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[PKrockin]

Man, memorization of kanji in order of frequency sucks, and I feel bad for anyone doing it. It's like asking someone to memorize sentences in Klingon instead of English. Memorization gets so much easier when you can break things down to parts that have meaning (any meaning). After taking some time to learn about 1000 kanji by radical order, everything to do with kanji is kind of a breeze now.

 

[kitsuneyo]

I've been doing a little better since my post finally seeing some results in remembering

You should watch my

Spoiler

kind of lame

YouTube series about learning vocab from anime themes! I made another one the other day

 

[astronautcowboy]

JLPT results are up for anyone that took it in Japan, at least. They weren't supposed to go up until Thursday but I guess they decided to release them early.

Passed N1. Fuck yeah.

 

[Mik2121]

JLPT results are up for anyone that took it in Japan, at least. They weren't supposed to go up until Thursday but I guess they decided to release them early.

Passed N1. Fuck yeah.

お疲れ様でした～

A friend of mine barely passed N4.... I passed N2 some 5 years ago and haven't bothered trying N1 since then :/

 

[shanshan310]

JLPT results are up for anyone that took it in Japan, at least. They weren't supposed to go up until Thursday but I guess they decided to release them early.

Passed N1. Fuck yeah.

Congrats! That is a damn impressive achievement.

I think I'm gonna try for N2 in December. I think I should be okay with everything except vocab, but I've bought some texts so fingers crossed I'll be ready come test day.

 

[Desmond]

Congrats! That is a damn impressive achievement.

I think I'm gonna try for N2 in December. I think I should be okay with everything except vocab, but I've bought some texts so fingers crossed I'll be ready come test day.

I might just play it safe and go for 4. I may be able for 3, but kanji will be my main obstacle nonetheless. Conveniently, the Irish JLPT exam takes place in my Uni.








Also guys, there's a few questions I need to ask.

1. What does ちゃんと mean exactly. I'm using the app "imi wa" as a dictionary, but it gives a wide range of things.

2. I'm noticing -てあげる and te with verbs of giving. What does that exactly mean?


でしょう/だろう as opposed to です／だ still annoys me to know end. I was taught that it meant "probably" etc, but that doesn't seem to be the case. It can be used as a question too?

 

[cnet128]

Also guys, there's a few questions I need to ask.

1. What does ちゃんと mean exactly. I'm using the app "imi wa" as a dictionary, but it gives a wide range of things.

2. I'm noticing -てあげる and te with verbs of giving. What does that exactly mean?


でしょう/だろう as opposed to です／だ still annoys me to know end. I was taught that it meant "probably" etc, but that doesn't seem to be the case. It can be used as a question too?

ちゃんと is an adverb roughly meaning "as it should be". You use it to indicate that someone is doing things "properly", as dictated by morals or rules or whatever. It's often not very natural to explicitly include it in an English translation. A classic example of its usage would probably be something like ちゃんとお野菜を食べないと、デザートは無しよ! - "If you don't eat your greens (like you should), you're getting no dessert!"

～てあげる and related forms (～てやる etc.) roughly translate as "for you" (or "for him/her" depending on context). They're a little more flexible, but they generally mean that you're doing something as a favour to someone else. The inverse expressions (～てくれる, ～てくださる and so forth) are what you use if you're on the receiving end, usually meaning "for me". So その本をとってあげる is "I'll get that book for you", and その本をとってくれる？ is "Will you get that book for me?"

でしょう/だろう are very ubiquitous expressions used to generally soften or add an element of uncertainty to a sentence - basically, turning what would be a statement of fact with です or だ into an opinion or speculation. They also have an element of implying that you expect the person you're talking to to agree with you, which is why they're often used as tag questions - "そうでしょう？" (or anything similar, right down to just "だろ？") being roughly equivalent to the English "Right?"

So 今日は雨が降ります is a definite "It's going to rain today" (which makes it seem a bit like you can see the future...) whereas 今日は雨が降るでしょう is "It's probably going to rain today". (I don't know it's going to rain, but that's what I think based on the information available to me.) And 今日は雨が降るでしょう？ would be "It's going to rain today, isn't it?"

 

[HisshouBuraiKen]

So 今日は雨が降ります is a definite "It's going to rain today" (which makes it seem a bit like you can see the future...) whereas 今日は雨が降るでしょう is "It's probably going to rain today". (I don't know it's going to rain, but that's what I think based on the information available to me.) And 今日は雨が降るでしょう？ would be "It's going to rain today, isn't it?"

