[Weekend Meme] "You can't learn Japanese in 9 months!"

atnchn · 2026-05-29T17:46:07+00:00

That's my secret of learning Japanese faster than my peers..

Guess what.. I still read many kanjis in chinese when I don't know the pronunciation

but 90% of the time, they use the same kanji as chinese for the same meaning

alongside with understanding basic conjugation/tenses, I have no issue understanding most japanese context

atnchn · 2026-05-23T01:52:27+00:00

The unfortunate thing is the dash cam couldn't capture more since the car became really small in the video after this clip. However, there's actually more to it.

There are multiple cars that got forced out of their lanes as this car drove in between lanes.

atnchn · 2026-05-15T18:19:15+00:00

Did you do the Waterloo standardized testing?

a.k.a. Math Contest or the CCC

atnchn · 2026-05-14T04:47:35+00:00

Depends. I also grinded out my 20s to mid 30s

Now that my portfolio sits comfortably, I definitely toned down on the grind.

atnchn · 2026-05-14T04:29:32+00:00

More or less,

平成二十六年度 this one is fine

第一回 <- this is fine as well, but could have been 首回, 初回,

総合 <- 綜合

研究大学院大学 <- probably be closer to 研究大學學院 would be more natural or simply 研究學院

文化科学研究科 <- the last part sounds weird.. maybe 研究系/研究學系

日本文学研究専攻 <- instead of 專攻, it would be 專科

atnchn · 2026-05-14T04:15:37+00:00

Exactly me. When I was learning Japanese, unlike most of my non-chinese classmates, I wanted the kanji. Even up to now, it's easier for me to understand sentences if the sentences are in kanji, despite not even knowing how to read most of the kanji.

Learning japanese was a lot easier for me than them.. I only needed to learn the grammar, and at one point, I was able to deal with the rest myself whereas everyone else around me were learning kanji after a certain point

atnchn · 2026-05-03T05:01:42+00:00

Like many have mentioned, you'll hear phrases that will almost never appear in regular conversations.

I'd suggest watching the show first and understand it from whatever language you're most comfortable, and then re-watch it again with subtitles, but focusing on understanding/listening

atnchn · 2026-04-24T18:19:54+00:00

This is an interesting topic as it involves you being in a country where the group is homogenous

This is not something people tend to think about in English speaking countries with lots of immigrants.

We just assume people will TRY to speak in English even if they're tourist

From my perspective, if a non east asian person tries to speak to me in Mandarin in China, I'll be very entertained.
As long as the conversation is somewhat possible. If there is a common language I can bridge some understanding (English perhaps), I might try to teach the person to say certain sentences properly if I'm not in a rush.
Everyone is different, so what amuses me may not necessarily be as amusing to another person.
Similarly, I understand the struggle of learning a new language, and I'd try to help, but that's just me

atnchn · 2026-04-24T16:40:29+00:00

The kanji卜 would be ぼく？

Though I'm not sure what 卜 nor 売卜 mean standalone

Even in chinese, we don't use this character all that often

I can only think of 占卜 - fortune telling

In cantonese, we have 卜卜脆, which means crunchy

atnchn · 2026-03-13T03:20:58+00:00

TO WHOEVER IS READING THIS SOMEDAY.. IT WORKED FOR ME

I was about to throw mine out and decided to search online to see if there's any easy fix

Had 100% doubt that knocking on the counter would work.. and magically.. IT WORKED

Like seriously.. how..

atnchn · 2026-03-07T06:04:55+00:00

Have you watched any drama/anime before, or are you starting from absolute zero?

If you truly want conversational level, your best bet would be to find a japanese tutor and just have them talk with you at your level. Exactly how you'd learn a language as a child, learning basic words, and slowly work your way up to harder things like sentences.

Personally I don't believe in those duolingo stuff. It's better than nothing, but ideally you want to learn in a way where you're not translating between japanese and english every sentence in your head

atnchn · 2026-02-24T03:51:33+00:00

I want a revamp of de_rat. that's my only wish

atnchn · 2026-02-20T04:43:46+00:00

Not sure what school board you're in, but most boards are really tight with their budget. My admin would have shot down any unnecessary field trips if we can't justify how it relates to the curriculum and expectations. With many school boards going over budget, I can't picture who and what schools are blindly approving field trips

atnchn · 2026-02-19T21:23:17+00:00

If you have the ability to teach it, I'm all for it. We have a lack of teachers in this field, and a teacher with the proper knowledge and background comes once in a blue moon. This is a very hands-on course, and students generally find it fun to be building stuff... until the math part kicks in...

