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[bigmit3737]

先日行われた東京マラソンでは、テロ警戒のために、手荷物検査やランニングポリスが導入されました。2020年東京オリンピック・パラリンピックを見据えて、大手電機メーカー各社は、防犯システムの開発に力を入れています。日本の最新技術に迫りました。



[本の最新技術に迫りました。] = We took a closer took at Japan's latest technology.

I'm having trouble translating the に迫りました。　Would the above translation be accurate?

For reference here is the article:

http://www.fnn-news.com/news/headlines/articles/CONN00287301.html

 

[stump sock]

I think your link is broken.

e: found it http://www.fnn-news.com/news/headlines/articles/CONN00287305.html

I'm not actually sure of the answer myself, but after doing some looking around, your interpretation seems pretty accurate? 迫る is to draw in or get closer to.

 

[upandaway]

Tobira is an intermediate text book that you would do after Genki. Between it and the Japan Times Intermediate book, I would say Tobira is better by miles and would recommend it. It is a bit more difficult to get started with than the Japan Times book though.

I have used KanjiBox for vocab for a while, but can't really say if it is representative or not of JLPT, as I haven't taken any tests. There is a detailed post about how the levels are determined:
http://kanjibox.net/ios/blog/archives/2013/11/fixing-jlpt-lists/#more-341

From my experience, I have run into a ton of words that are higher up in the CORE list that aren't in KanjiBox at all, and that the dictionary used by KB intentionally leaves out some "common" words in EDICT to keep the size of the dictionary small.

Hmm alright, thanks. I guess I should look at Genki before then, hope I can use that sort of thing, I usually just read stuff.

 

[Jazz-ism]

RisuPress owner has been streaming Japanese game tranlastion sessions and they have been pretty interesting/entertaining study supplements. Lots of obscure vocab and interesting grammar examples. check out the 聖剣伝説3 Run and the Mario RPG run. Good stuff here

聖剣伝説3


Mario RPG

 

[Deleted member 17706]

先日行われた東京マラソンでは、テロ警戒のために、手荷物検査やランニングポリスが導入されました。2020年東京オリンピック・パラリンピックを見据えて、大手電機メーカー各社は、防犯システムの開発に力を入れています。日本の最新技術に迫りました。



[本の最新技術に迫りました。] = We took a closer took at Japan's latest technology.

I'm having trouble translating the に迫りました。　Would the above translation be accurate?

For reference here is the article:

http://www.fnn-news.com/news/headlines/articles/CONN00287301.html

You got it right.

 

[stump sock]

RisuPress owner has been streaming Japanese game tranlastion sessions and they have been pretty interesting/entertaining study supplements. Lots of obscure vocab and interesting grammar examples. check out the 聖剣伝説3 Run and the Mario RPG run. Good stuff here

聖剣伝説3


Mario RPG

this is awesome!

 

[Kilrogg]

I had a quick look on the internet, but to no avail so far:

Do you guys know Japanese podcasts focus on listening comprehension for people with an intermediate-advanced level?

I can find podcasts for learners and podcasts for native speakers, but there doesn't seem to be anything worthwhile in between. Ideally, I'm looking for something where real Japanese people speak the way they would normally do, only slightly slower and/or with frequent word explanations and translations.

Podcast for learners bore me to tears because they're too slow and I know 99% of the content, but I don't get much out of real Japanese podcasts because they're just too fast-paced with too many words I don't know. On top of that they obviously deal with Japanese issues, which I may not be aware of since I don't live in Japan and I'm not Japanese. This makes the content harder to understand.

助けて、GAFのみなさん！

 

[Inquisitive_Ghost]

I had a quick look on the internet, but to no avail so far:

Do you guys know Japanese podcasts focus on listening comprehension for people with an intermediate-advanced level?

I can find podcasts for learners and podcasts for native speakers, but there doesn't seem to be anything worthwhile in between. Ideally, I'm looking for something where real Japanese people speak the way they would normally do, only slightly slower and/or with frequent word explanations and translations.

Podcast for learners bore me to tears because they're too slow and I know 99% of the content, but I don't get much out of real Japanese podcasts because they're just too fast-paced with too many words I don't know. On top of that they obviously deal with Japanese issues, which I may not be aware of since I don't live in Japan and I'm not Japanese. This makes the content harder to understand.

