>>798
Grinding kanji is kind of stupid in general. If you're talking about RTK, I guess I can understand, but grammar really is fundamental and core to everything. It isn't what will take you the most time (learning new vocab will last a lifetime) but it is the major barrier to being able to say "I understand Japanese".
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Anonymous2013-07-09 14:47
>>799
Protip: Don't waste your money and wait until you can take N1 or N2.
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Anonymous2013-07-10 14:34
>>800
Okay that's actually reasonable. If rikaichan is available, I will use it for new sentences (like when I am on mobile it isn't an option). I just learned new words and sentences with that method and so far I think it is more effective. Thank you.
Other thing which I noticed useful was during reviewing I always tried to type the sentences in notepad with IME. It's good way to test memory and I will immediately notice if I was wrong on something, therefore there won't be more major reading failures.
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Anonymous2013-07-10 15:47
>>803
You can go even further and write things you read into paper.
For that you'll have to practice some stroke order and it'll be an immense help in learning Kanji, especially for discerning between those Kanji that look very alike. e.g. 積/漬
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Anonymous2013-07-13 23:49
I've been studying Japanese for nearly a year now and I would really like to try to voice with someone in Japanese. I know a few Japanese people on Skype but I'm kind of shy to ask them, especially since my speaking skills aren't yet developed enough to have a reasonably sophisticated conversation.
In text, I can usually keep up a conversation and express 90% of what I want as long as I have time and access to a dictionary, but it's still quite broken and I still have problems understanding things.
I finished going through KD a few months ago. Of course that's not to say that I'm fully familiar with everything there. I'm still going to be learning it for a long time but I'm not drawing any new kanji from that set that I have to study. I've added a few hundred kanji since then, just from the ones that I happen to come across while being immersed in Japanese. I think it's pretty fun to know poetic kanji such as 颪 or 雫 that are not necessarily useful in everyday conversation but still have their place in artistic works.
I'm always looking for creative ways to expand my learning. I've been using music lately to help me remember words. What I do is print out the lyrics on a piece of paper and read them while listening to a song. Music has rhythm and a sense of flow to it. Similar to the concept of mnemonics, a good way to remember a word is to remember how it was used in a song. I guess I just need time.
Sorry if this sounded like a blog. I just thought that somebody might find this useful.
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Anonymous2013-07-15 13:52
What's a polite way to invite someone to visit your home? Like for example, how would you say, "Please come visit my home sometime. It'll be fun!"
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Anonymous2013-07-15 13:56
ぜひおうちに遊びに来てください！きっと楽しんでいただけるかと思います。
Something like that. Without knowing who you're talking to in more detail, it's hard to say how polite you should be.
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Anonymous2013-07-22 23:15
I would not say おうち to refer to my own home. It has the connotation of "your home". Also, that sentence gives me the sense of "come over right now".
Of course, I would never invite someone to my home anyway, which is extremely small and quite messy. (._.)
It's not the うち that's the issue, it's the お. 家来いよ or something for example is possible. That's why your link says it's childish, because most adults aren't going to refer to their own place with お.
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Anonymous2013-07-25 16:23
Hi /lang/. I have one question.
知らない人が私にコーラを買って呉れた。
This is translated as "A stranger bought me cola".
But wouldn't "A stranger" be 知られない人? I was under the impression that a relative clause describes what it's preceding, so 知らない人 would be "A person who doesn't know".
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Anonymous2013-07-25 21:49
>>811
（私が）知らない人
Someone I don't know = A stranger
知られない人
Someone who isn't known = nope
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Anonymous2013-07-26 2:56
I'm working on a translating a vn for practice in my studies, I'm a little stumped here
「さあ、今です！ 人族などというゴミを、その魔族の象徴たる色で、黒き刃で、汚い肉塊へと変えてやって下さい！」
Can someone post a translation so I can compare it to mine and explain the taru usage to me. I love you all.