CNET YOU ARE ON GAF HAAAAAAAAAAAAAI BUDDYYYYYYYYYYYYY

 

[Desmond]

ちゃんと is an adverb roughly meaning "as it should be". You use it to indicate that someone is doing things "properly", as dictated by morals or rules or whatever. It's often not very natural to explicitly include it in an English translation. A classic example of its usage would probably be something like ちゃんとお野菜を食べないと、デザートは無しよ! - "If you don't eat your greens (like you should), you're getting no dessert!"

～てあげる and related forms (～てやる etc.) roughly translate as "for you" (or "for him/her" depending on context). They're a little more flexible, but they generally mean that you're doing something as a favour to someone else. The inverse expressions (～てくれる, ～てくださる and so forth) are what you use if you're on the receiving end, usually meaning "for me". So その本をとってあげる is "I'll get that book for you", and その本をとってくれる？ is "Will you get that book for me?"

でしょう/だろう are very ubiquitous expressions used to generally soften or add an element of uncertainty to a sentence - basically, turning what would be a statement of fact with です or だ into an opinion or speculation. They also have an element of implying that you expect the person you're talking to to agree with you, which is why they're often used as tag questions - "そうでしょう？" (or anything similar, right down to just "だろ？") being roughly equivalent to the English "Right?"

So 今日は雨が降ります is a definite "It's going to rain today" (which makes it seem a bit like you can see the future...) whereas 今日は雨が降るでしょう is "It's probably going to rain today". (I don't know it's going to rain, but that's what I think based on the information available to me.) And 今日は雨が降るでしょう？ would be "It's going to rain today, isn't it?"

ありがとうございます

 

[cnet128]

CNET YOU ARE ON GAF HAAAAAAAAAAAAAI BUDDYYYYYYYYYYYYY

I've been on GAF for quite a while. Basically the only place I post is AnimeGAF, though =p

 

[Cranzor]

Well, it took me about a year, but I finished Remembering the Kanji 1 today. I'm really glad I did. It seems to have helped a lot, especially with just recognizing kanji which was really hard beforehand.

I also finished Genki I not too long ago, and started Genki II a few days ago.

Excited to continue learning!

 

[BigEvilTurtle]

Hey guys, just got through the hiragana syllabary today, but I'm having trouble remembering which characters are which. Any tips for memorization? Only a few really instantly click in my head, like か、と、つ、ふ、う、お、＆あ。Ka, U, O, and A click instantly. To because it looks like a toe. Tsu because it looks like a tsunami wave.

Any good tips guys? I'm brand new to this (like, started yesterday). My pronunciation so far is decent enough, and I understand how dakuten and "small characters" work.

 

[Zoe]

Write them in alphabetical order 100 times.

 

[StayDead]

Hey guys, just got through the hiragana syllabary today, but I'm having trouble remembering which characters are which. Any tips for memorization? Only a few really instantly click in my head, like か、と、つ、ふ、う、お、＆あ。Ka, U, O, and A click instantly. To because it looks like a toe. Tsu because it looks like a tsunami wave.

Any good tips guys? I'm brand new to this (like, started yesterday). My pronunciation so far is decent enough, and I understand how dakuten and "small characters" work.

2-3 years ago I used this and it allowed me to memorise both katakana and hiragana in a week. Just remember to write them like 20 times each character too

http://www.realkana.com/hiragana/

 

[Vecks]

Hey guys, just got through the hiragana syllabary today, but I'm having trouble remembering which characters are which. Any tips for memorization? Only a few really instantly click in my head, like か、と、つ、ふ、う、お、＆あ。Ka, U, O, and A click instantly. To because it looks like a toe. Tsu because it looks like a tsunami wave.

Any good tips guys? I'm brand new to this (like, started yesterday). My pronunciation so far is decent enough, and I understand how dakuten and "small characters" work.

I learned them from some website that used things like toe and tsu-nami. I don't know if they'll make sense to you, but this is how I learned to remember them.

し- shi - she's got long hair.
ら- ra - rattled 5.
せ- se - guy in hat is saying something.
ん- n - clearly looks like an n.
き - ki - skeleton key.
を - wo - whoa! that little guy can jump over the tsunami.
み - mi - looks like a 2, so... 2 me or me 2.
け - ke - a cave entrance.
る - ru - has a little curly root.
ひ - hi - he's got a big nose.
む - mu - movie projector...

