Japanese study group

[Danibellerika]

Yeah I think it's more like what Hydro said.  And if instead of saying "お母さんはセーターを送ってくれました" you say "お母さん(に or から)セーターを送ってもらいました" while it means "i received a sweater from my mother", the inflection is more along the lines of "I had my mom send a sweater to me as a favor".  

[SparkleSalad]

Hello! I have arrived to selfishly request tasty nuggets from your brains. 

 

My last Japanese class was about 4 years ago (holy crap) and I got up to N3 but now I'm all patchy and rusty and dreading going through all my old text books just to pick out the bits I forgot. Does anyone know a good site or an app for revising grammar up to this level with maybe interactive quizzes?

 

Maybe it would be more sensible to just speed through a basic travel podcast again so close to jumping on a plane to Japan time. Probably, right?

[YuU]

On 2017/8/22 at 午後2時37分, kaerbさんが言いました:

Hey guys - wondering if someone could check my translation from English into Japanese and also as a fun exercise for everyone LOL? (it's an unrelated-to-Yuzu topic but my Japanese is rusty AF so please feel free to tear it to pieces since I'm basically going off instinct when it comes to particles )

 

What I want to say: 'Every year, no matter the weather, this sakura tree blooms for us. The flowers on this tree are not the most beautiful, nor do they bloom the fastest, but I think the fact they steadily bloom one by one is still good/beautiful.'

 

Attempted JP translation: 毎年 どんな天気があってもこの桜は咲くってくれる。この桜木にある花は一番きれいな花ではなく早く咲く事もしないけど花は一つずつちゃんと咲くのはいいと思う。
 

Attempted JP translation (with 'furigana' after the kanji for new learners): 毎年 (まいとし) どんな天気（てんき）があってもこの桜（さくら）は咲 (さ)くってくれる。この桜木 (さくらき）にある花（はな）は一番（いちばん）きれいな花ではなく早く（はやく）咲く事（こと）もしないけど花は一つ（ひとつ）ずつちゃんと咲くのはいいと思う。

 

 

Key points of confusion:

• どんな天気があっても - I think this doesn't quite convey the nuance of 'no matter if the weather we get is good or bad' which is what I mean by 'no matter the weather'. Also, can we even use ある with 天気（てんき)? Or is it どんな天気でも?
• Does 桜 or 桜木 denote the entire tree (including flowers)?
• The entire "一番きれいな花ではなく早く咲く事もしてないけど"... it feels very strained (especially 咲く事) so would be eager to know if there's a more natural way of expressing the thought ; u ; 

It's a little bit later for the response, but I saw nobody has checked your translation, so I'd like to try to (Sorry for my english if I made mistakes).

・どんな天気があっても - I think this doesn't quite convey the nuance of 'no matter if the weather we get is good or bad' which is what I mean by 'no matter the weather'. Also, can we even use ある with 天気（てんき)? (→No) Or is it どんな天気でも?(→Yes)

→どんな天気でも or どんな天気であっても or 天気が良（よ）くても悪（わる）くても

・咲くってくれる→咲いてくれる

・Does 桜 or 桜木 denote the entire tree (including flowers)?（→Yes, but you can say both 桜or 桜の木、not 桜木）

　桜木→桜の木（さくらのき）or 桜

・一番きれいな花ではなく早く咲くこともしてないけど→一番きれいな花ではなく、早く咲くこともないけれど、

・ちゃんと→きちんと（ちゃんと is more colloquial and il doesn't fit here)

 

毎年 (まいとし) 天気（てんき）が良（よ）くても悪（わる）くても、この桜（さくら）は咲 (さ)いてくれる。この桜の木 (さくらのき）の花（はな）（or この桜の花）は、一番（いちばん）きれいな花では（orでも）なく、早く（はやく）咲く事（こと）もないけれど(or 早く咲くわけでもないけれど）、ひとつずつ（or 一輪（いちりん）ずつ）きちんと咲くのは 素敵（すてき）な（or すばらしい）ことだと思う。  （I put 素敵or すばらしい as translation of beautiful /good but I couldn't really find a natural word in japanese. It's little bit exaggerate??) 。

日本語の勉強、がんばってください！

 

[SparkleSalad]

I just started using HelloTalk but I can't tell if people aren't correcting me because there's nothing to correct or if they're too polite (or maybe my mistakes are so hideous they can't be bothered!) Do any of you use it and have you found it to be helpful?

[Murieleirum]

5 hours ago, SparkleSalad said:

I just started using HelloTalk but I can't tell if people aren't correcting me because there's nothing to correct or if they're too polite (or maybe my mistakes are so hideous they can't be bothered!) Do any of you use it and have you found it to be helpful?

 

In language exchange chats, I always finish my sentences with tensaku wo oshietekudasai (sorry no Japanese keyboard on this pc) to encourage them to be strict with my Japanese xD But maybe they're not correcting you because your Japanese is fine! 

[SparkleSalad]

Just now, Murieleirum said:

 

In language exchange chats, I always finish my sentences with tensaku wo oshietekudasai (sorry no Japanese keyboard on this pc) to encourage them to be strict with my Japanese xD But maybe they're not correcting you because your Japanese is fine! 