助けて、GAFのみなさん！

Can I get a link to this? Listening is far and away my worst skill and I can find fuck all for practicing it. Ideally I'd like Japanese television with Japanese subtitles, but I'll take a podcast at this point. Unless what you were talking about was really, really intro level, because then it won't help me.

 

[Kilrogg]

Can I get a link to this? Listening is far and away my worst skill and I can find fuck all for practicing it. Ideally I'd like Japanese television with Japanese subtitles, but I'll take a podcast at this point. Unless what you were talking about was really, really intro level, because then it won't help me.

Can't remember many off the top of my head since I don't have any interest in them, but you've got the Japanese101 podcast series I think. But then, I don't know your level. I believe they've got many episodes, so hopefully you'll find something for you.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

I had a quick look on the internet, but to no avail so far:

Do you guys know Japanese podcasts focus on listening comprehension for people with an intermediate-advanced level?

I can find podcasts for learners and podcasts for native speakers, but there doesn't seem to be anything worthwhile in between. Ideally, I'm looking for something where real Japanese people speak the way they would normally do, only slightly slower and/or with frequent word explanations and translations.

Podcast for learners bore me to tears because they're too slow and I know 99% of the content, but I don't get much out of real Japanese podcasts because they're just too fast-paced with too many words I don't know. On top of that they obviously deal with Japanese issues, which I may not be aware of since I don't live in Japan and I'm not Japanese. This makes the content harder to understand.

助けて、GAFのみなさん！

I don't think anything like this really exists. Seems like the audience would be tiny.

I have trouble finding interesting podcasts for native speakers, honestly. The podcast scene in Japan seems really poor as far as I can tell. Lots of terrible audio quality and sound balance, non-stop background music (wtf?), people using voice distortion stuff to mask their real voices (no one gives a shit, guys), etc. I really just end up listening to NHK news broadcasts.

 

[stump sock]

non-stop background music (wtf?),

I've noticed that too. anything that isn't news seems to do this.

 

[Kilrogg]

I don't think anything like this really exists. Seems like the audience would be tiny.

I have trouble finding interesting podcasts for native speakers, honestly. The podcast scene in Japan seems really poor as far as I can tell. Lots of terrible audio quality and sound balance, non-stop background music (wtf?), people using voice distortion stuff to mask their real voices (no one gives a shit, guys), etc. I really just end up listening to NHK news broadcasts.

Really? Even the stuff that's on iTunes?

 

[Brazil]

Hm, wow. This thread is huge.

I read through the OP and some other pages but couldn't find any info on this, so...

What are some good hiragana/katakana memorization apps? I'm willing to shell out some money for them if needed.

 

[Zoe]

Hm, wow. This thread is huge.

I read through the OP and some other pages but couldn't find any info on this, so...

What are some good hiragana/katakana memorization apps? I'm willing to shell out some money for them if needed.

You don't need an app for that. If you were taking a university course, you would be expected to read and write within the first week.

Google Image Search for a chart with the stroke order and break out the good ol' pen and paper.

 

[stump sock]

You don't need an app for that. If you were taking a university course, you would be expected to read and write within the first week.

Google Image Search for a chart with the stroke order and break out the good ol' pen and paper.

you don't need an app but you can also learn however you want to

http://www.drmoku.com/

it doesn't teach you modified kana like フィ or しゅ though, just the major kana. the mnemonics are pretty good though

http://kanjibox.net/

kanjibox will teach you kana too but it doesn't have any clever learning methods

 

[Brazil]

You don't need an app for that. If you were taking a university course, you would be expected to read and write within the first week.

Google Image Search for a chart with the stroke order and break out the good ol' pen and paper.

I'm not, though.

I'll take any help I can get.

 

[TheSporkWithin]

Can't remember many off the top of my head since I don't have any interest in them, but you've got the Japanese101 podcast series I think. But then, I don't know your level. I believe they've got many episodes, so hopefully you'll find something for you.

You might want to try Bilingual News. You may not find it interesting, but it sounds like it's targeted close to where you are. I'm not quite there yet, myself.

What are some good hiragana/katakana memorization apps? I'm willing to shell out some money for them if needed.

