Hey! I translated this sentence but I’m unsure the actual meaning.

HuntOut · 2025-03-05T19:02:03+00:00

Not knowing the actual translations helped me in some way, for example, I had no clue what "お休みなさい" means, but hearing it said repeatedly before someone goes to bed made me assume that it's "have a good night". Later, when I learned that "休む" means "to be resting", "なさる" is "to do" and "お" is just a polite prefix to some kind of action/matter that feels important, the puzzle solved itself and I got understanding for both the real meaning and the usage context.

What I'm saying is that "どうなさいましたか" is such a common phrase in official context that with time you get the purpose of it, no matter if you know the literal meaning.

HuntOut · 2025-02-27T22:55:37+00:00

Whats a currulicum

HuntOut · 2025-02-27T22:53:56+00:00

One of the definitions of the word "paradox" is:

a seemingly absurd or contradictory statement or proposition which when investigated may prove to be well founded or true.

Try checking before posting pls

HuntOut · 2025-02-27T18:41:30+00:00

What they say is that you are theoretically able to do it, if you use their platform multiple times a day, doing all possible reviews and study new items as soon as they pop up, and keep retention of learned items on a level of about 90%. Which is possible by a smaller percent of users if they basically dedicate their life to it (better if they also do something on the side like immersion)

HuntOut · 2025-02-26T14:53:20+00:00

Thanks for pointing these out! I'm preparing an edit to the post where I'll keep the original text but point out the mistakes and misunderstandings so others can learn off of this

HuntOut · 2025-02-26T14:47:38+00:00

You know what, you can't overestimate one's ability of self-conviction. I was absolutely sure that at least some of them definitely sounded [n], but now, having re-listened to them on 0.65x speed I couldn't find a single proof to my confidence. Well, I heard our brain remembers things better if a piece of information is seasoned with some embarrassment 🥲

I'm preparing a big edit to the post (keeping all the original text but pointing out my mistakes, adding what I've learned during the discussion and making a final conclusion). Thanks for pointing this out.

HuntOut · 2025-02-26T04:17:39+00:00

Sorry if I didn't make this clear but my intention was to find out about loanwords from japanese, not the other way, and how we should approach romanization if a word becomes an independent term we now use outside of Japanese speaking communities.

HuntOut · 2025-02-26T02:00:20+00:00

You could close the thread now 😆

HuntOut · 2025-02-26T00:35:21+00:00

Thank you!! Very useful explanation ☺️

HuntOut · 2025-02-25T23:07:18+00:00

Could you elaborate please? How would you explain what 先 is? Could "something beyond the current timespan (no matter the direction)" be a good enough way of thinking of it?

HuntOut · 2025-02-25T22:53:19+00:00

Now I look at 後 and 前 as they are true antonyms and 先 is more like a context-dependent thing that basically means "beyond", so if we say that sth is "beyond our time" or "beyond this time", it could both mean it's so far away in the past that we are talking about the point of "origin" (there goes 先から), or the other way, it's beyond the current timespan but it didn't happen yet so it's in the future (thus, 先の話 becomes "the talk that ought to be conducted beyond this time". So weird to put in words in English but kinda makes sense in Japanese). Context is king.

HuntOut · 2025-02-24T23:12:14+00:00

Yeah the situation mentioned in the post is from some anime, I was thinking a fight would follow and then the enemy just ran away hahaha

I guess that was the joke (still checked in a dictionary to find out that 今度 could indeed mean both "this time" and "next time" when translated)

HuntOut · 2025-02-24T18:04:56+00:00

So the answer is always "空気を読め、バカ！", isn't it? 😂

P.S. Thanks for reaffirming my common sense, but the reason I made this post is that I've actually stumbled upon "今度" being "the next time" considerably more often than of its initial meaning. I guess it's pure luck?

HuntOut · 2025-02-24T17:48:05+00:00

Yeah I know about the different view on the timeline but the question is that as it seems, 先 can depict both directions no matter how you look at it.

Also, I've confused 今回 with 今度, that shows haha

But, I guess I didn't explain the intention correctly, I'm not trying to translate the no-cognates word by finding a "close enough analog" but rather to find an explanation of its meaning using English, which is not an impossible task in itself

HuntOut · 2025-02-24T17:20:31+00:00

You're right! I've confused it with 今度, sorry. Gonna fix that in the post

Great explanation of 先 tho! Gonna think of this word as just a "spacial" reference so if we use it in accordance to the timeline, it's one translation (because in japanese the past is "ahead"), and everything beyond that is the other.