 

[BigEvilTurtle]

Write them in alphabetical order 100 times.

I wrote each character about twenty times. A hundred times seems like a lot!

2-3 years ago I used this and it allowed me to memorise both katakana and hiragana in a week. Just remember to write them like 20 times each character too

http://www.realkana.com/hiragana/

Ooh, this is nice, thanks! And yeah, I already did write them. It didn't seem to help even after repeating the character aloud each time.

I learned them from some website that used things like toe and tsu-nami. I don't know if they'll make sense to you, but this is how I learned to remember them.

し- shi - she's got long hair.
ら- ra - rattled 5.
せ- se - guy in hat is saying something.
ん- n - clearly looks like an n.
き - ki - skeleton key.
を - wo - whoa! that little guy can jump over the tsunami.
み - mi - looks like a 2, so... 2 me or me 2.
け - ke - a cave entrance.
る - ru - has a little curly root.
ひ - hi - he's got a big nose.
む - mu - movie projector...

These are great! Thanks!

 

[shanshan310]

I learned them from some website that used things like toe and tsu-nami. I don't know if they'll make sense to you, but this is how I learned to remember them.

し- shi - she's got long hair.
ら- ra - rattled 5.
せ- se - guy in hat is saying something.
ん- n - clearly looks like an n.
き - ki - skeleton key.
を - wo - whoa! that little guy can jump over the tsunami.
み - mi - looks like a 2, so... 2 me or me 2.
け - ke - a cave entrance.
る - ru - has a little curly root.
ひ - hi - he's got a big nose.
む - mu - movie projector...

Ya, that's how I learnt as well. A lot of people said it was immature, but it made everything so easy to remember. I tried rote for katakana and it took so much longer to stick. Rote learning really is the worst

 

[CornBurrito]

Taking Japanese at school now. We're going at a slow pace, so I went a bit ahead and memorized the katakana in a day using some index cards. Index cards are truly amazing.

 

[shanshan310]

Taking Japanese at school now. We're going at a slow pace, so I went a bit ahead and memorized the katakana in a day using some index cards. Index cards are truly amazing.

They really are the best thing ever. I have made so many of these rad word cards.

 

[CornBurrito]

They really are the best thing ever. I have made so many of these rad word cards.

Any benefit to those over standard index cards?

Also as far as learning Kanji, would I be better off using a Rosetta Stone type method instead of writing translations? I'm thinking that when possible, I should refrain from writing the English translation of a Kanji on the index card, and instead draw a picture. So for the Kanji for "day" or "sun" I can draw a picture of a sun. I can do that for a lot of the concrete objects at least.

Is that better than writing the English down? I dunno how effective Rosetta Stone actually is so I'm not sure if I should bother imitating its method.

 

[PKrockin]

Ya, that's how I learnt as well. A lot of people said it was immature, but it made everything so easy to remember. I tried rote for katakana and it took so much longer to stick. Rote learning really is the worst

Seriously? Those people are absolute morons.

 

[John Rabbit]

so i'm doing some homework, and it's an exercise talking about the weather where you live.

the question is: よく曇りますか。

how would i answer "No, it is not often cloudy." i don't have to use an adverb, but i started thinking how i would write this, and we haven't learned "not often" yet. would いいえ、あまり曇りません。be correct?

 

[Ledsen]

Ya, that's how I learnt as well. A lot of people said it was immature, but it made everything so easy to remember. I tried rote for katakana and it took so much longer to stick. Rote learning really is the worst

Hahaha, what the fuck? Mnemonic techniques are now immature? Good luck to those people learning a language...

 

[upandaway]

I wrote each character about twenty times. A hundred times seems like a lot!



Ooh, this is nice, thanks! And yeah, I already did write them. It didn't seem to help even after repeating the character aloud each time.



These are great! Thanks!

Did you make sure to use the "official" stroke order when you wrote them? Adding something to remember connected with the act of writing can help, plus it's just a good thing to know for when you'll need to read handwritten stuff.

 

[shanshan310]

Any benefit to those over standard index cards?

Also as far as learning Kanji, would I be better off using a Rosetta Stone type method instead of writing translations? I'm thinking that when possible, I should refrain from writing the English translation of a Kanji on the index card, and instead draw a picture. So for the Kanji for "day" or "sun" I can draw a picture of a sun. I can do that for a lot of the concrete objects at least.