KanjiBox plus the KanaDraw addon is probably the best way, and the app will be very useful once you move on to kanji study as well. Really, you just need to practice practice practice. Put the time in and you'll get there.

 

[Pixeluh]

What's the structure of these books like? I'm about to wrap up Tobira and I'm not exactly ready to jump into another text book, I do see these discussed a lot so they have been on my radar.

Are they mostly just lists of vocab/grammar points to prepare you for a given JLPT test or are there readings or dialogs of reasonable length and depth? I would probably be looking at N3 or N2 level.

Sorry for quoting this so late, just found this thread! Did you have a hard time getting into Tobira? I have it on my shelf but it's SO hard to get through. I think I might just up my vocab for a while before going back to it.

 

[muteki]

Sorry for quoting this so late, just found this thread! Did you have a hard time getting into Tobira? I have it on my shelf but it's SO hard to get through. I think I might just up my vocab for a while before going back to it.

Actually I did. I first started it after finishing Genki 2 and Tae Kim. Around then, I think I had about ~2k vocab and finished RTK1, but not much practical reading experience. I was able to struggle through Chapter 1's readings, but it felt like quite a difficulty spike.

I put it aside for a while, and went back and continued vocabulary up to 6k, did the Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese book (which starts off easier), and got some more reading practice. Also picked up the teacher's guide for Tobira.

Coming back after that helped a lot. I felt like I understood ~80% of the readings first-pass and nearly all the dialogs. And it was nice to have the answer key when I was uncertain.

I feel like the initial shock would have been less in a formal class setting, and most of my issues early on were related to just practical reading knowlege, something you can't get out of just the Japan Times books. All said and done though, as a text book I enjoyed Tobira, most of the content was relatively up-to-date and interesting. And there is a lot of stuff online that I haven't even looked into yet.

 

[Kilrogg]

I don't think anything like this really exists. Seems like the audience would be tiny.

I have trouble finding interesting podcasts for native speakers, honestly. The podcast scene in Japan seems really poor as far as I can tell. Lots of terrible audio quality and sound balance, non-stop background music (wtf?), people using voice distortion stuff to mask their real voices (no one gives a shit, guys), etc. I really just end up listening to NHK news broadcasts.

That's disappointing, but thanks.

You might want to try Bilingual News. You may not find it interesting, but it sounds like it's targeted close to where you are. I'm not quite there yet, myself.

Thanks! Yep, that's pretty close, I might give this a shot. The only thing I don't like is that the English-speaking guy speaks in a monotone and stumbles over words a lot when reading.

 

[Pixeluh]

Actually I did. I first started it after finishing Genki 2 and Tae Kim. Around then, I think I had about ~2k vocab and finished RTK1, but not much practical reading experience. I was able to struggle through Chapter 1's readings, but it felt like quite a difficulty spike.

I put it aside for a while, and went back and continued vocabulary up to 6k, did the Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese book (which starts off easier), and got some more reading practice. Also picked up the teacher's guide for Tobira.

Coming back after that helped a lot. I felt like I understood ~80% of the readings first-pass and nearly all the dialogs. And it was nice to have the answer key when I was uncertain.

I feel like the initial shock would have been less in a formal class setting, and most of my issues early on were related to just practical reading knowlege, something you can't get out of just the Japan Times books. All said and done though, as a text book I enjoyed Tobira, most of the content was relatively up-to-date and interesting. And there is a lot of stuff online that I haven't even looked into yet.

Alright! I have IATIJ on my shelf as well, so I guess I'll do that first! My vocabulary is actually terrible, I have a huge problem with avoiding flash cards... Some people do anki all day and I don't understand how they can.

 

[Fugu]

I'm not, though.

I'll take any help I can get.

At the risk of sounding dismissive I'm going to say that you're probably overestimating the challenge involved here. I learned hiragana and katakana between breaks at work in like, a week. If you actually focused on them you could probably get the two of them down in a few days. There are great apps for kanji that can be repurposed for kana (Anki comes to mind) but that would take more work than learning them the, er, manual way would.

 

[Kilrogg]

At the risk of sounding dismissive I'm going to say that you're probably overestimating the challenge involved here. I learned hiragana and katakana between breaks at work in like, a week. If you actually focused on them you could probably get the two of them down in a few days. There are great apps for kanji that can be repurposed for kana (Anki comes to mind) but that would take more work than learning them the, er, manual way would.

