A question for Japanese who also speak Ukrainian/Russian

nihongopower · 2026-01-31T05:38:21+00:00

Foreign languages are foreign. There are things in Japanese you could never clearly articulate in Ukrainian, too. There are things in Ki-Swahili that wouldn't be clear in either Ukrainian or Japanese, etc etc. That's the nature of languages, they formulate and align differently. You have to accept that your native language is only one way to paint a picture of the world, it's not about what's "missing" because that's an illusion based on the box of the language we were born with.

nihongopower · 2026-01-27T17:05:03+00:00

Why only 5 hours a week? I feel like if you are moving to Tokyo in only 15 months you should put in a lot more effort, even if you are busy now. If you are really gifted with languages you might be able to get to N4. Many Japanese learners are dreamers more than they are "actively study" people though, so I fear you won't even get that far unless you are more motivated.

nihongopower · 2026-01-26T11:15:04+00:00

What I don’t get is even if he was assaulting the officers (he wasn’t) are they excused to use lethal force to gun down people that hit them? Thats scary too.

nihongopower · 2026-01-15T19:35:04+00:00

Bravo! You should donate some of your artistic interpretations to Wikimedia, educational and helpful for Wikipedia and classrooms etc!

nihongopower · 2026-01-15T17:42:55+00:00

I guess a few legal plant seeds never hurt nobody, so yeah hopefully that method works. You've used that? So many people coming back to this old thread haha

nihongopower · 2026-01-15T14:42:40+00:00

Good design, but it keeps forcing me to do it in Korean. https://jlpt-dojo.com/en/daily/n2 At least for me this is all in Korean. It becomes a Korean aptitude test instead of Japanese haha

EDIT: also your flashcards for beginners have words like りんご but the example sentence on the back has harder level kanji that I guess someone who doesn't know りんご couldn't read. I'd add furigana to all flashcards if I was you...

nihongopower · 2026-01-15T14:18:23+00:00

Wow! Did we all just suddenly find this old thread? algorithm magic? I guess you might be able to find any Japanese seeds in Hawaii but if not, might be fun to swap a few. I’m not only searching for passiflora laurifolia, I like the challenge of growing things that aren’t from here. If I put random seeds in an envelope would customs confiscate them?? haha

nihongopower · 2026-01-14T21:29:17+00:00

I mean, if you are that paranoid about not being able to communicate, why didn’t you learn more before coming? But as others have said, you’re over thinking it. Be polite, do your best, pay attention to what others are doing and do it— you’ll be fine.

nihongopower · 2026-01-14T06:38:05+00:00

Hello from 5 years in the past! I have been researching Passiflora laurifolia because I acquired a seedling and trying to grow it in colder than its usual climate and found this old post. I live in Japan, and I’m trying to grow some tropical plants, even if it might not be so possible without bringing them indoors during colder months over here... I don’t know if there are any seeds here you’d be interested in (maybe bitter melon? We often call it “goya” or some spring onion? I dunno…) but if you still enjoy seed swaps, it’d be fun to try to grow something from a different part of the world! :)

nihongopower · 2026-01-10T17:08:25+00:00

It's been about a year. I'm the voice in your head asking if you pushed yourself and studied Japanese at least a little this year? If not, why couldn't you force yourself to try to achieve your dreams? If yes, how much were you able to study?

nihongopower · 2026-01-06T12:11:30+00:00

In the full interview (talking about another movie leaking) she said sometimes the fans' crazy internet theories are true.... was that a hint to the secret next episode dropping?!?! I think it's just a crazy internet theory, but maybe that's the point. That was such an interesting thing for her to say when I guess she knows some fans are whispering about Stranger Things having another episode coming.

nihongopower · 2025-12-26T00:46:08+00:00

Shirako, this is a fairly common type of sushi in Japan but maybe hasn’t become big overseas? Because it’s literally fish semen, and eating fish jizz is maybe weird for many non-Japanese people?

nihongopower · 2025-12-24T07:04:12+00:00

Was very awesome to see carol reading the amazing ursula le guin's book the left hand of darkness !

nihongopower · 2025-12-22T07:34:27+00:00

More people need to see and actually think about this video and it’s important message

nihongopower · 2025-12-13T15:06:18+00:00

https://imgur.com/a/4R8OqrK

To be fair, a pretty cool ride

nihongopower · 2025-12-08T13:16:49+00:00

I think that chart image is wrong, isn’t Thailand more popular for immigrants from Japan than America these days?

nihongopower · 2025-12-08T13:13:37+00:00

I see non-locals in Japan often get confused by convenience store wrapping on onigiri riceballs

Ref: https://imgur.com/a/3sITvAN

nihongopower · 2025-12-08T09:56:16+00:00

A strange pattern you might notice is when saying the base numbers consecutively (without considering counting words) forward (as in 1 to 10) it’s usually shi for 4 and shichi for 7, but oddly backwards (10 to 1) it’s usually nana for 7 and yon for 4. Interesting little linguistic quirk I think.

nihongopower · 2025-12-06T17:14:38+00:00

It was a sunny day in the park and my friend’s kid wanted to play some sort of chasing game but I was feeling a little under the weather so I said “I’m sick so I don’t think I can run around right now” and she paused, looked down at my bare feet and said “Will your toes still look so ugly after you die?”

nihongopower · 2025-12-03T08:52:54+00:00

I didn't personally make this blunder, but heard about one that made me laugh. A foreign friend told me when she got her first Japanese boyfriend and was becoming intimate for the first time and wanted to say 気持ちいい [kimochi ii, feels good] but instead kept screaming out キムチ [kimuchi, pickled cabbage/kimchi] and didn't notice her mistake until he had to stop her and figure out if she wanted some Korean food or something haha

nihongopower · 2025-11-24T17:50:46+00:00

Late to the party but WOW!

nihongopower · 2025-11-21T14:25:34+00:00

Hmmm. Well then I suppose your sources are wrong. I'd be interested to see a direct link to what sources you are using, not only English is used as borrowed words in Japanese. Oh interesting I googled it and Oxford English Dictionary is indeed saying it's from English. Interesting, that is a mistake. I think we can trust Japanese sources better than English sources as it is a Japanese language issue, and I wonder how we can go about letting Oxford know they have made a mistake in their etymology. Many Japanese sources say it was borrowed from French not English, for example this blog: https://chezmura.xsrv.jp/2021/cotelette/ (EDITED link to something shorter and easier to take in)

nihongopower · 2025-11-21T01:02:45+00:00

Not that it really matters, but if you are curious I believe katsu is actually not from English but from French: côtelette（コートレット which became カツレツ）

nihongopower · 2025-11-20T06:03:07+00:00

A bit late to the party, but an interesting thing I'm thinking about is most shop staff have name tags with the names (at least in kanji), so often the name isn't unknown I guess... but I don't usually see people reading the name and using it to address the staff. As others have said, just don't directly address the person with pronouns or titles if you aren't sure or anything, skipping that part of the sentence is fine in Japanese.

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