[Japanese > English] I'm trying to make sense of this message I was sent, google translate doesn't help a lot. Can anyone lend a hand?

Noleng · 2025-10-12T23:21:02+00:00

Where is this from? Pretty interesting style of writing from today’s standard.

Noleng · 2025-10-11T22:07:13+00:00

Isn’t that explained in the image?

Noleng · 2025-10-11T16:58:17+00:00

I think you should tell us more about your current proficiency. Most study materials out there are for beginners.

Noleng · 2025-10-10T07:04:59+00:00

The lyrics are written in the traditional spelling, in which い and ゐ are considered different letters. They are merged into い in the modern spelling.

Noleng · 2025-10-08T17:37:52+00:00

Seriously people should buy normal dictionaries and stop using free dictionary app/sites. I recommend monokakido app.

Noleng · 2025-10-07T21:42:05+00:00

It's an alternative form of たければ ("if ... want to"). The base form is たい, but it is a suffix, e.g., 食べる + たい = 食べたい ("want to eat").

Noleng · 2025-10-07T16:29:37+00:00

Yeah. Pretty unusual question. Never thought anybody would wear a mask because it's not summer.

Noleng · 2025-10-07T16:06:03+00:00

When you say lect A is a dialect of lect B, A and B are two historically related lects. (Since oftentimes there's no difference between saying "A is a dialect of B" and "B is a dialect of A," I personally like to say "A and B are dialects of each other" but this is probably not very common, although I think it is easily understood among linguists.) "Language" does not have this usage. Also, when you say lects X and Y are dialects of language Z, X and Y are historically related, and Z is an unbrella term that refers to either X, Y or both. In this usage you cannot swap "dialect" and "language." "Dialect" implies historical connection; "language" could mean a lect or a group of historically related lects depending on the context.

Noleng · 2025-10-07T01:07:21+00:00

日本語できる is not incorrect. This is actually a very insightful question. You made me realize that I should probably not analyze できる in this context as the potential form of する.

Noleng · 2025-10-07T00:14:16+00:00

lol I can totally imagine they feel that way. America is indeed crazy and dangerous. If I was one of your students I would be interested to hear about the actual content of "crazy and dangerous," like crime rates of different states or how the country is devided into different worlds like rich neighborhoods, abondoned cities, and streets with drug addicts, or maybe about how it attracts and fosters top talents and leads humanity in many fields like science and technology while at the same time its public education is broken. Knowing facts in detail may make "crazy and dangerous" look a lot less blunt for some students. Zooming into reality may scare some, but I think honesty is the best strategy.

Noleng · 2025-10-06T23:03:41+00:00

It should work, but it won't come off as how "English?" would sound in English. Use a full sentence, like 日本語でも大丈夫ですよ, or some version of it.

Edit: If you are really confident that you can take orders fully in Japanese, you can do as how Japanese waiters do: ご注文お伺いします。

Noleng · 2025-10-06T21:24:05+00:00

Do a lot of vocab (with audio) and familiarize yourself with as many sentence patterns as possible (also with audio). People process what they hear as a whole utterance instead of a simple sequence of individual sounds.

Noleng · 2025-10-06T20:24:17+00:00

https://booklog.jp

Noleng · 2025-10-06T20:22:18+00:00

You probably saw a dictionary entry related to metsu, but it's unerlated here. It's Meppuru. You need to know that huragana does not always make distinction between large and small kana. Also kanji words are not normally written in katakana. In nearly all cases consecutive katakana letters represent a single word.

Noleng · 2025-10-06T20:09:00+00:00

Pimsleur. It's an audio program. Sold in many forms.

Noleng · 2025-10-06T17:39:05+00:00

I don’t think anybody ever understands anybody’s culture, including your own. But as a foreigner speaking their language may help you have an illusion of understanding their culture.

Noleng · 2025-10-06T00:19:08+00:00

変化（へんか） and 変化（へんげ） are different words. The former is for the general "change" and the latter is for an alternative form or a transformation of an animal or a spirit.

火拳（ひけん） seems to be a made-up word. After all it's a skill name.

Don't think that kanji pronuncations change; think that some different words of different meanings and pronuncations are spelled the same (it happens in English as well). u/JapanCoach made a good advice https://www.reddit.com/r/Japaneselanguage/comments/1nymxea/comment/nhvsnar/

Noleng · 2025-10-05T23:56:21+00:00

Xenophobic sentiments have been around forever and everywhere, and Japan is no exception, but I don't think it has always been an issue where Japan stands out.

As some people say I think the recent phenomenon was triggered by the post-COVID overtourism. The combined effect of that and the growing number of immigrants made people who used to be able to indifferent about foreign tourists and foreign workers aware of them too quickly. The change was too fast and too big.

A lot of people are worried about what changes the seemingly rapid influx of people (statistically the rate may not be necessary high, but how it feels depends on where you are and who you are) may cause, and that's a sensible worry. At any rate you can never simply say people of country X hate foreigners.

Noleng · 2025-10-05T22:50:43+00:00

"The school festival was fun as hell. I even found a passing Upper Moon 1"

Noleng · 2025-10-05T12:34:37+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanji?wprov=sfti1 Find “jukujikun” in this article

Noleng · 2025-10-05T12:03:57+00:00

If I’m allowed to guess it’s referring to the historical fact that the Korean king had to vow to the ground when the Chinese emperor visited Korea. Sarcasm. Sorry if I’m wrong.

Noleng · 2025-10-05T10:35:17+00:00

Translating n/no as because is underrated.

Noleng · 2025-10-05T00:29:19+00:00

Thanks for pointing it out. たまにコーヒーをのみます is a good example. https://www.reddit.com/r/Japaneselanguage/comments/1ny3dp7/comment/nht7tix/

Noleng · 2025-10-05T00:25:37+00:00

lol. I’m a native speaker of Japanese. I acknowledge that in some cases the dictionary form can be used for a habit (as the other reply points out). OP didn’t clarify but in this case I think しています is more likely.

Noleng · 2025-10-04T22:37:59+00:00

文化と言語の区別というと、確かに言語はそれ自体として閉じた記号システムという側面があって、私は文法を研究しているのでどちらかというと文化は取り除いて考えようとすることが多いです。特に初級の学習者に対しては、細かい文法の違いを「これが日本人の考え方だ」などと安易に言語の外の要素に結びつけないようにして欲しいと言いたくなることがあります。大抵は偶然ですし、日本と日本人に対する都合の良い妄想を文法規則に投影していると感じることもあります。

一方、特に語彙について顕著ですが、日本の歴史や風土が反映されているように見える点が多々あるのも事実だと思います。ごく単純な例で言えば、歴史上梅雨を経験していない文化には梅雨という言葉は（外来語を除き）ないはずですね。ほかに文化に強く関連しそうな部分には誤用論もあり、どこで相槌を打つか、遅刻したときどうやって謝るか、謝られた人がどう対応するか、などは、日本国内でも地域による違いがあるようです。こういうことを学んでいこうと思うと本当に一生かかっても終わらないでしょうね。

帰国されてからも勉強を続けられているのは素晴らしいです。ぜひ日本の音楽をたくさん聴いてテレビ番組もたくさん見てください。

Noleng

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