Gotta agree with you on that one.

It's really not that much of a challenge. Just download a sheet off the internet, with stroke orders, and you're set. If you really want something more tangible, you can probably find an exercise book, but that's almost overkill if you ask me.

 

[RangerBAD]

beta.jisho.org got an update. It now shows you the strokes individually with static images.

 

[Pixeluh]

I started using I know.jp, haha. I wish I would have gone to it sooner.. I had a really hard time doing the core decks on anki and I would avoid anki like the plague! (I was trying for 2 years.)

I know.jp is actually really refreshing and nice, even if it requires a subscription. Anyways, right now I'm plowing through Core 1k just to review everything I know so far.

Does anyone else use I know.jp? I know A LOT of people shun it because " the material is free on anki" but to each their own.

Anyways, hopefully I can stick with core this time! Maybe if I didn't diddle-dally everyday, I'd be able to read things better, huh.

 

[RangerBAD]

So when pronouncing つ you put your tongue up against the bottom/back of your front teeth and use a "su" sound, right? I need to make sure I'm doing it correctly.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

So when pronouncing つ you put your tongue up against the bottom/back of your front teeth and use a "su" sound, right? I need to make sure I'm doing it correctly.

I just really paid attention to it and I think I kind of bounce my tongue off of the roof of my mouth to make the "T" sound.

 

[TheSporkWithin]

Say "fruitsoup." The 'ts' in the middle should be pretty close to the Japanese つ.

 

[RangerBAD]

I guess I'm doing it right. I think I based it on some Tae Kim video I saw a few years ago.

 

[TheSporkWithin]

Yeah, I don't think つ is problematic for English speakers. Vietnamese people have a ton of trouble with it though. Maybe Korean and Chinese people as well?

More troublesome for English speakers are the らりるれろ sounds, and just the general flatness of all the vowels compared to English.

 

[RangerBAD]

Yeah, I don't think つ is problematic for English speakers. Vietnamese people have a ton of trouble with it though. Maybe Korean and Chinese people as well?

More troublesome for English speakers are the らりるれろ sounds, and just the general flatness of all the vowels compared to English.

Yeah, it's hard to make an r sound like an l and a r at the same time. It's almost like you have to stick out your tongue. Suffice it to say, I'm doing it more as an r.

 

[Inquisitive_Ghost]

Yeah, it's hard to make an r sound like an l and a r at the same time. It's almost like you have to stick out your tongue. Suffice it to say, I'm doing it more as an r.

Start making an "L" sound, but flick your tongue against the roof of your mouth instead of holding it in place. Don't push it against your teeth either; do it a little farther back if you need to.

 

[TheSporkWithin]

Yeah, it's hard to make an r sound like an l and a r at the same time. It's almost like you have to stick out your tongue. Suffice it to say, I'm doing it more as an r.

It's a very brief tap of the tongue against the ridge of your hard palate (maybe a centimeter behind your teeth), followed by the vowel sound. If you want to practice, practice the sounds as separate syllables with the tap leading the vowel, rather than practicing in the middle of a word, it'll help you judge the clarity of it more easily.

The closest English equivalent is the sound in the middle of "water" "butter" and "radish," but that sound is still a little bit "harder" than the "Japanese r." It's further complicated by the fact that all five of them are actually produced slightly differently and have slightly different tones.

Honestly you shouldn't sweat it too much - the fact that you're aware of it puts you in a good position. Just do your best and try to improve it over time.

 

[Kilrogg]

Yeah, it's hard to make an r sound like an l and a r at the same time. It's almost like you have to stick out your tongue. Suffice it to say, I'm doing it more as an r.

To elaborate on what TheSporkWithin said, it's best to think of the Japanese 'r' almost as a 'd', actually, not an 'l'. Have you never noticed that sometimes when listening to Japanese you're not sure if they're saying an 'r' or a 'd'? I know I have. No later than 2 days ago actually. That's because they're very close.

And the reason they're very close is tongue position. Do a 'd' consonant sound. Notice how the tip of your tongue touches the hard palate near the base of your teeth? Well, do the same thing now, except pull the tip of your tongue just a bit further back, and make sure it's realy the tip that touches the palate, not the flat of the tongue.

