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The Big Ass Superior Thread of Learning Japanese
- Thread starter RevenantKioku
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Okay, so here's hoping someone awesome can help me out with this seemingly very specific term. I'm translating a ton of stuff related to concrete right now for a job, and I've run into the phrase "前置き" several times. And it's important to what I'm doing right now. Contextually it seems to be a time where the cement is left to breath (which, BTW, is subcaptioned as 浮水, which I can't find a great definition for either, but since I know it's letting the cement breath I'm not sure it matters). It's blatantly a part of the process. The kanji are obvious enough, and I've got the idea of what it is, but I can't peg the technical term, and all that's coming up is literary definitions. My best attempt right now is "setting phase" or something to that effect, but I'm not much of a concrete expert so I'd really love to be able to be more precise/accurate.
So yeah, if anyone has knowledge that could help me out, that'd be awesome. I may also have a few other things later. Darn technical terms are hard to wrangle, though.
So yeah, if anyone has knowledge that could help me out, that'd be awesome. I may also have a few other things later. Darn technical terms are hard to wrangle, though.
Lord Ghirahim
Member
I'm no expert, but I think 「前置時間」 is "delay time" or "delay period". 「浮水」 seems to be "bleeding" or "bled water".
Ooh, delay period could work. And yeah, it seems to be something related to something like that, but I'm pretty sure the idea of "breathing" concrete is to let out air, not water. Either way, I think breathing is the more normal term in English anyway and it was probably just added to make it easier for Japanese readers, so I feel safe not using it in my translation.
Thanks a lot though! So ready to be done with this. I've been staring at a billion concrete related terms for the past day or so.
Edit: And done. At least it's out of my hands now!
According to the Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar, となる is more formal, only used written and can't be used with Na-adjectives.
Yup, can confirm this. Well, the formal part, at least, not sure about na-adjectives.
Speaking of subtle differences, what is the difference between さえ and すら?
Lol never seen すら
Oh, that makes a lot of sense.
留学することとなりました。Something like that would work with 'to'?
I had to write an essay to my exchange university last week. Would've nice to make it more formal without resorting to Keigo.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
There is definitely some overlap, but I'm pretty sure すら is not used outside of negative expressions, while さえ can be used in affirmative or even hypothetical expressions.
I've used the orange 中級 book with a teacher but for self-study I am not sure if any of those 3 books are all that great. If you've finished the two 初級 Minna no Nihongo books and you liked those then consider the 中級 Minna no Nihongo book series which go up to N2 level. I like that they explain the grammar in non-broken English and they have some decent reading comprehension and listening exercises.
LeroyPantwether
Member
what is a good kanji look up app on ios ( ie ; searches can be performed based on touch scrren kanji input). I was using an app called Japanese for the longest time, but ios 7.1 broke the search functionality
Get imi wa. Really good app that's still supported and has tons of info in a very clean layout. Doesn't support handwritten input I think but for that I always use the "chinese handwritten input" keyboard on my IPhone/iPad. Just install it in settings, switch keyboards in the search bar and you can draw the kanji you want to look up!
CornBurrito
Member
How would I say "nobody bought umbrellas" in Japanese
誰も傘を買いませんでした?
誰も傘を買いませんでした?
LeroyPantwether
Member
mind blown, wow thanks
CornBurrito
Member
I am still a bit confused by も. In class we were taught to use it when two items shared a quality. But what if I wanted to say "summers are too hot and winters are too cold"? Could I do it like this:
夏は暑すぎるです。冬もさむすぎるです。
夏は暑すぎるです。冬もさむすぎるです。
Brawly Likes to Brawl
Member
I think you would use soshite instead. も would only be appropriate for something that is also too hot.
そして冬は寒すぎるです。
CornBurrito
Member
Hmm thanks. Thinking about it more, could I also combine the sentences using the て form?
夏は暑すぎて冬は寒すぎる。?
And does that sentence need a desu?
Speaking of も, I was checking some lyrics, and saw this:
仰いだ青い空が青すぎて
戸惑いも忘れて
I don't understand how も is used here. I thought than since before this there was a sentence ending with 忘れた, it could be implying that "it" also forgot 戸惑い. But I'm not sure.
仰いだ青い空が青すぎて
戸惑いも忘れて
I don't understand how も is used here. I thought than since before this there was a sentence ending with 忘れた, it could be implying that "it" also forgot 戸惑い. But I'm not sure.
I'm not sure about that sentence but も is sometimes used to emphasise something.
