Ask me stuff about the Japanese language!

[FireAza]

To celebrate myself bringing 150 kanji and 260 vocabulary kanji to the "burned" level in WaniKani, I thought I'd start a thread similar to my "ask me stuff about Japan" thread! I should explain what this "WaniKani" thing is, but I'll leave that for later. If you're interested, check the bottom of my OP!

So, Japanese can be a wonderfully complex language, both written and spoken! I've been learning it for a few years now, I'm by no means an expert, but if there's something you're curious about, ask away! I remember at one point in my life being curious why Japanese words all ended in vowels, so I thought there might be others with similar questions!

Now then, what's WaniKani? WaniKani is a website that uses the "spaced repetition" learning technique as well as mnemonics to help you learn kanji, one of the writing systems used in Japanese that's notorious for it's difficulty and time required to learn. One of the core elements in the program are "levels": "Apprentice", "Guru", "Master", "Enlightened" and finally "Burned". These levels represent how well you know an individual kanji, radical or vocabulary kanji. You need to constantly get both the reading as well as the meaning correct whenever you're asked. If you can get it right, you'll advance it to the next level, if you get it wrong, you'll fall back a level.

As you reach the higher levels, the item isn't shown quite so frequently and by the time you're at "Enlightened" you won't be shown the item again for about six months. If you can successfully get it right again, you'll move it to "Burned" and it gives removed from your learning list. This idea here is you can't "cram" you need to actually remember it!

The final trick up WaniKani's sleeve is mnemonics and "radicals". Firstly, it breaks down complex kanji into mini kanji called "radicals", which helps make the really complex kanji more digestible. It then tells you a weird story involving these radicals that teaches you the meaning and sounds of the kanji.

For example, the kanji "研" ("sharpen") is made up of the "石" ("Stone") and "开" ("Lantern") radicals and the sound it makes is "ken". For the meaning, the story is you find a stone lantern, which you use to sharpen your blade. The reason being, you're fighting some giant Ken dolls. And with one memorable (and weird) story, you've learned both the meaning and sound of this kanji.

So that's how WaniKani works anyway! If you've got questions about the Japanese language, ask away!

 

[Mister K]

Bookmarked for future.

Anyhow, if I may:
I've studied Japanese at the language courses. I was rather successful, but during my last University semester I had to slack of because I had to write my diploma work (I got A+ for diploma, but barely managed to get C during JP exams).
So here is the question: how can I improve my language at my home?

 

[Mister K]

Bookmarked for future.

Anyhow, if I may:
I've studied Japanese at the language courses. I was rather successful, but during my last University semester I had to slack of because I had to write my diploma work (I got A+ for diploma, but barely managed to get C during JP exams).
So here is the question: how can I improve my language at my home?

I am sorry to hijack this question, but if I can intervene: if you want to improve your language at home, you watch a lot of films, or animes, or videogames, or even dating sims (datin sims might be silly but they are GOOD for language practice), that are in Japanese language.

If your level is not good enough you start with English subs. If your level is good enough you use Japanese subs. If your level is very good, then no subs.

The reason I'm saying this is because.... that's how I learnt English.

So... Anything will do or do you have a specific examples of a media that are good for teaching Japanese?

 

[DoPo]

So... Anything will do or do you have a specific examples of a media that are good for teaching Japanese?

I'd suggest more than one type of media. Try, for example, anime and songs, but also reading stuff (books or websites). Basically, the idea is to not stick to just one - more exposure is better. It also means you can get a feel for what works better for you.

That's a general advice when learning a second language, not specifically just Japanese.

OT: I would have to be the one who asks this, it seems - nobody else has: what's a common insult in Japanese? And how do you use it - e.g., is it something like "fuck" or "shit" where you can use it mostly anywhere or is there more "rules" to how it's applied?

 

[FPLOON]

Why do both the males and the females have [almost] completely different ways of saying the exact same line of [translated] dialogue... especially in hentai OVAs?

Other than that, how can one get two different translations of the same scripted dialogue?

 

[FireAza]

As someone who graduated in Japanese Language and Culture years ago, I'm going to take a look on this thread to see what you're gonna write.

Be kind, senpai!

Guess I'll start,

1.There's a joke about Eskimo's having 40 different ways to say ice, is there something like that in japanese? (as in, a word with lots of ways to say it for some reason).

2. What is the most bizzare curse and/or phrase you know?

1) Hmmmmm... I'm not aware of anything exactly like what you're describing, I have noticed many many times where I'm being taught a new kanji that has the same meaning as a kanji I've already learned though. For example, both "由" and "理" mean "reason". There's probably some subtle difference between the two, but I have no idea what that might be.

Probably something that's closer to what you're looking is the fact that Japanese often has separate words for similar things that we would just give the same word in English. For example, uncooked rice and cooked rice are two separate words "ご飯" ("gohan") and "米" ("kome"). This is obviously due to culture reasons, since rice (in all it's forms) plays an important role in Japanese culture where as it doesn't in Western culture. Much like the Eskimo example you gave.

2) Japanese lacks "proper" swearwords like English does (i.e words that are just bad to say even when separated from their meaning) but the rough language it does have is glorious. Take the famous "baka" ("fool") it's made up of the kanji for "horse" (&#39340 and "deer" (&#40575. You're essentially calling someone a horse-deer. I guess this is kinda insulting..? There's also "お前" which is simply one of the many words for "you". Ah, but this one has a slight element of disrespect attached to it! Do you feel insulted yet?