Now that you've got the position right, the final part is what's most different between 'd' and 'r'. Instead of forcefully blocking the airflow and narrowing the space between your two lips like you would do to pronounce a 'd', have the airflow push the tongue as soon as it hits it. Have no resistance in the tongue. That's the part that's a bit like pronounce an 'l'. If you pay attention, you'll notice that the tongue is softly pushed to the front and down when pronouncing an 'l'. Well, the same rule applies here. Only, you start from a different place inside the mouth (what I described in the paragraph above).

 

[RangerBAD]

To elaborate on what TheSporkWithin said, it's best to think of the Japanese 'r' almost as a 'd', actually, not an 'l'. Have you never noticed that sometimes when listening to Japanese you're not sure if they're saying an 'r' or a 'd'? I know I have. No later than 2 days ago actually. That's because they're very close.

And the reason they're very close is tongue position. Do a 'd' consonant sound. Notice how the tip of your tongue touches the hard palate near the base of your teeth? Well, do the same thing now, except pull the tip of your tongue just a bit further back, and make sure it's realy the tip that touches the palate, not the flat of the tongue.

Now that you've got the position right, the final part is what's most different between 'd' and 'r'. Instead of forcefully blocking the airflow and narrowing the space between your two lips like you would do to pronounce a 'd', have the airflow push the tongue as soon as it hits it. Have no resistance in the tongue. That's the part that's a bit like pronounce an 'l'. If you pay attention, you'll notice that the tongue is softly pushed to the front and down when pronouncing an 'l'. Well, the same rule applies here. Only, you start from a different place inside the mouth (what I described in the paragraph above).

My tongue comes down and kind of pops against my bottom lip.

 

[Aizo]

I used to live by a bakery, and I used to have trouble ordering the クレームブリュレ. Odd combination of sounds. I don't think the らりるれろ sounds are too hard, but I do think Japanese people often times don't understand me when there is a りゅ/りょ/りゃ sound—they just hear る/ろ/ら　then.

 

[Kilrogg]

My tongue comes down and kind of pops against my bottom lip.

Like, does it really touches your bottom lip, or does it briefly brush past it? Are you by any chance pushing to hard against your palate before uttering the sound? Because you shouldn't.

Unless I myself am doing it wrong, there's no reason why your tongue should touch your bottom lip in any way. In my case it hits the edge of my bottom teeth however.

[EDIT] クレームブリュレ? Holy crap that's a hard one!

 

[Aizo]

[EDIT] クレームブリュレ? Holy crap that's a hard one!

Definitely took me a few times haha

 

[RangerBAD]

Like, does it really touches your bottom lip, or does it briefly brush past it? Are you by any chance pushing to hard against your palate before uttering the sound? Because you shouldn't.

Unless I myself am doing it wrong, there's no reason why your tongue should touch your bottom lip in any way. In my case it hits the edge of my bottom teeth however.

[EDIT] クレームブリュレ? Holy crap that's a hard one!

Well, it was my tongue going back to its natural position. Don't really know if I'm doing it right now. Are liquid constants super important?

 

[TheSporkWithin]

Well, it was my tongue going back to its natural position. Don't really know if I'm doing it right now. Are liquid constants super important?

When speaking Japanese your tongue never goes past your teeth. It's always pulled back inside your mouth. That's why they have such a hard time with the English 'th' sound.

As to importance, it depends on your standards I guess. If you're having a ton of trouble then just move on for now and try to work on it again in a month or two when you've got more vocabulary practice. It might feel more natural by then.

 

[Splash Wave]

Basic-ass question!

If I'm pointing to pictures indicating my various family member, is this correct?

Chichi to haha to ani to ane to watashi desu.

Additionally, if I were to say:

I live in New York.
Watashi wa New York ni sundeimasu.

My family lives in California.
Kazoku wa California

^Would the above be correct?

 

[Jintor]

A classroom full of &#20108;&#24180;&#29983; laughed at me for mispronouncing katakana english today :<

it's katakana english! It's all loanwords, you dang youngins! &#12487;&#12452;&#12540;&#12499;&#12487;&#12452; or &#12487;&#12452;&#12540;&#12502;&#12452;&#12487;&#12452;, it's all wrong anyway!

