Both of those situations you described are fine to use なければならない.
>I've seen in many media people speak なければならん for example.
What do you mean when you say "media people"? Because people on the news sure as hell don't speak like that. Do you mean characters in popular media?
It doesn't make any sense to ask "is xxx too informal". Too informal for what? For meeting your girlfriends' parents? For talking to your best friend? For extending greetings to an alien race? Formality is part of context, no one speaks in the same register all of the time.
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Anonymous2013-07-03 12:51
The context where I'm worried about the informality of なきゃ are:
Internet conversation where I don't have much space to type(or it is too much work to write), with a total stranger that I will not see again, but I want to sound polite.
Internet conversation with a stranger that I want to be friends with(and obviously I wouldn't want to sound rude).
I have little to no experience with being in a dialog, and I find writing long stuff like なければならない might be too cumbersome for some everyday chitchat.
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Anonymous2013-07-03 13:08
なきゃいけないです is fine for internet strangers. Especially if they know you're a foreigner, they won't care if you use shortened forms.
Either way, typing length shouldn't be your major limiting factor once you get used to it.
Sup /lang/.
先生はアメリカの大学で日本語を教えられます。
In the dictionary of basic grammar, this is translated as "The teacher is going to teach Japanese in an american university". But 教える is in passive form (or potential). How does that work?
皆さん、お食事を出来ました。
This is translated as "Folks, the meal is ready now", but the verb is in past form. Why?
母がお連れいたします。
Translated as "My mother will take you there". This is keigo, I know that much, but why is 連れる in past form?
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Anonymous2013-07-04 11:05
>>766
1. Passive can be used to create distance between the speaker and the subject, similar in effect to keigo or sonkeigo. It's a respect thing.
2. Because Japanese isn't English. 食事(ga)出来る means to "make" or "prepare" a meal with the sense that it's completed (which wouldn't make sense in the present tense). It's equivalent to saying "the meal is served/ready/soups up/etc. etc."
3.Wow. It's not. 致します. You need to study WAAY more.
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Anonymous2013-07-04 22:18
It should be 食事ができました, not をできました. を is not used with できる.
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Anonymous2013-07-05 4:59
Why do so many people praise Heisig's method of remember Kanji? Right now I'm about to start learning Kanji, but I'm undecided on what method I should go about this.
Can anyone who's tried this method tell me why its better than just going through and learning Kanji in the same order Japanese school children do?
Does anyone have an opinion on what is the best, if not Heisig? Right now after skimming through quite a bit of textbooks and programs I'm leaning towards "2001.Kanji.Oddysey"
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Anonymous2013-07-05 13:58
So, I tried out that KeyHoleTV from the opening post and it sucks, so I'm using NijiTV from http://www.myniji.tv/ and it has way better quality.
Is there another place or program to watch TV more and/or better?
Because the way Japanese school children learn is by rote memorization. You also have to remember that they are not just learning this in a vacuum, they have words to match every character to and are constantly surrounded by these characters every day.
Heisig tries to give this visual memory by establishing ways for you to effectively memorize each one. It works fairly well in this regard, and it's fairly easy to burn through all of the base 2000 in 1-3 months. The main advantage is that it makes writing much easier.
If you're not going to do Heisig or something similar (such as Kanjidamage) then I recommend just learning vocabulary. Trying to go along and just memorize every single one by their readings and meaning is going to result in a huge headache and little retained information.
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Anonymous2013-07-06 11:52
My RTK1 is almost finished and I have started to learn vocabulary by core2000 deck. Because Japanese doesn't have spaces, how am I supposed to know where are the breaks supposed to be? Sometimes I feel like I am reading sentences totally wrong because of that.
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Anonymous2013-07-06 14:43
Kanji and context. It's pretty rare that there is any ambiguity at all about where a word begins and ends.
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Anonymous2013-07-06 17:15
>>772
Particles are the easiest orientation markers, as they give "meaning" or, more appropriately, application to word the precede them. There are no "breaks" or empty spaces in Japanese because they simply don't need them. Syntax and kanji make them obsolete. AndquitehonestlyEnglishdoesn'texactly"need"themeither.
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Anonymous2013-07-07 5:31
>>774
Well the question came up when I specially had problem with following sentence:
kanji: 今朝は早く家を出ました。
kana: けさははやくいえをでました
So because I am learning, I THOUGHT the first part should be read like:
今朝 は 早く...
けさは は やく...
But after I checked from google translation, I found it is actually:
けさ は はやく...
So I wanted to avoid such mistakes in future.
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Anonymous2013-07-07 11:10
>>775
I don't get how you could manage fucking up that badly. This isn't meant as an insult, I'm genuinely surprised. Why would you remove は from 早い and stack the particle into a noun? Maybe you should study some basic words in isolation before taking on sentences if your current level of comprehension is that low...
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Anonymous2013-07-07 12:18
>>776
I didn't remove or add anything. I just read the text how it seemed to be the most natural. How should I have known which は is the particle? Readings of 今朝 and 早い will be introduced on 73th and 100th cards. That's why I asked how to recognize the breaks and rhythm. Seems answer is; know the words.
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Anonymous2013-07-07 12:34
>I didn't remove or add anything.
(not that guy you're responding to but) you most definitely did remove a は from 早く and add a は to 今朝. I really have no idea how you are getting けさは from just 今朝 and how you are getting やく from 早く.
Particles do not go into kanji. If you see 今朝は早く, the は is the particle. What makes you think it would be any other way?
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Anonymous2013-07-07 16:07
>>778
>If you see 今朝は早く, the は is the particle.
