The Big Ass Superior Thread of Learning Japanese

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What does どんどんめしあがってください supposed to mean?

Please eat as much as you wish?

Also, what about おかげさんで?
 
anyone in here that can translate this for me, Bablefish is shit!

G大阪が豪州入り18時間ヘトヘト

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 ACLメルボルン戦に臨むG大阪は7日、敵地オーストラリア入りし、初練習を行った。関西空港からメルボルンへの直行便がないため、香港経由で約18時間をかけての大移動。日本代表の海外遠征で飛行機には慣れているはずのMF遠藤でさえ疲れた表情を浮かべた。現在G組首位チョンブリ(タイ)と勝ち点4で並び、得失点差で2位につける。DF山口は「アウェーの難しさは分かっている。最低勝ち点1」と話した。
 
HaloFans said:
What does どんどんめしあがってください supposed to mean?

Please eat as much as you wish?

Also, what about おかげさんで?

the first one means something like 'don't be shy, eat up', when people are fussing around the table and think it would be rude to start eating, etc.


okagesama de means 'because of you'. They say it a lot in japanese

ogenki desu ka?

ee, okage sama de.

Robertson, that looks like it's from a blog, and is kind of hard to understand. It sounds like it's from a K-1 blog or something similar. Some dudes going to Australia. Nothing really vital.
 
tnw said:
Robertson, that looks like it's from a blog, and is kind of hard to understand. It sounds like it's from a K-1 blog or something similar. Some dudes going to Australia. Nothing really vital.

it is quite vital :)
I need to know IF they are going to go to australia OR if they are already there :)
 
robertsan21 said:
it is quite vital :)
I need to know IF they are going to go to australia OR if they are already there :)

from the context it sounds like they're already there.
 
For some reason a conversation I had a few years ago popped into my head today.

Me: はい、少しだけ話せます
Guy: &#12358;&#12431;&#12353;&#12353;&#12353; <guy runs to adjoining room>&#12289;&#24444;&#22899;&#26085;&#26412;&#35486;&#12375;&#12419;&#12409;&#12425;&#12428;&#12427;&#12435;&#12384;!
Others: <chorus of &#12375;&#12419;&#12409;&#12425;&#12428;&#12427;>

It's right that I used &#35441;&#12379;&#12427;, isn't it? No matter how many times I play it in my head, it feels akward to use &#12375;&#12419;&#12409;&#12425;&#12428;&#12427; on myself.&#12288;
 
RK, how is that kanken thing going?

I picked up the second one, and trying to get to 100% completion of the training exercises is tough going. I am at 37% but I swear half the questions are the same (and the other half are half the same). Does it actually prevent you from continuing the training stuff after 100%?

I'm sure I can pass 10 and maybe 9 easily, but I'm going through all of the exercises to learn new vocab I didn't know, whether or not it's related to the kanji being tested.
 
has anyone really encountered problems with inflection/tones/accent/stess in Japanese?

I mean, some Japanese person was thinking:

"why does he want to walk on chopsticks, holding a bridge, eating rice, on the edge of a knife?"

It happened to me once and only once, and then the Japanese person I was talking to understood I what I meant by context (she knew I meant bridge and not chopsticks)

Also, I have noticed that there seems to be a slight "ya" sound in the middle of salmon susi, even though it isn't spelled as such.

This might be my biggest weakness with Japanese, the inflection of certain words...
 
pera pera isn't a verb.

you can say 'pera pera shaberu' for example.

sasimirobot said:
has anyone really encountered problems with inflection/tones/accent/stess in Japanese?

I mean, some Japanese person was thinking:

"why does he want to walk on chopsticks, holding a bridge, eating rice, on the edge of a knife?"

It happened to me once and only once, and then the Japanese person I was talking to understood I what I meant by context (she knew I meant bridge and not chopsticks)

Also, I have noticed that there seems to be a slight "ya" sound in the middle of salmon susi, even though it isn't spelled as such.

This might be my biggest weakness with Japanese, the inflection of certain words...