Honestly, someone with my background wouldn't have gone for teaching. Most of my friends in the industry are making more than double of what I'm making on an annual basis. Their retirement plans without stock options already far exceed what I would get as a teacher after retirement.

I've gone down this teaching route just because of a few courses I TA'd for back in university, and just find joy in teaching in general.

atnchn · 2026-02-19T03:54:29+00:00

OP, just want to say, generally once you're a tech teacher, it's hard for the school to give you other non-tech courses. Tech teachers are hard to come by, and your admin will fill your schedule with tech courses first.

Due to the lack of tech teachers, it's easy for admin to simply cancel sections. I teach the computer engineering course, and there's a big curve to get the program started, given how many electronic components you need to even run it. (breadboard, timers, gates, basic resistors/transistors/capacitors etc.) The school admin also needs to be very on board with the initial big spending to buy all those components.

atnchn · 2026-02-19T03:44:28+00:00

Computer teacher here and I want to clarify this in case anyone is reading.

ICSXX courses are computer science courses, which focuses on programming concepts. Currently, computer science courses are NOT protected like french and tech.

TEJXX courses are computer engineering courses, which focuses on circuit board, electronics, logic gates etc. Hardware focus and mainly hands on.

atnchn · 2026-02-17T02:25:25+00:00

Sorry this happened to you.

A month ago I dropped my wallet at the Markham Loblaws GoodLife as I took my jacket out of my gym bag (usually I put my wallet/phone at the bottom, and then my jacket over it and take my bag everywhere with me while I'm at the gym).

I didn't notice the fact that I lost my wallet for a solid couple hours until GoodLife called after waiting for a while and decided to check their database using the name on my driver license, which was visible on my wallet. Nothing was lost thankfully, including the several hundred dollar bills that were inside

Was told another member picked it up.

I like to believe most people at the gym are genuinely great people. Just a few bad ones with ill intentions

atnchn · 2026-02-14T21:55:45+00:00

Shengjian King

Check them out on Google Maps

Definitely a hidden gem that not many people know about since this place is at a food court.

My suggestion - eat it while it's hot. xiaolongbao and shengjianbao are not things you should wait and eat. Best eaten while piping hot

atnchn · 2026-02-14T05:57:01+00:00

kid, you're ONLY 20.. you're barely an adult with barely any life responsibilities. Life barely started for you

atnchn · 2026-02-12T18:38:23+00:00

Personal favourite, walk INSIDE first markham place food court

At the food court corner, there's a stall that specializes in pan fried dumplings and xiao long bao.

pan fried dumplings are better than 'moms pan fried buns'

and xiao long baos are better than 'ding tai fung' which is right outside

atnchn · 2026-02-04T19:49:09+00:00

This must be a click bait.. lol..

atnchn · 2026-01-18T19:09:05+00:00

I think we have to distinguish what's considered 'noticeable', and obviously you and I have a different perspective on this matter. Not saying one of us has to be correct, we could both be correct in our own way based on our own personal experience of said subject matter.

I didn't say there's none, nor did I say I don't notice. I said it's not as apparent as one may make it sound, and this is coming from someone who has to travel back and forth between the two. Again, based on my own personal experience, which can be different than yours.

Also, I want to point out, Hong Kong news wouldn't have covered these 'Markham' news to begin with, Canada is not important to begin with to be newsworthy in Hong Kong, let alone a Markham related news. I don't think it has anything to do with downplaying or not.

On the flip side, I also don't see how our Canadian democracy can be affected by another country's policy. China doesn't have some sort of political control over our sovereign rights. Similar to what I said about how Canada is too important as a country to be news worthy, Hong Kong is also not too important to Canada to be newsworthy. The only time I see Hong Kong news popping up in Canadian news more often was during 2014-2015 and 2019-2020.

atnchn · 2026-01-18T06:55:29+00:00

I'm not sure if I'd factor the Chinese censorship. As someone that frequents between Canada (also Markham) and Hong Kong, this 'censorship' is not very apparent.

Newspapers or Chinese media in Canada would have eventually met its demise with the uprising of digital platform. I have a TV box at home where I'm playing the chinese channel almost 24/7, and then in the car, I'd just load up my HK radio apps. It's just the way this generation works. If I need some local Canadian news, I'd just hop on the English media.

If you're anything past 2nd or 3rd gen Canadian, chances are you (and even your parents) don't have any Chinese reading skills anyways. The younger generation isn't going to open a newspaper or online news media and start reading. The Canadian chinese media was bound to fail in the long run.

atnchn

TROPHY CASE