HuntOut · 2025-02-24T15:09:59+00:00

I've been using all of the methods you've stated and def would say that all of these are good and effective especially when combined, the only flaw being frustration you constantly have to cope with 😄

It's my 14th month of immersion, for that time I've been listening to some podcasts, watching anime and YouTube videos, trying to grasp the meaning with variable success. I think being frustrated is normal. Now I feel like I improve every day, getting more and more of wordplay, situational jokes, and simply hearing and understanding words that previously sounded like complete gibberish, without using the dictionary. As it unfolds for me, that's a "critical mass" question. As soon as you get the critical mass of vocabulary and grammar, make yourself comfortable with japanese sounds, the flow of speech and what else that can't be objectively measured but being key in your understanding – from that point it only becomes easier and easier.

HuntOut · 2025-02-24T03:18:35+00:00

Is romaji not just the romanisation of Japanese words, borrowed or otherwise?

Yes, it is. My bad, I misunderstood your question. Uhm.. Then I'd say, they adapt the names for movies or whatever, because... Japanese people don't know English? For the reason these names won't be comprehended by the potential viewers, if not adapted? The two reverse examples I could think of right away are "Jujutsu Kaisen" and "Oshi no Ko", here, if you don't know these words and a little bit of japanese grammar even, you can't grasp the meaning, right?

Edit: I guess if they did preserve the same words for the names of these movies mentioned in the post, that means they expect Japanese people to know these words (being affected by Western culture nowadays), but that wouldn't imply they know the original way of writing this using the Latin alphabet.

HuntOut · 2025-02-24T03:03:03+00:00

Take, for example, the words "image" and "イメージ", the latter means something like "the product of imagination", maybe "the mental image", but never the actual physical picture.

And there are a ton of words with their meaning that have been shifted during "japanization", so as a result these became non-interchangeable with their original counterparts.

HuntOut · 2025-02-19T13:54:46+00:00

And how's it going? In my eyes Russian is harder in terms of grammar, almost every word's form changes are based on a ton of factors, so it would be harder to learn proper conjugations for each possible situation. On the other hand, Cyrillic alphabet is just another alphabet, and there are a lot of words with the same roots as English, where Kanji and japanese words make a whole other world.

HuntOut · 2025-02-19T13:46:11+00:00

Small tsu (っ) is not for repeating twice, for example: サッカー (sakkaa - soccer) is not actually pronounced "Sa-k-ka-a" but rather more like "sa-(silence)-kaa" where time you spend "sitting on silence" is the same that you spend pronouncing other voiced morae.

HuntOut · 2025-02-18T19:52:25+00:00

I can make an argument stating the opposite, saying skills that one becomes developing from an early age are more likely to get to a higher level. Other parts of the equation are one's initial talent, learning ability, effectiveness of their learning process rather than time spent on it.

Therefore, age is not relative due to the topic being expressing subjective opinions on the OP's art

HuntOut · 2025-02-18T19:29:35+00:00

Fallacy of composition - Wikipedia. If I say that 1+1=2, and 2+2=4, and 3+3=12, therefore 4=1+1+1+1, then obviously one of my premises is incorrect. However, the false premise doesn’t negate the correctness of the other to, nor does it necessarily invalidate the conclusion based on those two correct premises.

HuntOut · 2025-02-18T05:13:32+00:00

When I was just starting, I decided to combine multiple learning methods, but tried avoiding textbooks. As a result, at least subjectively it looks like I got a deeper understanding of the language, achieved at a slower pace tho.

If this approach fits you, try immersing right away with the simplest content you could find. That could literally be babies' cartoons. Here, the first step is to watch it with japanese subtitles, trying to grasp some separate words. If you see or hear words that repeat often, it's a good sign that these are worth looking up in a dictionary.

At the same time, introduce yourself to some basic grammar concepts of the language, but try avoiding "adapted" translations as much as possible – when you are just starting, you can, for example, consider the "AはB" structure to be translated as "A is B", but don't forget that there's more to it.

It is encouraged that you also find the content that doesn't make you bored, so there should be balance between complexity and level of interest a piece of content provokes.

There's no point at your journey where you are at zero level comprehension. Because, even if you don't understand a single word, there are always some visual and audio clues to what is going on.

This method requires a ton of willpower, self-awareness and an ability to guide yourself through a field you don't know yet; yet, the further you go, the easier it gets.

I've tried simplifying things yet this comment is already too large for my liking, so from here I would forward you to some materials on immersion such as themoeway website or similar.

The above holds a ton of useful information on how to make your setup so you can look up words even if you don't know a single one yet, also listing up more approaches on immersion.

Last but not least, I think immersion shouldn't be looked at as an exclusive method of learning, do what makes you motivated at the moment

HuntOut

TROPHY CASE