyplot
征服 keeps coming up for review on WK and I keep putting "uniform" and getting it wrong. Stupid homophones. You wouldn't think that homophones would be a problem when you're given the word in writing and asked to supply the English translation, but somehow it does.

Also, I watched the next Nihongo no Mori video today. I had a lot of difficulty understanding this one, unlike the previous video. Also, I was surprised to see brushing teeth written as はみがきする rather than 葉を磨く like I was taught on WK. Is it common to omit the を there?



Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening: 2020 Log

Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2020 3:42 am
by crush
I actually really liked Polar Bear Cafe. I didn't think i would, though. The 50+ episodes really just flew by. Guess it's just different tastes ;)

And i believe 歯磨き is just like.. teeth brushing. So "doing teeth brushing". And the character is 歯 not 葉: 歯を磨く (though when i typed it just now the IME also suggested 葉 for some reason). I couldn't say if one way or the other is more common as i've come across both forms but not enough to remember one more than the other.

Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening: 2020 Log

Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2020 5:48 am
by golyplot
crush wrote: And the character is 歯 not 葉: 歯を磨く (though when i typed it just now the IME also suggested 葉 for some reason).


Oops sorry. That's what I meant, but the IME betrayed me. I guess I should be embarrassed that I didn't notice.

Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening: 2020 Log

Posted: Sun Nov 22, 2020 3:08 pm
by golyplot
Two months ago, I took a practice N5 exam. Despite devoting so much of my time to listening practice over the last year, I still failed miserably on the N5 listening section, doing no better than chance. Today, I retook the test to see if I could do better.

More specifically, I took sections 2-4 (Point Comprehension, Utterance Expressions, and Quick Response), since I already got a perfect score on section 1 (Task-based Comprehension) when I took it before. I definitely felt like I could understand the questions more clearly this time, but it was still a struggle to figure out the answers sometimes and my performance overall was disappointing, particularly at the end.

My scores were
Point Comprehension: 5/6
Utterance Expressions: 3/5
Quick Response: 2/6

I did well on section 2 (point comprehension), but barely better than chance on section 3 and no better than chance on section 4 (sections 3 and 4 have three choices per answer, so you would expect to get 2/6 on average just from random guessing). Interestingly, I put the same (wrong) answers for the last two questions of section 4 across all three times that I took the test.


In other news, the 洞穴 lesson on WK said that it could be pronounced as either douketsu or horaana, but the later is less formal. I wonder if this is related to the thing about Chinese words being considered prestigious and formal in Japanese like Latin is in English, and thus the onyomi reading is more formal than the kunyomi. Interestingly, Jisho only lists the later reading.

Re: Learning Japanese from zero by listening: 2020 Log

Posted: Wed Nov 25, 2020 4:37 am
by golyplot
Not much to talk about lately, but I discovered that DungMori is offering fully graded free online mock JLPT exams this weekend (11/27-11/29). I figured I should post about it so that anyone else following along can make use of them as well. The site is in Vietnamese, but luckily thanks to Google Translate, that didn't prove to be a problem.

Also, I watched ep7 of K-On! tonight. I was surprised to see that Yui has a kotatsu at home. I didn't realize that they were still in common use - I thought they were a historical thing, but per Wikipedia, apparently they're still common in Japan today. Also, I found the Christmas spread amusing - onigiri, sandwiches, turkey, and a "traditional" strawberry sponge cake. It's such an eclectic mixture of Japanese and Western fare. I can't imagine sandwiches ever being served next to roast turkey in the west, let alone onigiri and turkey. Also, they appear to have champagne as well, though that's probably more a matter of different drinking ages.



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