That's a perfectly natural way of phrasing it, yes. You can't use です with すぎる, though, as it's a verb. To make that sentence polite, you'd say 夏は暑すぎて冬は寒すぎます。
Looking at the full lyrics, this one could really be taken either way. It would definitely make sense to interpret it as specifically calling back to the previous 瞬きを忘れた, so literally "I forgot to blink [...] I also forgot my uncertainty". But even if there wasn't a previous 忘れた, this section would make sense on its own, with the も functioning similar to the English "even", ie. "I forgot even my uncertainty".
As a quick translation of the full lyrics, I'd go for:
CornBurrito
Member
Thanks a bunch cnet
描く definitely has quite a few metaphorical uses, yes. 未来を描く in particular seems to be a pretty common phrase for poetically referring to one's vision for the future, and there's the compound verb 思い描く which specifically means "to imagine, envision".
I got business Japanese down pretty decently, but my vocab knowledge is complete crap!
I decided to pick up some novels in order to improve my vocab, and just for fun. Read the first few pages of Franny and Zooey (which I've read millions of times in English), and it looks like we've got about 3-5 words per page I don't know. Seems like a good amount! (I actually already owned it in Japanese, but I don't think my version was translated by Murakami.)
Shiokari Pass I'm a little more intimidated by. My colleague said she read it in junior high school, so I thought it couldn't be that hard! I'll prob give up and find an English version..
I decided to pick up some novels in order to improve my vocab, and just for fun. Read the first few pages of Franny and Zooey (which I've read millions of times in English), and it looks like we've got about 3-5 words per page I don't know. Seems like a good amount! (I actually already owned it in Japanese, but I don't think my version was translated by Murakami.)
Shiokari Pass I'm a little more intimidated by. My colleague said she read it in junior high school, so I thought it couldn't be that hard! I'll prob give up and find an English version..
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
I got business Japanese down pretty decently, but my vocab knowledge is complete crap!
I decided to pick up some novels in order to improve my vocab, and just for fun. Read the first few pages of Franny and Zooey (which I've read millions of times in English), and it looks like we've got about 3-5 words per page I don't know. Seems like a good amount! (I actually already owned it in Japanese, but I don't think my version was translated by Murakami.)
Shiokari Pass I'm a little more intimidated by. My colleague said she read it in junior high school, so I thought it couldn't be that hard! I'll prob give up and find an English version..
I recommend picking up a Kindle and registering a Japanese Amazon account to it. You can purchase books from the Japanese Kindle store using foreign credit cards. Any words you don't know? Just highlight and quickly get a definition from the the built-in dictionaries!
Thanks for the advice.
I'm worried that would be it "too easy" for me, and I wouldn't really internalize any words. When I read news with an app that gave me the English and reading for words I put my cursor over, it led to reading way too quickly.
I should get a kindle anyways though. However, I was in the book store at lunch and splurged on the two books. Read 10 pages of Franny and Zooey on my commute this morning and I can look through the history of dictionary on my phone tonight.
吐露 means to express one's mind or speak out! Never knew the onyomi of 吐 before!
they're totally different. Genki is your regular text book, covering vocabulary and grammar, while RTK is more of a tool for remembering Kanji.
CornBurrito
Member
Good luck!
I like Genki a lot personally. I can only remember one or two times where an explanation it offered left me a bit unsatisfied. But that's not a huge problem these days.
I've been learning Japanese for over a year now.
Here is my cycle:
2) Intensive study session!
3) Feeling great! New words, new phrases!
4) Let's watch something in Japanese!
5) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0g8bwYzMyU&list=UUnfROJcXVnALW7ZtIMMmTpw
6) Defeat.
Rinse and repeat.
Here is my cycle:
2) Intensive study session!
3) Feeling great! New words, new phrases!
4) Let's watch something in Japanese!
5) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0g8bwYzMyU&list=UUnfROJcXVnALW7ZtIMMmTpw
6) Defeat.
Rinse and repeat.
I'm writing a 作文 for school right now and I'm having trouble with connecting sentences. I want to conclude my text but I have no idea how to start that paragraph. Something similar to "To conclude..." or "To summarize". I've already used "つまり" once so if possible I'd like to avoid using that!
Also can you use "一方" as "on the other hand"? I use it at the beginning of another paragraph.
Thanks!
Also can you use "一方" as "on the other hand"? I use it at the beginning of another paragraph.
Thanks!
Not sure (bad at writing), but how about このような(blank)は.... or some form of まとめる, end something with 主張, or just use つまり again? I remember learning a similar word to つまり, but forgot what. Sorry I'm not much help.
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I'm about 60 pages into Franny and I'm loving it. While I found Murakami's original works really difficult (or at least his latest, the only one I've tried), this reads very very easy.