My biggest thing is with jukugo. you'll say something like 'toukan' intending to say, oh let's just say lighthouse (yes I know it's not lighthouse'. They'll give you this *head tilt* '????' look, and then say 'ah! TOUkan, ne?!' -_-
 
Askia47 said:
so if i wanted to say i can talk i should use Shaberu, instead of hanasu just because it sounds more advanced?

That wouldn't be very humble though...
 
I was wondering if:

&#12425;&#12426;&#12427;&#12431;&#12429;

Are pronounced with more of an L sound or more of an R sound? The romanji shows them as "R_", but then again no one here likes romanji.

For example, listen to them on this page (roll over the kana), is it accurate? I'm finding it somewhat difficult to duplicate the sound that the boy makes.
 
Did you mean &#12425;&#12426;&#12427;&#12428;&#12429;?

My suggestion... don't stress about the pseudo-L sound (it should be somewhere between an 'R' and an 'L'). If you can do it, that's great, but the sound doesn't exist in English and IMO trying to force it sounds worse than using a plain old (soft) 'R'.

You're more than likely to speak with an accent anyway until you're fully immersed in the language.
 
tnw said:
My biggest thing is with jukugo. you'll say something like 'toukan' intending to say, oh let's just say lighthouse (yes I know it's not lighthouse'. They'll give you this *head tilt* '????' look, and then say 'ah! TOUkan, ne?!' -_-

On that note: http://sp.cis.iwate-u.ac.jp/sp/lesson/j/doc/accentl.html

But yeah, it's a shame teachers always forget to teach "homophones" and their differences regarding intonation. More generally, it's a shame most teachers (at least here in France) think of accent as a secondary thing. Granted, you can make yourself clear even if your accent is really bad, but still, every language learner should strive for excellence :D.
 
Askia47 said:
so if i wanted to say i can talk i should use Shaberu, instead of hanasu just because it sounds more advanced?

it doesn't sound more advanced, it just sounds more natural in most cases.

not always though.
 
&#12375;&#12419;&#12409;&#12427; has a nuance of "just chatting", or "just talking for the sake of talking", whereas &#12399;&#12394;&#12377; has more of a nuance of "passing on a message", or "telling something to someone". In reality they are both pretty interchangable, but there are definitely situations where you would use one and not the other.
 
Zefah said:
&#12375;&#12419;&#12409;&#12427; has a nuance of "just chatting", or "just talking for the sake of talking", whereas &#12399;&#12394;&#12377; has more of a nuance of "passing on a message", or "telling something to someone". In reality they are both pretty interchangable, but there are definitely situations where you would use one and not the other.

Got it. Thanks.
 
tnw said:
the first one means something like 'don't be shy, eat up', when people are fussing around the table and think it would be rude to start eating, etc.


okagesama de means 'because of you'. They say it a lot in japanese

ogenki desu ka?

ee, okage sama de.

Robertson, that looks like it's from a blog, and is kind of hard to understand. It sounds like it's from a K-1 blog or something similar. Some dudes going to Australia. Nothing really vital.
Thanks. I already figured it out before you posted though again thanks for your help.
 
robertsan21 said:
anyone in here that can translate this for me, Bablefish is shit!

&#65319;&#22823;&#38442;&#12364;&#35946;&#24030;&#20837;&#12426;18&#26178;&#38291;&#12504;&#12488;&#12504;&#12488;

&#35352;&#20107;&#12434;&#21360;&#21047;&#12377;&#12427;