 

Mayhaps it is! I haven’t used it in 4 years but somehow I’ve retained a lot more than I thought. Live chats, though. Fuggedaboudit!

[Danibellerika]

Yay! So my Japanese teacher recommends I go to the 300 level for the next classes. She thinks I'll get more out of it. I felt like I was a little advanced for the students in there but I hadn't had formal classes in so long so I decided to go with the flow.I skipped the current sessions because of my school schedule so this is nice. I bought those books anyway.    I had a lot of practice anyway. On the way back from ACI I ended up sitting next to a fellow Yuzuru fan who was from Sendai. We spoke in Japanese the entire time! 

[Hydroblade]

33 minutes ago, Danibellerika said:

Yay! So my Japanese teacher recommends I go to the 300 level for the next classes. She thinks I'll get more out of it. I felt like I was a little advanced for the students in there but I hadn't had formal classes in so long so I decided to go with the flow.I skipped the current sessions because of my school schedule so this is nice. I bought those books anyway.    I had a lot of practice anyway. On the way back from ACI I ended up sitting next to a fellow Yuzuru fan who was from Sendai. We spoke in Japanese the entire time! 

ACI was a wonderful experience too because of how much i was able to speak with the japanese fans  they kept asking me if i had lived in Japan because i was fluent. Plus i was able to ask a group of aunties behind me to hold the seats for me while i went for food haha, and excitedly commented on the changes in Yuzu's Seimei costume  I was surprised with myself, i didn't know i could speak that much  it motivated me to study even more   

(also wooow a fan from Sendai </3 jellyyyyyy </3) 

[Danibellerika]

10 minutes ago, Hydroblade said:

ACI was a wonderful experience too because of how much i was able to speak with the japanese fans  they kept asking me if i had lived in Japan because i was fluent. Plus i was able to ask a group of aunties behind me to hold the seats for me while i went for food haha, and excitedly commented on the changes in Yuzu's Seimei costume  I was surprised with myself, i didn't know i could speak that much  it motivated me to study even more   

(also wooow a fan from Sendai </3 jellyyyyyy </3) 

Yeah I made friends with many sitting near me. I was in NYC this weekend and met two from ACI for lunch! They want to work on their English more so it was a good exchange for all of us!  I remember being at bit shy at Worlds in Boston. But when Helsinki rolled around I got more confident chatting and by ACI I was a lot more comfortable.  We all speak the language of Yuzubers in our own way! I was also surprised by how much I could speak and how much I was picking up and understanding. But it's all good!   It encourages me to keep going. 

[kaeryth]

Just butting in... I'm not learning Japanese but saw this, thought of you guys,  and was wondering about it's accuracy

 

 

[Murieleirum]

3 hours ago, kaeryth said:

Just butting in... I'm not learning Japanese but saw this, thought of you guys,  and was wondering about it's accuracy

 

 

 

Hahahaha, congratulations, now you can speak as a Japanese first grader  So accurate it hurts! 

[Hydroblade]

4 hours ago, kaeryth said:

Just butting in... I'm not learning Japanese but saw this, thought of you guys,  and was wondering about it's accuracy

 

 

Does this mean my Japanese is legit jouzu now without speaking until uuh... February this year? I kept being asked if I had lived in Japan or if I was Japanese (poor auntie, she looked mortified when she realized her mistake). 

I don't care if I speak as well as a first grader (though I'd say mine is actually around third/fourth grade lmao) but communicating and not having them switch to English rather than see you struggling feels so nice 💔 

[Danibellerika]

On 10/15/2017 at 9:04 AM, kaeryth said:

Just butting in... I'm not learning Japanese but saw this, thought of you guys,  and was wondering about it's accuracy

 

 

 

I've been asked that before when I've been over there. And here too, asking if I've lived there. It does feel nice .  I may not be the most advanced, but I can say what I know really well with a good accent.  But really, over 20 years of watching anime, I SHOULD be able to get a halfway decent accent. 

[Hydroblade]

Today there was a shodo workshop at my school. The teacher asked us to think about a kanji or a word we wanted to write. And it went like this...

Teacher: "You thought of something?"

Me: "Hanyu!"

Teacher: "Hanyu... how do you write it?"

Me: "Uhh, hane and ikiru..." [awkwardly drawing on the air lmao]

Teacher: "Ooh... yeah, the last name... The skater, right?"

Me: "YES"

Teacher: "You like him?"

Me: "Yes!!!"

Teacher: "He's nice. He's good"

Here's my final attempt, not happy with the 羽 at all but it's the best i could do, boo...

[Murieleirum]

11 hours ago, Hydroblade said:

Today there was a shodo workshop at my school. The teacher asked us to think about a kanji or a word we wanted to write. And it went like this...

Teacher: "You thought of something?"

Me: "Hanyu!"

Teacher: "Hanyu... how do you write it?"

Me: "Uhh, hane and ikiru..." [awkwardly drawing on the air lmao]

Teacher: "Ooh... yeah, the last name... The skater, right?"

Me: "YES"

Teacher: "You like him?"

Me: "Yes!!!"

Teacher: "He's nice. He's good"

Here's my final attempt, not happy with the 羽 at all but it's the best i could do, boo...

 

きれいなあああああ！　I wanna do that too!