I wonder if he has a unique style while translating? I have another version I may glance over I see if it's different.
I've been looking at this thread every few weeks and I'm about to take the plunge on a load of books. I know NOTHING, literally nothing, so I'm sorry if some of my questions are outright dumb. I want to take some classes, but I really want to be at least familiar with what I'll be learning.
Aside from the books, I was hoping to play a bit of DQ Monsters and other child oriented RPGs to give me a goal to shoot for. I have heard that many japanese games intended for children mostly use Hiragana and Katakana, is this fairly accurate? Is it safe to assume most people learning Japanese as a secondary language start out with Hiragana/Katakana, or should I be studying Kanji at the same time? It's not a huge issue either way, I just don't want to overwhelm myself.
Aside from the books, I was hoping to play a bit of DQ Monsters and other child oriented RPGs to give me a goal to shoot for. I have heard that many japanese games intended for children mostly use Hiragana and Katakana, is this fairly accurate? Is it safe to assume most people learning Japanese as a secondary language start out with Hiragana/Katakana, or should I be studying Kanji at the same time? It's not a huge issue either way, I just don't want to overwhelm myself.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
I'd argue that you don't need what you think you need. Hard to say without seeing the text, but you shouldn't be worrying about how to translate "in conclusion" when you're writing in Japanese.
shanshan310
Member
Most kids games use hiragana only yeah
or at least, have that as an option. Get hiragana and katakana down pat before you start thinking about kanji - it can be a bit overwhelming.Good luck!
CornBurrito
Member
So my class just covered potential forms such as 泳げます and　食べられる.
Now following the rules we learned in class the negative conjugation for 見る would be 見られない. But I've definitely heard 見えない before. What's the difference between these two conjugations?
I'd say for sure to learn Hiragana/Katakana first. A lot of child geared stuff will sometimes use Kanji, but have Hiragana over it to show pronunciation.
Now following the rules we learned in class the negative conjugation for 見る would be 見られない. But I've definitely heard 見えない before. What's the difference between these two conjugations?
I'd say for sure to learn Hiragana/Katakana first. A lot of child geared stuff will sometimes use Kanji, but have Hiragana over it to show pronunciation.
Report: 58% Of Worlds Japanese Speakers White 23-Year-Old American Males
Thought you guys might appreciate this.
Thought you guys might appreciate this.
CornBurrito
Member
Heh.
I've somewhat been tempted to try and order something in Japanese at a sushi place, but I know that a lot of the time the workers/owners are Korean or Chinese rather than Japanese.
見えない is the negative of 見える
見る＝To see, 見える = To be seen
Most kids games use hiragana only yeah
Good luck!
Thanks a lot guys, I got a few books and ordered a JP 3DS with DQ Monsters
bigmit3737
Member
CornBurrito
Member
Ah thanks.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
I imagine it would as long as you sign in to your Japanese account during the setup/through the settings menu. I haven't used a Kindle Fire before, though.
CornBurrito
Member
Is there a difference between 行かないで and 行けないで？
bigmit3737
Member
Thanks. I have one but barely use it.I will check it out.
I don't have a Japanese account but I'm assuming I can create one even though I'm living in the US.
I don't think you can say 行けないで by itself. Perhaps if the で was being used as a connector in a larger sentence, but I don't think as a set phrase (and it's meaning would be very different from "don't go").
HisshouBuraiKen
Member
http://www.freem.ne.jp/win/game/6068
Everyone play this game. You can thank me later.
EDIT: Switch system locale for non-unicode programs to Japanese. Or use a VM, or applocale, or whatever works.
Anyways, the reason is that it's a quick, fun, smart little ARPG that manages to parody RPGs while simultaneously being a good one. The dialog is hilarious.
That was a quick phone post so I didn't feel like typing a lot but the premise is, you're the hero and the demon king locks the direction you face so that you can't turn up, left, or right. Which in an overhead world has implications for talking to people, opening treasure chests, attacking monsters, etc. It's small but the mechanic is used well and it has good map design.
Everyone play this game. You can thank me later.
EDIT: Switch system locale for non-unicode programs to Japanese. Or use a VM, or applocale, or whatever works.
Anyways, the reason is that it's a quick, fun, smart little ARPG that manages to parody RPGs while simultaneously being a good one. The dialog is hilarious.
That was a quick phone post so I didn't feel like typing a lot but the premise is, you're the hero and the demon king locks the direction you face so that you can't turn up, left, or right. Which in an overhead world has implications for talking to people, opening treasure chests, attacking monsters, etc. It's small but the mechanic is used well and it has good map design.
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