Is that better than writing the English down? I dunno how effective Rosetta Stone actually is so I'm not sure if I should bother imitating its method.

Rosetta stone is a lot of mimicking, so it's good in that it gets you speaking from the beginning and focuses on listening and pronunciation. It doesn't really focus on writing though, and iirc uses kanji from the start. It also doesn't teach grammar and the vagueness of pictures can be confusing. You can try the demo here to see if it's your thing. It is a little bit pricey, though it's something worth looking into at least.

As for not using the english translation, I think you're gonna run into some troubles pretty quickly. A lot of words can't be represented by pictures. It's not really a problem to use English in order to understand the meaning. Once you get that down you can put the kanji on one side and the readings on the other, if you're worried about using English. The lack of English is actually where I ran into problems with rosetta stone. They had a picture of a horse, and a picture of a dog, and you had to choose which picture linked with the phrase "there is not a horse". Rosetta works on the basis of "learning as if it was your first language", but the problem is that as an adult you just don't learn that way. You use your prior understanding to bounce.

 

[BigEvilTurtle]

Did you make sure to use the "official" stroke order when you wrote them? Adding something to remember connected with the act of writing can help, plus it's just a good thing to know for when you'll need to read handwritten stuff.

Yes, I did proper stroke order and everything. Maybe I was doing it too absentmindedly...

 

[Cranzor]

Yes, I did proper stroke order and everything. Maybe I was doing it too absentmindedly...

Just keep practicing. The important thing is to learn them, not to learn them as quickly as possible. You'll get them down if you keep practicing.

 

[Rooster12]

Django Unchained Japanese Dub

ニーガが馬に乗ってるんだ！


You might wanna register on the site before watching it.

 

[Tenck]

Any benefit to those over standard index cards?

Also as far as learning Kanji, would I be better off using a Rosetta Stone type method instead of writing translations? I'm thinking that when possible, I should refrain from writing the English translation of a Kanji on the index card, and instead draw a picture. So for the Kanji for "day" or "sun" I can draw a picture of a sun. I can do that for a lot of the concrete objects at least.

Is that better than writing the English down? I dunno how effective Rosetta Stone actually is so I'm not sure if I should bother imitating its method.

http://www.wanikani.com/ (Helps with learning Kanji. You got to be lucky with getting in the Beta though. And if you buy Textfugu you get immediate access I believe. I got in the WaniKani beta first then bought Textfugu, so I'm not sure about that immediate access.)


Edit: Lol misread that Rosetta Stone thing. Thought you wanted to buy it. I'd still recommend to check this out CornBurrito!

Edit 2: This is what I get for replying after a long day of traveling. I just noticed you said you got in a class!
Deleted some recommendations and left only one.

 

[Stuart444]

http://www.wanikani.com/ (Helps with learning Kanji. You got to be lucky with getting in the Beta though. And if you buy Textfugu you get immediate access I believe. I got in the WaniKani beta first then bought Textfugu, so I'm not sure about that immediate access.)

You don't need to be lucky. You'll most likely get an invite within the day or two. (I got mines within 2 days).

If anyones signed up with the tofugu newsletter, you'll also have a link (they gave one out in the latest one today).

Or you can just use this link: http://wanikani.com/signup

It is still in beta but all 50 levels are in (roughly 1700 kanji, 5000 vocab), some new features are coming (revamped lesson page, revamped website, the ability to add synonyms and your own personal notes iirc) and the forums are active with a lot of nice folk so any questions about WK/Japanese or anything like that.

Forgive the slow start (which is actually accelerated for the first 2 levels aka the free levels), I'm at level 6 and the slow pace is all but gone mostly.

If you buy textfugu (go for lifetime if you do), you get a discount with WK but not the other way round. (I bought textfugu after WK so yeah...) Just a warning.

(WK has helped me a lot with Kanji which is why this post may seem overly positive about it and textfugu)

 

[Larsa]

Confirming that Wanikani is great. Currently on level 30 and still loving it. The early day slow reviews are a nice memory. I chuckle every time I see a thread on the forum complaining how slow it is at the start. Now it's pretty much 200-300 reviews every day.

It has really helped me study routinely every day without losing motivation.

 

[upandaway]

Out of curiosity I tried registering there, 15 minutes later I got an email for beta invitation :lol so I guess now's a good time or something.