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Anonymous2013-07-26 9:57
Literal (i.e. bad) translation: Alright, now! Turn this trash we call the human race into filthy shreds of meat with that color that symbolizes the devil race, with the black blade!
More natural translation: Now is the time! Eviscerate these worthless humans with the standard of the devil race, the black blade!
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Anonymous2013-07-26 10:01
>>814
Also: Eviscerate this worthless human race into piles of rotting flesh...etc.
Sounds more gruesome. Rely on context and the character's defining traits to make the final call.
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Anonymous2013-07-28 23:21
I can't figure out this line from the extended Sasami-san ED: もっと かわいけりゃいいのに
Oh, thanks. I'm still not used to anything that doesn't show up exactly the way it did in the book but I guess I'll pick it up in time.
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Anonymous2013-07-30 11:11
What is the difference between 茨, 荊, and 棘. Even 刺 seems to have a nuance. Everything I find on the Internet about this confuses me.
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Anonymous2013-07-30 11:35
>>819
Most sites have 茨 as the most common, and the other two as variants. What are you worried about this for? Unless you're going for kanken 1 or trying to deal in plants in Japan, this is probably the most useless thing I've seen asked on the /lang/ threads.
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Anonymous2013-07-30 11:38
>>819
If you're at the point where you are worrying about kanji variants for plants, but aren't capable of googling "茨 荊 棘 違い" and looking at the second result (http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1336512853), it makes me intensely curious what exactly brought about this question.
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Anonymous2013-07-30 11:41
>>820
I'm at 1830 Kanji so I'm starting to dive into this lesser-known stuff. If I was starting out then I would agree with you. I like to have this kind of stuff figured out.
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Anonymous2013-07-30 11:51
>>822
1830 kanji is a really small number relative to what you're asking. いばら itself is a pretty uncommon word, and you haven't even reached the joyo level. You'd be far better off remembering all the kanji on the Tokyo metro system, or the prefectures, or something like that. At least then you might actually encounter what you're trying to learn.
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Anonymous2013-07-30 13:27
Engrish mothelfuckel!
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Anonymous2013-07-30 16:22
>>823
The rate of occurrence of words varies by people's interests. I'd say it's not a daily-use word but still necessary for fluency. I don't learn words by the official standards. I just learn what I happen to come across. That way I know I'm going to be able to use it.
Is there any reason to go by the joyo standard if I'm not taking tests? Also, I won't have to means to go to Japan for years to why would be learning the metro kanji now?
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Anonymous2013-07-30 17:19
>>825
>I'd say it's not a daily-use word but still necessary for fluency.
Well, obviously. If nothing else there's 茨城県. I'm not saying you don't need the word, but knowing each character as well as the difference between them is a waste of time unless you have a good reason for it. If you look up every possible character for every word you see, you're going to pick up a ton of extraneous information when you could be learning more relevant things.
>Is there any reason to go by the joyo standard if I'm not taking tests?
No. Hell, even if you are (JLPT in particular) it's best to just learn to read things you enjoy. The only thing where lists are going to come into play is kanji kentei, which most people never take and is mostly for bragging rights.
>Also, I won't have to means to go to Japan for years to why would be learning the metro kanji now?
I only listed that as an example of an exercise that would be fairly pointless, but still more useful than learning the difference between 茨/荊/棘.
>>826
I have to agree with this. In English, when you come across with a word 'pineapple', you don't look up what 'pine' and 'apple' mean, you just learn what the word 'pineapple' means.
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Anonymous2013-08-01 10:00
I thought I could kill two birds with one stone and listen some Japanese while doing office work. My goal would be to get used to hearing Japanese and understand simple sentences. I am already studying vocabulary and grammar from text, but I just want some extra. What would be good material for a beginner? I've tried to listen anime drama CDs but it is still hard to grasp what's going on. Japanese music is also out of the question. I am aware of NHK 'easy Japanese' lessons, but they have too much extra stuff (like explaining grammar and cultural habits, just too much English in general). I just wish I could listen a sentence and then rough translation. One method would be to record my own material but I am afraid of pronunciation errors and it might be awkward.
