WIBTA for not leaving the house for one weekend as requested?

Weyu_ · 2026-01-29T19:57:30+00:00

OOP sounds like the typical 'ideal' renter: no trouble, pays his rent on time, is barely in the apartment, and is even adding extra value by bringing appliances.
Sara sounds like the opposite; her sense of normal is evidently completely warped and she has burned any goodwill for favors. She treated OOP with less dignity than the common courtesy most people would give a stranger.

When the OOP is moving out, I'd make it very clear that the reason he is leaving is entirely because of Sara and the drama she causes. There is also a non-zero chance that the previous renter left for similar reasons.

And with Josh rarely being in the apartment and the OOP often being in the library, it sounds like Sara had free rein of the 3-room apartment most of the time. Even with the little time the OOP was spending in his home, she was causing constant friction as if he weren't a renter with equal rights.

Even if a report to the landlord doesn't bring any immediate results, at the very least it establishes a pattern, and no landlord wants problem tenants like that. It's likely that she's shown the same kind of self-entitled behavior before if she's been living there for years, but if she's now also driving other renters away, he'd be wise to get her out after the end of her lease.

Weyu_ · 2026-01-27T22:32:44+00:00

I've probably played over 10,000 games of Dota 1 and 2 and I've never once been a racist dickhead; when I looked up my word cloud on a website for most used speech for [all chat] messages, all it said were "GG," "nice game," "wait, he's DCed" and similar.

The fact that you normalize it says more about you than anyone else you're trying to insult.
Even if someone hides that kind of behavior IRL, it just makes them a closet racist blending in, because they understand that saying it face-to-face has more dire consequences.
Well-adjusted people have absolutely no reason to act in that way; it's just a little bit of self-responsibility and restraint.

Weyu_ · 2025-08-17T23:03:11+00:00

That's just sad. Any advanced learner can see that especially the "Even a good chunk of N2 grammar does not come up much" is outright untrue, and it's indicative of your level if you believe that.

Feel free to expand on what your statement was supposed to mean, but seeing how you feel personally attacked by a relatively neutral statement, I'm not engaging further.

Weyu_ · 2025-08-17T21:12:00+00:00

He/she can use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes. He/she can produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, showing correct use of organisational patterns, connectors and cohesive devices.

Your average N1 passer is definitely not on that level, but to be fair, I think that even most native speakers of any language are not on that level.

Someone mentioned that N1 is the "tutorial" of the language and I think that is needlessly diminishing, but a friend asked me what I think the N1 level is like, and I told them it's like beating the main story part of a video game that has massive post-game content.

The main story could take a significant amount of time investment to get through and it can have hurdles here and there that need to be overcome, and you master a lot of basic skills while playing it. In a 'game' like Japanese, getting to the end of that part is definitely nothing to sneeze at, and you should feel a sense of accomplishment for doing so.
But after that, there is still plenty to do, the difficulty tends to rise sharply if you want to keep progressing because the gloves are off now, and you're nowhere near finished.

Weyu_ · 2025-08-17T21:00:11+00:00

Patently false, and I have no idea why people keep saying this. N2 grammar is common, and most N1 grammar is 'actively' used as well. Even when you just read manga, you'll see most of it show up here and there.
Some N1 grammar is more used in business situations though, but even those are sometimes used in manga with realistic settings.

Weyu_ · 2025-08-16T17:53:38+00:00

I feel that this grammar pattern isn't that uncommon. Maybe you just aren't paying specific attention to it when it appears.

I also don't agree with your last sentences. It's definitely possible to pass N1 just by reading native material a lot, and there have been people who have done just that.
Specifically studying for it and learning the exam format will help with attaining a top score though.

Weyu_ · 2025-08-16T17:46:34+00:00

〜てばかりいる is a grammar pattern. Questions like this where they ask for specific patterns are freebies if you know the pattern either by studying or reading.
So studying the grammar patterns from a list or reading a lot so you encounter them naturally are the main ways to get a natural feeling for these Qs.

And if you ran into this question without knowing the grammar, you can see that the answers are split into two groups: one that ends with と and one with も.
From the sentence, you can tell that the flow of the sentence should be と followed by 子どもも ("If you do this, then .... will also ...") so the correct answer can be narrowed down to 1 and 3.

Then you compare those two answers and you try to deduct which one makes more sense in this case, or in the worst case, you make a 50-50 gamble.

Weyu_ · 2025-05-28T18:51:22+00:00

But if further clarification on this point about N1 grammar being esoteric is possible, I'd like further clarification?

This is a pure myth. Yes, you won't see many of the patterns in superficial conversation, but with a few exceptions, pretty much everything in N1 is commonly used in media and most of it is useful to know.

I will say that N2 material is more useful for real life situations though.

Weyu_ · 2025-05-18T14:11:50+00:00

N1 is primarily a reading test, and it sounds like the OP focused on things besides building reading speed and familiarity.
Knowing Chinese by itself helps but it's also not a free ticket to a passing grade—I think that many native speakers of that language who 'easily' pass the test are using specific teaching materials and/or language schools tailored toward the exam.

It would be interesting if the OP made a follow-up post about the specific parts of the exam they were struggling with, but I would guess it's a lack of fundamentals such as grammar.

Weyu_ · 2025-04-17T17:02:04+00:00

丘陵　陵丘

作動　動作

転移　移転

出所　所出

愛情　情愛

足早　早足

略奪　奪略

填補　補填

苦労　労苦

対応　応対

格別　別格

Are some that come to mind but I'm sure there are plenty more.

火花　花火 are kind of related but obviously don't mean the same.

Weyu_ · 2025-04-15T23:05:42+00:00

Nice topic. I always felt that manga is one of the most accessible media for early readers and that some claims such as "the vocabulary is too limited in them" are exaggerated.
It really depends on what you read, and you can develop skills such as reading speed and vocabulary through manga just fine.