 

[Necrovex]

I spoke to Shouta, and I am in the process of recreating the Asia Teaching Thread. This seems like the best place to ask my question. I am looking for anyone who has done Interac, Nova, Altia, Aeon, or any of the big ALT programs in Japan that isn't JET. I am looking for some insider feedback of people who enjoy/hated those programs when I make my section involving Japan.

And if anyone have anything they can add about China, Korea, or any of the other Asian nations for teaching abroad programs, I would love to hear it!

Just PM me any juicy stories. Time to go back to working on my Japanese listening, vocab and speech.

Edit: I have applied to Wanikani to work on my kanji.

 

[shanshan310]

I spoke to Shouta, and I am in the process of recreating the Asia Teaching Thread. This seems like the best place to ask my question. I am looking for anyone who has done Interac, Nova, Altia, Aeon, or any of the big ALT programs in Japan that isn't JET. I am looking for some insider feedback of people who enjoy/hated those programs when I make my section involving Japan.

And if anyone have anything they can add about China, Korea, or any of the other Asian nations for teaching abroad programs, I would love to hear it!

Just PM me any juicy stories. Time to go back to working on my Japanese listening, vocab and speech.

Edit: I have applied to Wanikani to work on my kanji.

For Korea, Talk and Epik are the two big government funded ones. I'm pretty sure Nova went bankrupt a while ago.

Good to see a new thread in the works though! That old one is really outdated. I don't know how much I can help since I only teach for an online eikaiwa, but I'm really enjoying working there. Students are friendly, and even if the pay ain't great it's fun work.

 

[I'm an expert]

I have about nine trillion stories over almost a decade of meeting English teachers from every island.. but no first hand experience unfortunately. I remember popping in that thread once in a while, but only recently discovered it was locked.. for some reason?

 

[Necrovex]

I have about nine trillion stories over almost a decade of meeting English teachers from every island.. but no first hand experience unfortunately. I remember popping in that thread once in a while, but only recently discovered it was locked.. for some reason?

I spoke to Shouta about why it was locked. The original plan was for it to be rebooted, but the person who was going to handle that simply disappeared. So, I am attempting to get it done as I research Asia regions. I'll probably write it up soon, as I gather a little more information about any Chinese abroad program.

If you have reviews from people, I'll certainly take those. I know people are always looking at the different eikaiwa, and I want to offer the pros and cons of each program.

For Korea, Talk and Epik are the two big government funded ones. I'm pretty sure Nova went bankrupt a while ago.

Good to see a new thread in the works though! That old one is really outdated. I don't know how much I can help since I only teach for an online eikaiwa, but I'm really enjoying working there. Students are friendly, and even if the pay ain't great it's fun work.

Thanks for the information involving Korea and Nova. I looked at Epik too, but I lack the necessary certification for that program.

 

[AngryMoth]

So I had the realisation a few weeks ago that if I kept going at my current intensity of studying then it would probably take like 10 years for me to become fluent. So, I have been stepping it up! Trying to do some immersion by listening to Japanese music/radio and watching Japanese films, switching my gadgets to Japanese mode, and I'm now writing on lang-8 everyday. I have also realised 2 years in that I should have bothered to learn about radicals from the get go so I've put my kanji practise on hold and am focusing on that for a bit. Also listening to japanesepod101 audio lessons which are really good. That site has really over zealous promotion which is annoying but it's pretty useful and has a huge library of lessons.

Couple of questions. Would people recommend learning the names of the radicals as well as the meanings? I've heard that knowing the readings for radicals can sometimes help you guess the reading of a new kanji, but honestly I seeing much of a pattern there so far. Also, how do people with bad eyesight cope with reading kanji? Mine is very bad but rarely is it a real obstacle. But when I am not able to zoom in on something, 12-15+ stroke kanji are basically unreadable for me a lot of the time, which can be very frustrating.

Edit: oh and I look forward to the asia teaching thread! I am planning to do it in japan once I finish my degree in a few years to so it will be very interesting for me

 

[Necrovex]

So I had the realisation a few weeks ago that if I kept going at my current intensity of studying then it would probably take like 10 years for me to become fluent. So, I have been stepping it up! Trying to do some immersion by listening to Japanese music/radio and watching Japanese films, switching my gadgets to Japanese mode, and I'm now writing on lang-8 everyday. I have also realised 2 years in that I should have bothered to learn about radicals from the get go so I've put my kanji practise on hold and am focusing on that for a bit. Also listening to japanesepod101 audio lessons which are really good. That site has really over zealous promotion which is annoying but it's pretty useful and has a huge library of lessons.

