Learning Japanese From Zero

[crush]

Anyway, I also looked it up in Jisho and found it interesting that engi can also be performance (演技) in addition to omen (縁起), which I had completely forgotten about. The former is level 23 in Wanikani, while the latter is level 44. I guess this is another illustration of how the later level items tended to stick in my memory better, although it probably also has to do with how many times I missed them and had to repeat the reviews as well.

That's funny, 'cuz when you wrote that i immediately thought of 演技 since i've seen that word far more times than 縁起.

[vonPeterhof]

As another example, I also noticed her saying "engi no warui" while talking about superstitions. I remembered engi=omen from WK, so I immediately deduced that it meant bad luck. The reason it stuck out at me was actually the use of the no particle, since it seemed to me like it should be using the na adjective connector instead. I've heard that Japanese used to use no in place of na, so maybe that's why.

Not sure if I've ever heard of no being used in place of na in the past. There are some cases in modern Japanese where the two are interchangeable when used with a word that can function both as a noun and a na-adjective, but "engi" is a pure noun and "warui" is the adjective in the phrase. Technically you could replace the adjective phrase "engi no warui" with the noun phrase "warui engi no" (followed by whatever noun the phrase is describing), it would just be a little awkward, like saying "X of/with the ill omens" instead of "ill-omened X".

[golyplot]

Not sure if I've ever heard of no being used in place of na in the past. There are some cases in modern Japanese where the two are interchangeable when used with a word that can function both as a noun and a na-adjective, but "engi" is a pure noun and "warui" is the adjective in the phrase. Technically you could replace the adjective phrase "engi no warui" with the noun phrase "warui engi no" (followed by whatever noun the phrase is describing), it would just be a little awkward, like saying "X of/with the ill omens" instead of "ill-omened X".

Maybe I'm just bad at grammar then.

[vonPeterhof]

Well to be fair, determining whether a particular word is a noun or a na-adjective often has more to do with the word's lexical meaning and usage than any hard and fast grammatical rules, plus the "[noun] no [adjective]" structure can be pretty counterintuitive even if you're familiar with the most common uses of the particle no. I'd say you're still doing a great job most of the time.

[golyplot]

I learned shirokujichuu from Noriko today. However, after looking it up, I was surprised to discover that it is segmented shi-roku-ji-chuu. While trying to guess the meaning before looking it up, I had mentally segmented it as shiro-kuji-chuu (white article something?). Also, I forgot that four could be "shi" anyway since it's almost always "yon".

Edit: I also misremembered article as kuji rather than kiji. It could have been "lottery" though. Arg, why does Japanese have to have so many opaque interchangeable sounding words?

[golyplot]

Last night I finished listening to Noriko for the seventh time and started my second go through the 4989 American Life podcast. I still look up words I hear sometimes, but they tend to all be words that I learned long ago and then forgot, such as shukujitsu, yokujitsu, or nenmatsu. But I suppose if I keep relearning them, eventually they'll stick.

P.S. I noticed that sometimes, Jisho lists multiple Wanikani levels for a word. For example, 説得 is listed as WK level 19 and WK level 21. Anyone know why?

[白田龍]

P.S. I noticed that sometimes, Jisho lists multiple Wanikani levels for a word. For example, 説得 is listed as WK level 19 and WK level 21. Anyone know why?

Wanikani has 説得 lvl 19 but 説得する is lvl 21:

https://www.wanikani.com/vocabulary/%E8%AA%AC%E5%BE%97
https://www.wanikani.com/vocabulary/%E8 ... 9%E3%82%8B

[golyplot]

Not much to say, since I basically haven't been doing anything Japanese-wise for weeks besides letting podcasts play in the background. 4989 American Life is definitely a lot harder to understand than Noriko. Even trying to look up words rarely works since it's hard to make out the words and remember them in the first place, and even when I do, I often don't get any results or any results that seem relevant on Jisho (this also happens with Noriko, but more rarely). For example, tonight I caught a bit where Utaco was talking about dollar stores and used the word "daisou" (or at least that's what it sounded like) several times, but searching Jisho afterwards turned up nothing relevant.

[Miss_French_2020]

For example, tonight I caught a bit where Utaco was talking about dollar stores and used the word "daisou" (or at least that's what it sounded like) several times, but searching Jisho afterwards turned up nothing relevant.

Daiso is the name of a chain of dollar stores in Japan.

[golyplot]

For example, tonight I caught a bit where Utaco was talking about dollar stores and used the word "daisou" (or at least that's what it sounded like) several times, but searching Jisho afterwards turned up nothing relevant.

Daiso is the name of a chain of dollar stores in Japan.

Thanks, I would have never guessed that!

Despite the difficulty, I did manage to learn one new word from Utaco recently: hamateiru - addictive. Well, Jisho lists multiple possible meanings, but she was talking about Scrabble at the time, so I assume she meant that it was an addictive game.

I also found it interesting when she said that Pringles are sold in 158g packages in the US but 110g packages in Japan. I wonder why the difference.