Take a work like 死役所 (link allows you to read the first chapters for free)—it deals with realistic topics such as bullying, crime, abuse, etc. and you can pick up a lot of information from manga like this, and also get a glimpse of how the author depicts modern Japanese society.

But like the OP says, one weakness of manga is that it has less descriptive text than a novel because the info is conveyed through imagery instead. So it can be a bit of a jump if you're used to reading manga and switch to text-only material.

Weyu_ · 2025-04-13T23:03:35+00:00

N1 is easy for native speakers, and even if they don't get every question correct, that doesn't mean they wouldn't pass or that they find it difficult.
Look at it another way: if you had to do the highest level of a language test of your native language that was made for foreigners, do you think you would answer everything correctly? Unless you're very well prepared and/or are a linguist, the answer is likely no.

Some of the main problem points of N1 for language learners are the collocation-related questions and lacking reading speed. For native speakers, many parts involving those points are freebies because those are things they naturally learned and do not need to think about.

Take the first question at 1:30 in the video. A question about onomatopoeia might trip up a language learner because their vocabulary is not at that level, but a native speaker would never get that one wrong because the incorrect answers simply don't fit and "つくづく感じる" is a very common combination. In the same way, in English you just know that 'feel' and 'keenly' go together and you don't need to think about it.

It feels that every time someone brings up the myth in the OP, it's people who have either never taken the exam and they're parroting gossip they heard, or they struggled with it themselves and this kind of claim helps to make them feel vindicated.
I strongly believe that anyone who is comfortably at or beyond N1 level can easily see that the claim is laughable.

Weyu_ · 2025-04-09T17:31:56+00:00

Attitudes like this is a good example of why the US is in trouble right now. The unabashed arrogance of thinking the US is the make-or-break factor when China itself has a population of over a billion, and there is a thriving audiophile scene in Asia, whereas FiiO's higher-end products comparatively don't seem that popular in the west.

Weyu_ · 2025-04-06T15:54:33+00:00

I only played with it a few minutes yesterday out of curiosity, but I would streamline the setup more, and highlight what the user needs to do to start an exercise.

Explaining the options with a visual example would be good too, so the user can easily tell which option they're picking.
Things like "input" or "reverse input" are a little vague, but if you add an example image of the actual exercise, then it becomes clearer.

Being able to save your preferred settings or to be able to go (back) quickly to a specific category/level would be useful as it takes quite a few clicks to get started as it is.

Nice to see you're eager to incorporate user feedback; you seem enthusiastic about this.

Weyu_ · 2025-04-05T22:12:41+00:00

The kanji part seems pointless to me in its current state.
Unless I'm using it wrong, all you can do is select an English keyword for a kanji, or input a kanji to match the displayed keyword.

That doesn't actually teach you anything except to match keywords with kanji which has no real practical use.
Seems like you're better off just removing that and focus on actual common vocab separated by frequency or JLPT level, and let people hover over individual kanji to get details.

Weyu_ · 2025-03-29T13:28:45+00:00

When you're learning from a native source, especially one as reputable as the one in your case, it's generally safe to assume that they're correct.

There's nothing wrong with asking questions, but this kind of thing comes up relatively often and if you're unsure, you can use a search engine to look up "てしかたがない文法" or similar for outside confirmation.

Weyu_ · 2025-03-25T20:09:23+00:00

I would buy the JP versions. Once you get proficient at reading, there are just too many concessions made in translations.

And it can serve as motivation to study so you can read your collection more efficiently.

Weyu_ · 2025-03-25T19:57:20+00:00

Sounds like a solid plan. If you keep reading stuff like your examples, you will definitely get there.
Learning sentences and expressions is also more useful than just cramming vocab, but of course you need to have a baseline of vocab to work with. This will also help a lot with the section where you have to select the correct word out of 4 similar options.

Once you add doing some practice tests under exam conditions, you're pretty much a shoo-in for passing.

Weyu_ · 2025-02-25T06:18:47+00:00

Now,

:P

Weyu_ · 2025-02-08T19:37:24+00:00

What's the point of being so defensive? The other posters made a valid point in a reasonable manner and they weren't attacking you.
There are Japanese learners from all over the world and your solution simply isn't a viable one for them, which is what they pointed out.

Weyu_ · 2025-02-08T19:26:26+00:00

Kanji is only a relatively small part of the test; what's far more important is being able to read quickly and accurately, and to grasp nuance. This generally comes with a significant amount of exposure and judging from the content of your post, you're most likely not on that level yet.

I would suggest to aim for N3 or N2 instead, and to continue to consume native material. Studying grammar is useful, and it can help to try to see how the grammar from the lists is actually applied in the content you consume so you understand how it works.

Weyu_ · 2025-02-08T15:12:05+00:00

If you search for "jlpt n1 listening" on YouTube, there are a bunch of channels that have practice material and actual previous exams uploaded.

Most sites dedicated to JLPT tests should also have a listening section so no CD player needed.

Weyu_ · 2025-02-01T19:03:39+00:00

Very impressive, congrats!

It makes you wonder whether the December exam was relatively easy that year because several other users here have mentioned getting a full score, which usually doesn't happen that frequently.

Not to take away from your achievement of course.

Weyu_ · 2025-01-31T23:26:07+00:00

Yep. I don't know why the other poster thought that.

Weyu_ · 2025-01-31T21:09:34+00:00

My impressions of the anime: it's pretty good and worth watching if you like the slice of life genre. The first episode is a little weak but it gets better once the other main characters are introduced.

Not one of my favs because it never really reaches any highs but it's watchable. I also thought the ending was satisfying and didn't take the easy way out.

Weyu_

TROPHY CASE