&#12288;&#65313;&#65315;&#65324;&#12513;&#12523;&#12508;&#12523;&#12531;&#25126;&#12395;&#33256;&#12416;&#65319;&#22823;&#38442;&#12399;&#65303;&#26085;&#12289;&#25973;&#22320;&#12458;&#12540;&#12473;&#12488;&#12521;&#12522;&#12450;&#20837;&#12426;&#12375;&#12289;&#21021;&#32244;&#32722;&#12434;&#34892;&#12387;&#12383;&#12290;&#38306;&#35199;&#31354;&#28207;&#12363;&#12425;&#12513;&#12523;&#12508;&#12523;&#12531;&#12408;&#12398;&#30452;&#34892;&#20415;&#12364;&#12394;&#12356;&#12383;&#12417;&#12289;&#39321;&#28207;&#32076;&#30001;&#12391;&#32004;&#65297;&#65304;&#26178;&#38291;&#12434;&#12363;&#12369;&#12390;&#12398;&#22823;&#31227;&#21205;&#12290;&#26085;&#26412;&#20195;&#34920;&#12398;&#28023;&#22806;&#36960;&#24449;&#12391;&#39131;&#34892;&#27231;&#12395;&#12399;&#24931;&#12428;&#12390;&#12356;&#12427;&#12399;&#12378;&#12398;&#65325;&#65318;&#36960;&#34276;&#12391;&#12373;&#12360;&#30130;&#12428;&#12383;&#34920;&#24773;&#12434;&#28014;&#12363;&#12409;&#12383;&#12290;&#29694;&#22312;&#65319;&#32068;&#39318;&#20301;&#12481;&#12519;&#12531;&#12502;&#12522;&#65288;&#12479;&#12452;&#65289;&#12392;&#21213;&#12385;&#28857;&#65300;&#12391;&#20006;&#12403;&#12289;&#24471;&#22833;&#28857;&#24046;&#12391;&#65298;&#20301;&#12395;&#12388;&#12369;&#12427;&#12290;&#65316;&#65318;&#23665;&#21475;&#12399;&#12300;&#12450;&#12454;&#12455;&#12540;&#12398;&#38627;&#12375;&#12373;&#12399;&#20998;&#12363;&#12387;&#12390;&#12356;&#12427;&#12290;&#26368;&#20302;&#21213;&#12385;&#28857;&#65297;&#12301;&#12392;&#35441;&#12375;&#12383;&#12290;

Gamba Osaka Enters Australia After an Exhausting 18 Hour Flight

Gamba Osaka arrived in Australia on the 7th for the AFC Champions League match in Melbourne and began their first practice. Because there are no direct flights from Kansai International Airport to Melbourne, Gamba Osaka had to transfer in Hong Kong. The grueling 18 hour flight seemed to take a toll even on midfielder Endo who, being a member of the Japanese National Team, should be used to flying long hours for overseas expeditions. Gamba Osaka is level on points with Chonburi (Thailand), the current lead of the G Group, but they rank 2nd place on goal difference. Defender Yamaguchi said, "I understand the difficulty of away matches, but I want to at least win with a 1 point lead."
 
It's funny, I know what &#21899;&#12427; means but I never think to use it. It's definitely not in any of my textbooks, and my professors never used it so I got in the habit of always using &#35441;&#12377;. Maybe I should try experimenting with using &#21899;&#12427; more.
 
Shouta said:
hillbilly.
Fuck, I have water all over my screen now. :( I hear &#12410;&#12425;&#12410;&#12425; all the time. And I live quite inaka. :(&#12288;:lol
YYZ said:
I was wondering if:
&#12425;&#12426;&#12427;&#12428;&#12429;
Are pronounced with more of an L sound or more of an R sound? The romanji shows them as "R_", but then again no one here likes romanji.
I don't know why but I sometimes get comments on how good my &#12425;&#12426;&#12427;&#12428;&#12429; pronunciation is. O_o
But I made a conscious effort years ago to make my tongue hit the back of my upper teeth when saying them. Saying it now, it seems I still do that. *shrug*

lupin23rd said:
RK, how is that kanken thing going?

I picked up the second one, and trying to get to 100% completion of the training exercises is tough going. I am at 37% but I swear half the questions are the same (and the other half are half the same). Does it actually prevent you from continuing the training stuff after 100%?

I'm sure I can pass 10 and maybe 9 easily, but I'm going through all of the exercises to learn new vocab I didn't know, whether or not it's related to the kanji being tested.
I haven't been using it much because it's frustrating me in that it does not make it easy to cover all the content. I have no idea why I'm only at 29% for level 10 having done every thing many times and mostly seeing repeats.
So yeah, there's something I clearly don't get about the software.
 
This is probably a stupid question but I'll ask it anyway.