Couple of questions. Would people recommend learning the names of the radicals as well as the meanings? I've heard that knowing the readings for radicals can sometimes help you guess the reading of a new kanji, but honestly I seeing much of a pattern there so far. Also, how do people with bad eyesight cope with reading kanji? Mine is very bad but rarely is it a real obstacle. But when I am not able to zoom in on something, 12-15+ stroke kanji are basically unreadable for me a lot of the time, which can be very frustrating.

Edit: oh and I look forward to the asia teaching thread! I am planning to do it in japan once I finish my degree in a few years to so it will be very interesting for me

What exactly are radicals? When I took Japanese I/II last year, my sensei never said anything about them. I only found out about them because of the site listed in few posts above.

I am aiming to complete my JET application (like statement and getting my letter of recommendation taken care of) before starting to work on the teaching thread. Being super anal about one project is all I want to deal with right now! The teaching thread will be my next pet project when I take care of this application. As of now, I'm just enjoying some good ol' Japanese literature.

I plan to play Pokemon Y in Japanese. My friends keep telling me to play the series again (I stopped at Ruby), and I discovered this would be the ideal way to continue my Japanese studies, and actually play Pokemon again.

 

[Zoe]

Today I learned ググる

Spoiler

to google

is now a word.

What exactly are radicals? When I took Japanese I/II last year, my sensei never said anything about them. I only found out about them because of the site listed in few posts above.

They're the building blocks of kanji. Sometimes they can tell you how to pronounce a word or part of the meaning. You can see the radicals here.

Beginners' classes tend to teach kanji by related vocab sets, so it's not surprising to not learn them explicitly in your first year.

 

[I'm an expert]

If you have reviews from people, I'll certainly take those. I know people are always looking at the different eikaiwa, and I want to offer the pros and cons of each program.

I suppose I technically do have reviews and insight to what a lot of these people went through on their day to day, but I'm not sure how much I can devote to actually typing that stuff up. I spent time in upper Honshu, Kansai, and Shikoku so I came across a wide variety of English teachers. I actually realized just now that I probably know more about the Japanese side of things (Japanese teachers teaching English) as I dated a supervisor at Geos when it still existed, but I'm not sure it's pertinent at all to the thread.

I'll say the makeup in general was a ton of privates (Aeon/Geos/Nova) from Tokyo to the north, Kansai really saw a shift towards Interac in the last few years (foreign and Japanese teachers), and Shikoku was mainly JET. Younger schools like Kinder Kids are also popular nowadays, a lot of my friends work there in Osaka. There are also private international schools that hire foreigners.

 

[shanshan310]

They're the building blocks of kanji. Sometimes they can tell you how to pronounce a word or part of the meaning. You can see the radicals here.

Beginners' classes tend to teach kanji by related vocab sets, so it's not surprising to not learn them explicitly in your first year.

It's kinda silly though. My kanji writing was appalling when I started learning (in class) since I had no idea what I was doing. I used to write 行 as a box with a little hat, because that's what it looked like to the untrained eye. It's so much easier to write and learn once you figure out what radicals are and how they piece together.

 

[Zoe]

It's kinda silly though. My kanji writing was appalling when I started learning (in class) since I had no idea what I was doing. I used to write 行 as a box with a little hat, because that's what it looked like to the untrained eye. It's so much easier to write and learn once you figure out what radicals are and how they piece together.

I don't think that should really be a problem as long as proper stroke order was emphasized... my teachers definitely docked you for things like that.

 

[shanshan310]

I don't think that should really be a problem as long as proper stroke order was emphasized... my teachers definitely docked you for things like that.

Yeah, mine didn't teach stroke order or anything :/ Just "here, do these worksheets". I had to sort that out pretty fast when I got higher up and they started marking you on it.

 

[John Rabbit]

so i'm doing some homework, and it's an exercise talking about the weather where you live.

the question is: よく曇りますか。

how would i answer "No, it is not often cloudy." i don't have to use an adverb, but i started thinking how i would write this, and we haven't learned "not often" yet. would いいえ、あまり曇りません。be correct?

anyone? bumping.



also, we're studying the んだ / んです form, and i'm having some trouble understanding it's context. for example:

どうしてレストランで朝ごはんを食べるんですか。
りょうりがきらいなんです。

Why do you eat breakfast at a restaurant?
I hate cooking.

