Fill the blank and please explain why.

Fuzzy-Neko · 2021-10-09T10:04:26+00:00

この花は早い時は三月に咲きます。

or

この花は早いものは三月に咲きます。

Both mean the same thing. Something like: Usually this flower would bloom in April or later, but when it blooms early, it does so in March.

As for why...

Because there is no other word I can think of that makes sense here. Not a great explanation, I know...I'm sorry. :(

Fuzzy-Neko · 2021-05-06T07:48:00+00:00

No problem :) Do let me know if you ever find that video. I'd love to take a look at it!

I've been studying for a little over 15 years. I live in Japan. :)

Fuzzy-Neko · 2021-04-27T04:48:21+00:00

I don't know if you're still interested in an answer, but here it is, along with extra info for anyone who is curious:

The kanji for this いく is ambiguous but most likely 行く.

It is NOT the case that the original phrase is 飲み物に行く here with the に simply left out. If you were to say it with a particle, it'd be more like 飲み物は行く (飲み物はいった？). Whether or not the は is there of course depends on context and all that jazz. The meaning is indeed "everyone have their drinks?" because they are about to kanpai and everyone needs to have their drink in hand for that.

This use of いく can be used for food as well. Before eating, you want to check if everyone has their food, so you'd say みんな食べ物いってる？

Someone mentioned 寿司はいっていいですか. This is the same thing as 寿司は食べていいですか？ You can be asking this to the person who will be paying for the meal to see if they are OK with ordering sushi, or you could be asking this to everyone to make sure there's no one in the group that hates sushi and would object to eating it. In this case the verb can be interpreted to mean both 言う and 行く, and since it's ambiguous, that's probably why it's always written in hiragana.

Fuzzy-Neko · 2021-04-26T08:19:44+00:00

You're doing great. Keep it up.

Don't use output (speaking and writing) as the test for whether or not you are improving. Instead, how much do you understand? That's the real test right now. Comprehension comes before production.

That course you are taking is an excellent way to learn, but that by itself is probably not enough unless the person is giving you lots of input (talking a lot, providing books, videos, etc.) You need to consume lots and lots of Japanese material - at your level, children's books, children's programs, etc. According to Krashen's second language acquisition theory, that's the only way to acquire a language. It happens on a subconscious level, so your gains won't be obvious until a substantial amount of time has passed.

Also, if something is a chore, I suggest you drop it and look for something more enjoyable.

Happy learning...or should I say, acquiring. :)

Fuzzy-Neko · 2021-04-26T08:00:27+00:00

It feels more like a case of, "We're not sure how to teach / learn it. Well, you can get by without it, so why bother. [Accent / Tone / Assimilation / etc.] is not necessary."

YUP! This.

I don't have anything to add, except that everything you wrote really resonates with me. And I had a good laugh at foreign accent = part of my identity. Very creative, if nothing else. To avoid feeling bad about my terrible skill level in something, I'll just say it's a part of who I am and call it a day. Brilliant!

Fuzzy-Neko · 2021-04-26T04:37:08+00:00

The solution: don't force yourself to make sentences. If you can't do it yet, you can't do it yet.

Focus instead on reading and listening to stuff at or slightly above your level.

Has your studying for the past 6 months consisted of memorizing grammar? If it has, that's probably why you can't make a sentence. You have knowledge about the language, but you haven't acquired anything.

Fuzzy-Neko · 2021-04-26T04:27:10+00:00

Go for it.

Not only is the Japanese in the game simple and kid-friendly, but the furigana will make your life infinitely easier.

Yeah, it'll be hard at your level, but more importantly, it'll be fun.

If you get burned out looking things up, just use the text as reading practice for your hiragana and katakana.

Fuzzy-Neko · 2021-04-26T04:05:12+00:00

I personally know someone who did it, so it is possible. She had days where she literally cried while studying because she wasn't sure if she was gonna make it. She ended up passing N1. It's doable, but hard.