*rages*

of course the point of the lesson was supposed to be it's okay to use katakana english if you're speaking japanese and you should pronounce english words the english way but try explaining that to &#12395;&#12397;&#12435;&#12379;&#12356;&#12290; "&#12394;&#12395;&#12381;&#12428;&#65311;" ffs

 

[Jintor]

Chichi to haha to ani to ane to watashi desu.

Dad and mum and big bro and big sis and me. Yeah, works out.

I live in New York.
Watashi wa New York ni sundeimasu.

yep.

My family lives in California.
Kazoku wa California

Nope - this is "my family is California". You want to say kazoku wa california ni sundeiimasu.

 

[Splash Wave]

Dad and mum and big bro and big sis and me. Yeah, works out.




yep.



Nope - this is "my family is California". You want to say kazoku wa california ni sundeiimasu.

Oops, I actually meant to add that. Much obliged!

 

[TheSporkWithin]

A classroom full of &#20108;&#24180;&#29983; laughed at me for mispronouncing katakana english today :<

it's katakana english! It's all loanwords, you dang youngins! &#12487;&#12452;&#12540;&#12499;&#12487;&#12452; or &#12487;&#12452;&#12540;&#12502;&#12452;&#12487;&#12452;, it's all wrong anyway!

*rages*

of course the point of the lesson was supposed to be it's okay to use katakana english if you're speaking japanese and you should pronounce english words the english way but try explaining that to &#12395;&#12397;&#12435;&#12379;&#12356;&#12290; "&#12394;&#12395;&#12381;&#12428;&#65311;" ffs

To type the small &#12451; (or other small characters) type 'x' followed by the normal input ('xi' for &#12451;, 'xtu' for &#12387;, etc.)

Yeah, I get all kinds of giggles when we teach words they "already know" like "stadium" or "radio" because I'm "saying it wrong."

You wanna really go down the rabbit hole you can start looking at loanwords that have taken completely different meanings, like "smart" "cunning" and "naive."

 

[Jintor]

To type the small &#12451; (or other small characters) type 'x' followed by the normal input ('xi' for &#12451;, 'xtu' for &#12387;, etc.)

Thanks sporky!

The class before that has taken to yelling out "I LIKE PUSHI" and "DO YOU LIKE... PUSHI" and, also, asking me what Pushi actually means because they don't actually know. I think I may have inadvertantly encouraged this by cracking the fuck up the first time they did this.

The teacher also doesn't know what it means and I don't intend to tell her

In other news I'm at 1710 kanji I've been exposed to... should probably lock it down at 2000 and just try and not have a daily anki grind of like 400 cards lol

 

[TheSporkWithin]

The class before that has taken to yelling out "I LIKE PUSHI" and "DO YOU LIKE... PUSHI" and, also, asking me what Pushi actually means because they don't actually know. I think I may have inadvertantly encouraged this by cracking the fuck up the first time they did this.

That sounds to me like they know. You might want to tell the teacher before it spreads to other classes.

 

[Jintor]

I mean, I told her that it was rude and they shouldn't say it. I just didn't get into specifics.

 

[stump sock]

Just reminds me of an old Japanese friend from high school that was obsessed with having us teach him dirty eigo words. I miss that dude.

 

[RangerBAD]

When speaking Japanese your tongue never goes past your teeth. It's always pulled back inside your mouth. That's why they have such a hard time with the English 'th' sound.

As to importance, it depends on your standards I guess. If you're having a ton of trouble then just move on for now and try to work on it again in a month or two when you've got more vocabulary practice. It might feel more natural by then.

I want to be able to do it. I don't know that I'll ever be able to go to Japan (I wish I could), but there are other ways to talk to Japanese people. I just feel like it's not sounding right when I do it. Also, I don't think my tongue was going past my lips. I think maybe I was going to slow, and actually might already being doing it right some of the time. Really hard without guidance and good examples.

Thanks sporky!

The class before that has taken to yelling out "I LIKE PUSHI" and "DO YOU LIKE... PUSHI" and, also, asking me what Pushi actually means because they don't actually know. I think I may have inadvertantly encouraged this by cracking the fuck up the first time they did this.

I'd have cracked up too. I did wonder how Japanese would react when suddenly say something in perfect English.