Do japanese people use the horrid japanese windows default font? I started learning Japanese like 6 months ago and Kanjis (Heisig) a month ago. I do OK when they're written in a book because the strokes are well defined but complex kanjis look unreadable to me on a computer screen. Is there any way around it or is it just something you get better at as your knowledge of kanjis gets more exhaustive?
 
takotchi said:
It's funny, I know what &#21899;&#12427; means but I never think to use it. It's definitely not in any of my textbooks, and my professors never used it so I got in the habit of always using &#35441;&#12377;. Maybe I should try experimenting with using &#21899;&#12427; more.

yeah, stop it with the kanji henkan. I think I think I can count on one hand how many times I've seen the kanji for shaberu used. The hiragana is almost always used.

And I don't think perapera is a hilbilly word. I've heard it both in tokyo and in miyazaki and gunma.
 
Kildace said:
This is probably a stupid question but I'll ask it anyway.

Do japanese people use the horrid japanese windows default font? I started learning Japanese like 6 months ago and Kanjis (Heisig) a month ago. I do OK when they're written in a book because the strokes are well defined but complex kanjis look unreadable to me on a computer screen. Is there any way around it or is it just something you get better at as your knowledge of kanjis gets more exhaustive?

more than this I hate how the standard english font on Japanese MS Word isn't Times New Roman. It's Century I think, and it always looks so awkward and terrible.
 
tnw said:
more than this I hate how the standard english font on Japanese MS Word isn't Times New Roman. It's Century I think, and it always looks so awkward and terrible.

For some reason GAF default also make them appear in italics which is even uglier and more difficult to read. The only workaround I've found is copy/pasting stuff on word, removing italics and increasing the font size to 13. Hardly the handiest thing to do when you want to read a website.
 
RE: Ra-Ri-Ru-Re-Ro: Don't think of it as "rah-rih-ruh-reh-roh", which many English speakers naturally think (at least EVERY. SINGLE. PERSON. IN. MY. CLASSES.), but think of it more as a really fast r/d that kind of... rolls off the back of your incisors (top front teeth), but really fast. Practice saying it fast, but do it so your tongue kind of hits the back of your teeth, but just briefly... if you know what I mean. It's not terribly hard to get, but at the same time, it's not terribly important, as you'll still be understood even if you don't nail it. It's kind of like the French "R", but reversed.
 
okno said:
RE: Ra-Ri-Ru-Re-Ro: Don't think of it as "rah-rih-ruh-reh-roh", which many English speakers naturally think (at least EVERY. SINGLE. PERSON. IN. MY. CLASSES.)

Now that's interesting (because I'm not a native speaker of English, that is). Don't the professors correct them when they do so? Because they really should. If I'm not mistaken, what you said means that the students still tend to put the stress on some of the syllables, which they shouldn't, as there's no such thing as stress in the Japanese language. There's pitch, sure, but that's another thing altogether.

Obviously, you, okno, seem to be very well aware of that fact, but for the sake of helping the beginners in this thread, let it be restated that you shouldn't stress ANY syllable in ANY word in Japanese. For those who are French (like me) or learn it, the same rule applies. The closest thing to stressed syllables you can find in Japanese are the long syllables (ou / &#12362;&#12358;, ei / &#12360;&#12356;, etc.). But they're not stressed syllables per se, they're just longer.
 
Kilrogg said:
you shouldn't stress ANY syllable in ANY word in Japanese

It's distressing to listen to the Armed Forces Radio Network and hear them pronounce yokota as 'yuh KOH da'

Problem is, I used to listen to AFN so much that I kind of pronounce it that way now >_<
 
tnw said:
It's distressing to listen to the Armed Forces Radio Network and hear them pronounce yokota as 'yuh KOH da'

Problem is, I used to listen to AFN so much that I kind of pronounce it that way now >_<

What can I say: one of the only advantages we have as French speakers :D. We suck so much at English, yet Japanese is a cakewalk. Don't get me wrong though, there are plenty of French Japanese learners that have that atrocious French accent I can't stand. In fact, nearly everyone I know that learns Japanese has a poor accent. Mine could be better, but I'm doing my best. Anyway, at least, we don't pronounce the "t" like a "d" (see your "yuh KOH da" thing), and we don't stress a random syllable here and there.