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Anonymous2013-08-04 12:26
>>828
Except Japanese isn't English, and the words that contain either "pine" or "apple" are practically non-existent. Learning 茨 as thorns and 城 as castle, along with their respective onyoumi and kunyoumi, is efficient simply because of the amount of repetition. Yes, obviously you'll want to understand what 茨城 is, but knowing each fragment increases literacy.
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Anonymous2013-08-04 12:30
>>830
We have a bad habit in English of simply taking a word and its spelling at face value (because our orthography doesn't line up with our alphabet). Pronunciation can vary (though finitely), but orthography and meaning are ultra-consistent. That's why Japanese people learn each kanji in school and why second language Japanese learners struggle with it.
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Anonymous2013-08-04 14:22
>Pronunciation can vary (though finitely), but orthography and meaning are ultra-consistent.
That's not true at all. The meaning of a compound can vary significantly from its constituent parts, and it's uncommon that you can accurately surmise the meaning of a word given only the meaning of its kanji. Memorizing all facets of kanji en masse with the intent of actually learning to read is silly. Vocab is the biggest block, not kanji.
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Anonymous2013-08-04 20:10
>>832
I never said that compound kanji do not vary in meaning from their singular parts; it's obvious they would. I'm saying the meanings of singular kanji do not vary, and as such deserve to be learned because of it. Very often it possible to come close to the "meaning", though maybe not the function, of compound kanji by understanding the meaning of each.
And no, learning the meanings of kanji may not help with "reading" but, as I said, it will certainly help with literacy. The same can be said for studying Latin and Greek roots in English. Will it be easier to memorize the thousands of words that use con- and pro-? No, but it will be much easier to surmise the meaning of an unfamiliar word from them, instead of simply interpreting the unknown in a bubble and dedicating it to memory through rote memorization without noticing connections or overlap.
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Anonymous2013-08-04 20:14
>>833
And I'm not saying someone should chug through thousands of kanji only to put them together in compounds either. I agree vocabulary, active words, takes precedent over singular kanji, but there is certainly value in learning the meanings of each.
If someone wanted to become an English professor, I'd suggest they learn Latin or Greek. I definitely wouldn't suggest it to someone who just wants to learn English.
You can learn the characters and their pronunciations separately from vocabulary, but you're using time that could be allocated more effectively.
Not to mention, it isn't like you're going to be completely clueless about characters if you don't study them specifically. Anyone who knows 感じる is going to be able to guess at 感動 or 同感. I know plenty of Latin and Greek roots, and I've never studied Latin or Greek a day in my life.
Well, the only reason I brought this up in the first place was because the guy said he had learned 1800-some kanji and was worried about the differences between three relatively uncommon ones. That strikes me as exactly what you describe, "chugging through thousands only to put them together in compounds".
I wasn't trying to suggest it was useless (hell, I did Heisig and I don't regret it), just that I really dislike the mentality some learners have of "grind kanji until you know enough". It's silly and unrealistic.
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Anonymous2013-08-04 20:20
>>835
For a beginning learner? No. But I supposed we were talking about someone who already had a grasp on the basics and, as per your example, could already discern basic combinations of kanji from common words.
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Anonymous2013-08-05 2:27
This is a really weeaboo question, but I was wondering about this onomatopoeia: チュルチュチュ
Hello everyone, please, help me with translation the following sentence 後日談。あの時無理をしてでも寝室を別にしなければこんな事には・・・・・・めでたしめでたし
Full:
人A「え？ それってもしかして最悪の場合は別室に至りますか？」
人B「そうだな。そうして二人は捲怠期を迎えてあえなく離婚。後日談。あの時無理をしてでも寝室を別にしなければこんな事には・・・・・・めでたしめでたし」
人A「今のにめでたい話がどこかひとつでもありましたか！？」