Bookmarked for future.

Anyhow, if I may:
I've studied Japanese at the language courses. I was rather successful, but during my last University semester I had to slack of because I had to write my diploma work (I got A+ for diploma, but barely managed to get C during JP exams).
So here is the question: how can I improve my language at my home?

If it's kanji you're having trouble with, I can definitely recommend WaniKani! www.wanikani.com

OT: I would have to be the one who asks this, it seems - nobody else has: what's a common insult in Japanese? And how do you use it - e.g., is it something like "fuck" or "shit" where you can use it mostly anywhere or is there more "rules" to how it's applied?

As I said above, there's not really "proper" swears like in English. Aside from the two I already mentioned above, there's "糞" which literally means "shit" and can be used in a similar manner. But as a basic rule, don't. Japanese is a polite society in general, so you'd have to be among close friends who you know won't be insulted in order to use them. Aside from insults, there are other words that are impolite and usually get bleeped out when spoken in media, but they're bad because they're usually related to rude body parts or bodily functions.

Why do both the males and the females have [almost] completely different ways of saying the exact same line of [translated] dialogue... especially in hentai OVAs?

Other than that, how can one get two different translations of the same scripted dialogue?

Japanese is full of different levels of politeness because, well, Japan. Women are usually expected to speak in a proper and ladylike manner, while men can get away with being a bit more gruff. Since you mentioned hentai OVAs specially, I'm guessing you're talking about characters who speak in a cutesy child-like manner?

The reason for differing translations is because the structure of Japanese and English are quite different. The grammar is different, the sentence order is different and there's words that don't exist in English. Sometimes you can successfully do a literal translation, but the result usually sounds unnatural and like something Yoda would say. Take for example the phrase "仕方がない", literally translated, it would be something like "there is not a way of doing" but the meaning of this phrase is more that something is outside of your control so you had no choice. So you might choose to translate this phrase into English as something like "it couldn't be helped", "I had no choice", "there was no other way" or "I had no other option".

So translating from Japanese to English is more of an art than a science. It's more about understanding the meaning and trying to work out how you would express roughly the same thing in English.

 

[krystalphoenix]

As someone who is studying for the JLPT3, how useful would you say an app like WaniKani is? I use a bunch of other apps specifically geared for the JLPTs to supplement my bookwork and such and am always looking for apps that work better for me as a learner.

 

[Mechamorph]

Okay let's get you some questions for fun:

Explain the difference between "honne and tatamae" and "ura and omote"
What do the Japanese mean when they talk about "wabi-sabi"?
Talk about "kawaiisa" and the meaning behind the word.

 

[FireAza]

As someone who is studying for the JLPT3, how useful would you say an app like WaniKani is? I use a bunch of other apps specifically geared for the JLPTs to supplement my bookwork and such and am always looking for apps that work better for me as a learner.

One issue people who have previously studied kanji find with Wanikani is it doesn't let you skip the kanji you have already learned. But the program is such a useful tool for kanji learning, I think you'd be mad to not use it! Just steamroll your way though the kanji you already know and then you can get on to the good stuff!

Okay let's get you some questions for fun:

Explain the difference between "honne and tatamae" and "ura and omote"

These really seem to be two different sets of words for the same concept if you ask me, the whole "levels of politeness" thing I mentioned above. Unfortunately, I'm not terribly familiar with the concept in general, being a foreigner from a country where people normally act buddy-buddy with everyone. Sorry!

What do the Japanese mean when they talk about "wabi-sabi"?

Wabi-sabi is the idea that it's the small imperfections in things is what makes them beautiful. You see this everywhere in Japanese culture, from the way bonsai trees are not perfectly symmetrical, to the fashion of girls having crooked eyeteeth that stick out a bit. Hell, it's even in the tagline for the anime "Kino's Journey" as "This world is not beautiful. Therefore, it is.". This is despite Kino's Journey being intended as a European-style fantasy story, that's how strong the concept of Wabi-sabi is in Japanese culture.

As to why, in my opinion, I think it's because Japan is a very nature-focused society (despite heavy industrialization), which can be seen by the role of the Shinto religion in Japanese society. Shinto is a nature-based religion were practically everything from rocks to trees have a god associated with them (which is why using "God" in English translations is often an incorrect decision). But despite how beautiful nature is, it's rarely ever perfect. Trees in nature don't grow in neat little rows like how humans plant them for example. I feel it's this love of nature that makes Japanese people like things that are beautiful, but have some small imperfection about them.

Talk about "kawaiisa" and the meaning behind the word.

When "sa" is added to the end of an adjective, it indicates the word is indicating some kind of measurement. For example, "long" is "naga" ("長") but stick a "sa" on the end to make it "nagasa" ("長さ") and now it changes the meaning to "length". This is the word you would use if you wanted to ask how long something is. So for "kawaiisa" you'd be asking how cute something is. An odd concept, since how are you suppose to measure levels of cuteness? It's not a word I commonly hear anyway. I guess one scenario where it might be used if you said a girl was cute, but you were then asked in what way is she cute.