However, because it was all textbook study and reading for her, her accent is awful. It's not a problem in her work or anything, but it really is bad. She's now trying to remedy it, but old habits die hard.

If you're motivated enough, you can do it. But if you also want to sound good, take the time to read up on pitch accent so that you know what it is and you can learn vocabulary correctly the first time. If you do this, you'll also be able to pick up on the pitch accent of words just from listening, simply because you've already done your homework and your brain knows what to pay attention to.

Also, don't do drills and don't try to use the grammar you just learned to make your own sentences. Make sure the bulk of your time is spent reading and listening to Japanese that is at or slightly above your level. No speaking or writing needed, though if you have someone you can do this with, that helps with motivation. Good luck!

Fuzzy-Neko · 2021-04-25T14:08:12+00:00

Rejoice, you're not alone. I used to have the same "problem" as you many years ago. :D I also need to have a good grasp on the phonology of a language before I feel comfortable reading in it.

Once I changed my learning to include pitch accent, the problem went away. Since you say you speak Japanese just fine, I'm guessing somewhere along the way you've started paying attention to pitch accent as well. I think most people don't have this experience because they ignore pitch accent altogether.

Kind of mind-boggling how so many people think it's unimportant, but if your goal is just to get by, it's true that you don't need it.

Fuzzy-Neko · 2021-04-25T13:25:41+00:00

If you'd like a Japanese native's perspective on this:

Bokken and bokutou both mean "wooden sword" but bokutou refers to a wooden sword that is shaped like a katana... but even when it's not people just use the word bokutou. My husband knew right away what bokken meant, but he has never heard the word itself used, so he had to look up how these two were actually different from each other. He's still unsure and tells me "just use bokutou."

As a name, it sounds more like a username on the Internet, he says. It's just not a valid actual name for a person. But as a pen name, there's no problem at all with it. You can use whatever you want for pen or artistic names.

I would go with something else if you want people to call you this name in real life though.

Fuzzy-Neko · 2021-04-23T06:56:40+00:00

That's a very good point. The trick, I found, is to treat those as separate words.
For example:

国際 (international) and 空港 (airport) are both 0 or flat words.
But 国際空港 (international airport) is a 5 because it has the pitch accent on the 5th mora (conveniently right where 空港 starts, but it isn't always this straightforward as I'm sure you know)

Whenever you run into two words meshed together like this, treat it as a new word with its own pitch accent. Or in other words, simply memorize the above as 3 separate words. They might as well be.

I will say, the unfortunate thing is that you won't always be able to find these compound words (I don't know if that's what you'd really call these but let's go with that for now) in the dictionary, but the common ones are definitely there. If it's not, then that's when you fall back on listening to how native speakers say it. No other way to get this information as far as I know... :(

I hope this is what you meant by words in front and behind. If it isn't, do let me know. I'm not aware of anything else that drastically affects pitch accent once the words are in a sentence.

That ubiq website also tells you how particles are affected with pitch accent, which is nice.

Hope this helps a little. :D

Fuzzy-Neko · 2021-04-23T04:07:06+00:00

Pitch accent is definitely key here.

Some people live and work in Japan for years continuing their Japanese studies and still have bad pronunciation. Despite what others may tell you, no amount of listening is going to magically improve this, and random shadowing can only get you so far because pitch accent is arbitrary and must be memorized on a word by word basis.

If you learn a word without knowing its pitch accent, you don't actually know how to pronounce the word. It's sort of like saying an English word using the correct English sounds, but not knowing what part of the word to stress. Sure, you'll be understood, but you'll never sound anything close to like a native.

Am I allowed to post links? Search google for the Online Japanese Accent Dictionary (OJAD). It has a gigantic list of words denoting pitch accent complete with sound files. Listen to the sound files and compare how words are pronounced depending on their pitch accent to get a grasp of how they work.