That's obvious, but what is the particle in けさははやく.. was the problem because I didn't know how to read 今朝 or 早く and I had to guess 今朝 is read けさは or けさ and 早く is はやく or やく.
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Anonymous2013-07-07 17:32
>>779
You're doing a bad job. At no point is "guessing" an efficient method of study. Find a new method.
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Anonymous2013-07-07 17:45
Why are you breaking the whole thing down into kana before analyzing it? That doesn't make any sense. Also, a simple dictionary lookup would show you that they're not read that way, ever. At this point I'm not sure if this is a subtle troll or if you're really that clueless.
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Anonymous2013-07-07 19:37
Is 懐かしすぎる just an euphemism for "old as fuck"?
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Anonymous2013-07-07 20:06
I've never heard it. It just means they find it extremely nostalgic.
You should really give context when asking a question like that.
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Anonymous2013-07-07 23:12
>>782
People say it, and you might be able to translate it as that, expect they aren't simply saying it's "old", but more so the strength of the nostalgia. "Nostalgic as fuck" works brilliantly.
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Anonymous2013-07-07 23:21
>>780
I obviously realized it and that's why I asked how to recognize the breaks when there are no spaces, huh.
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Anonymous2013-07-08 8:22
>>781
>Also, a simple dictionary lookup would show you that they're not read that way, ever
Are you incapable to read? That's exactly how I found out how it is supposed to be read. That's why my question was, how to RECOGNIZE the word breaks. Of course I want to try to read and solve sentence breaks, words, readings and translation first by myself before looking up from a dictionary.
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Anonymous2013-07-08 11:31
Usually in means where there are no kanji or they are scarcely used, there are breaks beetween some stuff. An example from a 3yo's book:
And you shouldn't be having problems with a sentence with such basic words like けさ or はやく. These words should spring 今朝 and 早く immediately to your mind, after that you can see the particles pretty easily.
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Anonymous2013-07-08 14:33
>Are you incapable to read? That's exactly how I found out how it is supposed to be read.
Then why the fuck would you think it's けさは as one word? Why would you even think for a second that 早く is somehow は+やく and they just merged that into the kanji? That makes no sense whatsoever, and in all of the Japanese learners I have met, none of them have ever made this kind of mistake.
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Anonymous2013-07-08 15:00
>>787
Well after this experience will probably remember both of them.
Still I don't get logic behind breaking the sentences. Like this one:
私の国について少しお話しましょう。
First breaks are easy because there are just kanji and particles
私 の 国 に...
But what about the rest? I suppose correct breaks are
...ついて 少し お話 しましょう
Like how am I supposed to know お forms word with 話 instead of 少し? If I wouldn't have checked, I would be reading this sentence wrong because few cards ago 話 was just 話.
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Anonymous2013-07-08 15:07
>>788
Write 'XはY' and 'けさははやく' for someone and ask him to guess what X and Y are. He will answer X is either けさは or けさ.
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Anonymous2013-07-08 15:25
>>789
If you are just studying vocabulary with absolutely no grammar whatsoever, you'll run frequently into these problems.
People are probably getting hot about this is because you are getting confused with some basic grammar.
Long story short, you attach お to some nouns and verbs to express politeness, in the same way as stuff you probably have observed before like お願いします(おねがいします), お金(おかね), お好み焼き(おこのみやき). The thing is, you should study(more) grammar.
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Anonymous2013-07-08 15:59
>>791
All grammar I have studied is particles. I was given advice that I should read sentences, recognize the familiar particles & kanji, figure out other shared factors and at some points go read the grammar guide to understand what I have actually learned. To follow that advice, I am trying read sentences out loud, but without being able to see the breaks, I am reading like a machine gun or there is a break between almost every kana.
Anyway thank you, especially for not being an ass.
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Anonymous2013-07-08 16:26
>>790
But the sentence isn't けさははやく, it was 今朝は早く. Stop breaking it down before you analyze it, that's ridiculous.
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Anonymous2013-07-08 16:33
>>792
If you've literally studied nothing but particles and the kana, you'd be better off looking at a few grammar guides before just slamming example sentences. Try Tae Kim's or genki.
>>784
I see, thanks. I thought it had a bad meaning between the lines.
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Anonymous2013-07-08 19:36
>>787
Now I understand why they don't want to abolish kanji.
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Anonymous2013-07-09 8:41
>>793
How I should analyze it? All I can see is "Now", "Morning", a particle, "Early" and kana which isn't a particle. That's all the information I have.
Now when I check the answer side, see the kana sentence and the translation, now I have more information. Now I can do the analysis and connect the dots. Now after that if something is unclear or I just want be sure, I'll check a dictionary or translator, like I did on this one. I am no trying to argue, but I would like to hear, how my method could be any more effective.
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Anonymous2013-07-09 9:01
>>794
Yes I own the book. Still I believe it would be really ineffective to read 500 pages of grammar study book before starting to actually reading Japanese texts. I didn't learn English like that either. But if you suggest so, what chapters of Tae Kim should be enough for Core2k? After month of kanji grinding I just had huge craving to read actual Japanese sentences and words and become familiar with them.
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Anonymous2013-07-09 14:01
Hi! I'm going to take the JPLT N5 this year. I have "Genki I" and "Genki II" books. How many chapters I have to complete in order to have a proper preparation for the JPLT N5 exam? thanks in advance!
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Anonymous2013-07-09 14:12
>>797
Use the tools that are available to you and linked in the opening post. Rikaikun/chan/sama would show immediately where the words are, and it's very useful when starting out for this purpose (especially when names are involved)