The way the book explains it, the asker suspects there is a reason for this person eating breakfast at a restaurant. (I think, it goes into a lot about understanding a persons intentions) Or is it more simple that this form is used when asking why? (どうし/な&#12380

this example is also kind of weird to me:
昨日、たくさんかいものをするですか。
ええ、安かったんです。

Did you do a lot of shopping yesterday?
Yes, [everything I bought] was cheap. (Is this a correct translation?)

 

[Tenck]

Yeah, mine didn't teach stroke order or anything :/ Just "here, do these worksheets". I had to sort that out pretty fast when I got higher up and they started marking you on it.

Talk about lazy teaching. I've been all over the place when it comes to Asian languages. I've been going through Kanji, Traditional Hanzi, and Simplified Hanzi. What I've realized is that stroke order is definitely important. It makes your characters come out much more clean. I've seen some people's characters and it looks like crazy chicken scratch all over a paper. Number one reason for that is because they don't follow stroke order.

It's really not that difficult to follow stroke orders too. The sooner you learn, the better. And if you write out your kanji a bunch of times when studying them, muscle memory works wonders when trying to recall them.

Edit: Since we're on this subject anyways, I wish WaniKani taught stroke orders (which is why I mostly stick to Heisig books)
I know some people on the forums say that it's not that important of a feature to implement, and some even link to Koichi's blog post on how to guess the stroke order. Such rubbish.

 

[shanshan310]

anyone? bumping.

Yeah, that's correct.

also, we're studying the んだ / んです form, and i'm having some trouble understanding it's context. for example:

どうしてレストランで朝ごはんを食べるんですか。
りょうりがきらいなんです。

Why do you eat breakfast at a restaurant?
I hate cooking.

The way the book explains it, the asker suspects there is a reason for this person eating breakfast at a restaurant. (I think, it goes into a lot about understanding a persons intentions) Or is it more simple that this form is used when asking why? (どうし/な&#12380

this example is also kind of weird to me:
昨日、たくさんかいものをするですか。
ええ、安かったんです。

Did you do a lot of shopping yesterday?
Yes, [everything I bought] was cheap. (Is this a correct translation?)

It's a stronger way of asking for further information, and generally implies surprise, suspicion or curiosity. You don't even need you use it for "why" questions. It can also be used to introduce a new topic, especially when you're about to request something. Eg. テレビをみたいんですが...

As for んです, it's used to elaborate on or explain the answer. So in the case of the example, the speaker hasn't just said "yes I did a lot of shopping", but also expanded on it. You can't just use it to state facts though.

 

[Fugu]

These terms have been coming up in the news lately and I'm really having trouble distinguishing them. Can someone contrast 華人 and 華僑 for me? I am pretty sure my definition is "correct" but it is lacking at least a little bit of nuance.

 

[I'm an expert]

These terms have been coming up in the news lately and I'm really having trouble distinguishing them. Can someone contrast 華人 and 華僑 for me? I am pretty sure my definition is "correct" but it is lacking at least a little bit of nuance.

The main distinction between them is the citizenship the people being referenced to hold. 華人 holding non-Chinese citizenship, while 華僑 still holding on to their native Chinese citizenship. In Japan, they're referenced either way depending on whether they have obtained Japanese citizenship, but there are special cases where they're interchangeable due to the family's history (usually having to do with how they immigrated to Japan, such as during WW2).

 

[Fugu]

The main distinction between them is the citizenship the people being referenced to hold. 華人 holding non-Chinese citizenship, while 華僑 still holding on to their native Chinese citizenship. In Japan, they're referenced either way depending on whether they have obtained Japanese citizenship, but there are special cases where they're interchangeable due to the family's history (usually having to do with how they immigrated to Japan, such as during WW2).

This is the part that I do not understand. Would you mind elaborating?

 

[I'm an expert]

This is the part that I do not understand. Would you mind elaborating?

Well I can't give a giant history lesson on Chinese immigration, but remember during and after WW2 there were many Chinese coming over to fill in labor shortages, boost the economy, and also coming as spouses/family of Japanese who had been stuck in China during the war. Basically, those older immigrants are seen as now being an ethnic minority were they to return to their home countries, and have a tie to Japan in a way their descendants wouldn't. You can read more here http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/華僑

edit: Actually this will explain it better: http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/在日中国人