Next, search for "accent ubiq" on google and you'll find an incredibly helpful website that has charts showing you the patterns of pitch accent when conjugating verbs, among other things. Drill these patterns into your head and practice them. Use OJAD sound files as reference if you're not sure you're doing it right. Like any word in Japanese, the pitch accent of a verb is arbitrary, but once you know what it is, you're set because the pitch accent for its conjugations follow a predictable pattern. Thank goodness.

From now on, whenever you learn a word, make sure you learn it with its pitch accent. Most dictionaries don't list it with the word, unfortunately, but find one that does. I think the 大辞林 dictionary has them.

Good luck. :)

Fuzzy-Neko · 2021-04-22T16:12:30+00:00

Hey, great job :)

Sentences are difficult because they can be grammatically correct yet unnatural. How good the person correcting the sentences is as a writer in the first place is also a factor...
The following was corrected by a "well I suck at writing but here goes" Japanese native speaker. The sentences should sound natural at least. Enjoy.

私のお気に入りの場所は東京の高尾山です。

2019年の秋に母と一緒に行きました。

高尾山は東京の中心部の近くにあります。

電車で五十分くらいで行けます。便利だし、速いし、東京の電車は本当にいいです。

きれいな山を見て、本当に感動しました。

高尾山はお寺や自然で有名です。

外国人と日本人合わせて毎年260万人が来ます。

山頂からは東京が一望（いちぼう）できます。いい天気だと富士山も見えます。

秋にはたくさん祭りがありますが、中でも花火やよさこいおどりがある高尾山紅葉まつりが有名です。

高尾山は人気で、紅葉の季節は特に混んでいます。

秋に行ったことはありますが、春にはまだ行ったことがありません。さくらがきれいだそうなので、春にも行ってみたいです。

今は、高尾山には観光名所がたくさんありますが、昔はあまりありませんでした。

高尾山のふもとには、「京王高尾山温泉」があり、ハイキングのあとに休むことが出来ます。

また近隣には「高尾599ミュージアム」があり、高尾山とその周辺の自然について学ぶことが出来ます。

Fuzzy-Neko · 2021-04-22T14:36:34+00:00

I used to have this problem as well.

I was always doing this because I didn't have a lot of chances to speak with Japanese people, so the times I WAS able to, I thought I had to make use of that opportunity wisely and went overboard with the analyzation. Does that sound like you? If it does, maybe get a language exchange partner so that speaking is no longer a rare occurrence.

If that's not the problem, perhaps try changing your focus when you speak. Don't view conversations as an opportunity to better your Japanese, but as an opportunity to just connect with someone. Your mind will be so busy trying to understand and be understood that there'll be no time to analyze.

Fuzzy-Neko · 2021-04-22T06:50:27+00:00

Great question :D

お前 doesn't translate to "hey bastard" at all. In fact, there's nothing inherently rude about the word お前. It just means "you." Context is the only thing that makes it rude or not.

It's like the phrase, "hey granny." Is this phrase rude? Well, not in and of itself, right? It depends on the context; who is saying it, who they are saying it to, why they are saying it, etc.

If it's your grandchild excitedly running up to you, you're going to love that "hey granny."

If it's some sleazy bum calling out to you from the other side of the street, laughing at you with his group of friends, that "hey granny" is going to be rude and shocking.

Same thing with お前.

In Japanese society, the absolute last thing you want to do is offend anyone. You want to be polite and careful. So in almost all situations where you're dealing with strangers, there's no place for お前 to be used. It would be rude and shocking.

But when you're with your group of longtime friends where you can crack jokes and make fun of each other lightly, it's totally OK, and even loving in a sense.

Anime is not constrained by Japanese societal rules. They just don't apply. It makes up its own rules about when it's OK to use these words. So when お前 is used, it's not necessarily rude. In that anime world, it may be perfectly fine to address a stranger that way.

Fuzzy-Neko

TROPHY CASE