By the way, every time I hear a Japanese voice actor voicing your average American character in an anime, I get the feeling that the syllables he stresses in Japanese aren't the ones you, as native speakers, would stress. Am I correct? For some reason, I find it funny.
 
tnw said:
It's distressing to listen to the Armed Forces Radio Network and hear them pronounce yokota as 'yuh KOH da'

Problem is, I used to listen to AFN so much that I kind of pronounce it that way now >_<
I saw Shutter 2008 last week and write a review of it. A snippet involving this Megumi being pronounced MeGUmi.)

Jane even sees fit to mispronounce Megumi’s name. Now this could be easily written off as cultural misunderstanding, but I’m not going to do that. Apparently the real-life actress that played Megumi and her onscreen character share a first name. Why did she not mention this to Rachel Taylor at some point during production? Couldn’t the Japanese director have said something?
 
Kilrogg said:
Now that's interesting (because I'm not a native speaker of English, that is). Don't the professors correct them when they do so? Because they really should.

Individually the teachers may correct people, but none of mine ever interrupted class to do that.

Obviously, you, okno, seem to be very well aware of that fact, but for the sake of helping the beginners in this thread, let it be restated that you shouldn't stress ANY syllable in ANY word in Japanese.

I think most people mistake tone for stress. That's something we didn't formally learn until the third year.
 
Kilrogg said:
By the way, every time I hear a Japanese voice actor voicing your average American character in an anime, I get the feeling that the syllables he stresses in Japanese aren't the ones you, as native speakers, would stress. Am I correct? For some reason, I find it funny.
In the anime called MAJOR, the main protagonist is playing baseball in America and the english voices are just laughable. They couldn't find a native English speaker in Japan to do the voices? It's not a big deal, but at the same time it doesn't seem like that hard of a thing to do correctly.



Oh and that lack of syllable stressing seems confusing and difficult since English pronunciation is based on stressing the proper syllables. I haven't learned to speak yet.
 
YYZ said:
Oh and that lack of syllable stressing seems confusing and difficult since English pronunciation is based on stressing the proper syllables. I haven't learned to speak yet.

It may seem confusing, but the next time you watch a JP movie or anime, pay a little more attention to the actors and how they speak. You'll notice it's not like in English where the words are very fragmented and have very clear beginnings and ends (English is a very harsh languages, in terms of dictation), but is more lilting and kind of runs together more. If you're familiar at all with French, it's kind of like that. The French speak with a very soft rhythm, and the Japanese do so similarly, but not quite the same as the French. Japanese tends to almost run together so a sentence almost sounds like a really long word. But even when they're angry, they don't stress the syllables at all, which definitely happens in English.

You'll pick up on it pretty quickly. Just remember that the syllables are all short and sweet, so it's like "ah!", "ee!", "oo!", "eh!", "oh!" almost (in reference to a,i,u,e,o), and not "aah", "eee", "ooh, "eeh", "oooh", knawmean?
 
Thanks for the tip, I'll listen more carefully.


Anyone know how I can practice/improve my kana recognition/writing on a daily basis without head-on repetition?
 
YYZ said:
In the anime called MAJOR, the main protagonist is playing baseball in America and the english voices are just laughable. They couldn't find a native English speaker in Japan to do the voices? It's not a big deal, but at the same time it doesn't seem like that hard of a thing to do correctly.

now you know I felt about the two 'japanese' guys in Heroes.

and yeah,I've always called Japanese the French of asia, partly for some of the reasons listed.

Japanese does run together. There's no space between words other than commas and periods.
 
tnw said:
Japanese does run together. There's no space between words other than commas and periods.

Their written and "spoken" punctuations (commas, especially) are weird though. For instance, when you quote someone, followed by, say, "to iimashita", which is like "he said "..."" in English, you often put the comma between "to" and the verb. That's usually how it works in literature.

You'd think you'd then have to pause between those two words, since there's a comma. That would be too logical apparently :p. When you pronounce that kind of sentences, you pause right after the quotation.

Written punctuation: "Daitôryô wa "..." to, iimashita."
Spoken punctuation: "Daitôryô wa "..." [pause] to iimashita."

Going by spoken Japanese, I find it quite difficult to guess where you should put a comma or not.

@okno: So you're familiar with French then. If you started prior to Japanese, I guess French helped you a great deal with this whole unstressed syllables thing, didn't it?

The one thing that still bothers me is the intonation (and tone, if it's any different). I generally know what the tone is for a regular question, but, reading a text out loud, I sometimes wonder how a Japanese would read it. The fact that my Japanese teacher (who is Japanese) is a woman doesn't help me at all. Unsurprisingly, women don't really speak like men, and I don't want to sound effeminate, so...
 
Don't worry, if you progress in your Japanese one day you'll have a friend who will sit you down and say "Okay, I'm going to help you sound less like a woman!"
 
RevenantKioku said:
Don't worry, if you progress in your Japanese one day you'll have a friend who will sit you down and say "Okay, I'm going to help you sound less like a woman!"

never really had that problem, because I didn't copy women when I was/am learning

and if you speak proper most the time, you don't sound like a woman... unlike what a lot of people claim
 
Kilrogg said:
Their written and "spoken" punctuations (commas, especially) are weird though. For instance, when you quote someone, followed by, say, "to iimashita", which is like "he said "..."" in English, you often put the comma between "to" and the verb. That's usually how it works in literature.

You'd think you'd then have to pause between those two words, since there's a comma. That would be too logical apparently :p. When you pronounce that kind of sentences, you pause right after the quotation.

Written punctuation: "Daitôryô wa "..." to, iimashita."
Spoken punctuation: "Daitôryô wa "..." [pause] to iimashita."
..

As far as I'm aware, you wouldn't use a comma there. True they do use commas in a slightly different way. It's usually to break the gigantic run on sentences. Like 'Financial conditions in the first quarter WA, (blah blah blah blah), they increased'.

and as for your spoken 'to' example, lots of people will just speak in sentence fragments, and use the post 'to' to just linger and wanter

'daitoryo wa yarimashita to.......iuuuuuuuuuuuuuu koto deeeeeesu no deeeeeee ma.' etc.

If you're worried about speaking like a woman, watch the news. I'm pretty sure she's not littering her speach with atashi, desu wa, and kashira (although only the first one is truly a feminine word)
 
Blackace said:
never really had that problem, because I didn't copy women when I was/am learning

and if you speak proper most the time, you don't sound like a woman... unlike what a lot of people claim
Well, I was not proper &#22899;&#12387;&#12413;&#12356; but not "manly" either, I guess.
 
tnw said:
As far as I'm aware, you wouldn't use a comma there. True they do use commas in a slightly different way. It's usually to break the gigantic run on sentences. Like 'Financial conditions in the first quarter WA, (blah blah blah blah), they increased'.

and as for your spoken 'to' example, lots of people will just speak in sentence fragments, and use the post 'to' to just linger and wanter

'daitoryo wa yarimashita to.......iuuuuuuuuuuuuuu koto deeeeeesu no deeeeeee ma.' etc.

If you're worried about speaking like a woman, watch the news. I'm pretty sure she's not littering her speach with atashi, desu wa, and kashira (although only the first one is truly a feminine word)

I have heard non-Japanese males use atashi... ugh...
 
Blackace said:
I have heard non-Japanese males use atashi... ugh...

and they weren't gay or anything?

I've only heard it, and only rarely like once, in nichome.

but the 'smart dudes' at my office say kashira when they're trying to sound intellegent. Of course the inflection is totally different than the obasan style kashira.
 
tnw said:
and they weren't gay or anything?

I've only heard it, and only rarely like once, in nichome.

but the 'smart dudes' at my office say kashira when they're trying to sound intellegent. Of course the inflection is totally different than the obasan style kashira.

no... they were trying to pull chicks with their Japanese skills.. (can't make these kind of stories up)

I use ore (I know you love it!) washi, and boring old watshi...
 
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