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TextFugu? What’s that?
It’s sad to see there are still new people fooled into signing up for this site.
Oh, there are? I thought new subscriptions had been shut down ages ago.
Also, I just learned from Tofugu.com that Koichi’s full name is Jaered Koichi Croes. I think “Jaered” definitely sounds more “Seattle Hipster” to me.
Yeah, I try desperately to forget that name. =P
what was the name of the first guy Koichi brought on to help with the site?
Hashi?
Welcome back!
Ain’t nothing wrong with being media-focused – for many of us, that’s the only exposure to Japanese that we can get. =)
Mostly help each other with tricky bits. On the Aria thread, I like to research the real-world things that inspired the chapter as well. =)
Oh, it’s coming along. I’ve joined a few book clubs over on the WaniKani forums, so I’m currently reading Aria, and a kid’s book called なぜ？なんで？せかいのふしぎ, and Yotsubato (though we’re between volumes right now), and I’m rapidly falling behind on 時をかける少女.
Have not practiced my speaking once since April, though…
Ooo, nice. Where are you living? What are you doing? =)
I’ve been using WaniKani, myself – registered four years ago today, actually, but didn’t start using it seriously until about this time last year. It’s helpful in that it feeds me the kanji I need to learn a few at a time, which helps me set a good pace. I’ve been to Japan twice since my last post in this thread – the aforementioned one in December 2017, and again in April 2018, and actually managed to hold several decent conversations, which was nice.
Fortunately, since EtoEto is coming “Soon” (TM), Koichi has switched off new subscriptions for TextFugu. I confess I was getting a mite tired of lying to people about how much they’ll love it here…
Welcome!
Yeah, there’s hardly been any activity at all for a while…
Yeah, when you count anything in Japanese, you must use a counter word. 人 is the counter word for 子 (or indeed, any sort of people). The formation is [number][counter]の[noun being counted], or [noun being counted]を[number][counter][verb] (as in ビールを二本飲みました = I drank two bottles of beer).
In the second sentence, 人 is still functioning as a counter word – it’s just that 七人の人 is a little bit redundant – you only need to explicitly state the noun when it’s more than just generic people.
Please note, though, that the reading for 二人 is ふたり. It, along with 一人 (ひとり), is a weird freaky exception – for 3 and up it’s on’yomi+にん (except 四人, which is よにん because しにん sounds like 死人 which means “corpse”).
Welcome! What’d you do in Japan? =)
As for living in Japan, reckon your best bet is to Google for peoples’ blogs. Here’s what I came up with in ten seconds of searching:
https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e625.html
https://www.tofugu.com/japan/best-and-worst-things-about-living-in-japan/
http://www.cracked.com/article_20118_5-things-nobody-tells-you-about-living-in-japan.htmlAnd one which is finished now, but which I quite enjoyed reading while it was still being written:
http://1000thingsaboutjapan.blogspot.com/Yeah, I hear you. In the end, it’s practice practice practice. Practice translating from English into Japanese.
A nice theory, but actually they just happen to be homophones. The kata you’re thinking of is 型. Means “form”.
Wikipedia happens to know the answer to this question. =)
The term otogi literally means “companion”, with the full name of the genre translating to “companion tale”. This designation, however, did not come into use until 1725, when a publisher from Osaka released a set of 23 illustrated booklets titled Shūgen otogibunko (Fortuitous Companion Library). As other publishers produced their own versions of Shūgen otogibunko, they began referring to the set of tales as otogi-zōshi. Gradually the term came to describe any work from the Muromachi or early Edo period that exhibited the same general style as the tales in Shūgen otogibunko.
Yeah, some updates were made, and in the process, some links to practice things got dropped. Possibly he meant to refer to the Ultimate Vocab decks, which you can find on the downloads page. Honestly, I never paid the practice decks much attention, myself…
Welcome back!
Visiting Japan ain’t no pipe dream – it’s much easier than you might think. For example, you can just buy a ticket and go. =)
Honestly, I can never remember what “group 1″ and “group 2″ refer to, but regardless, the way that works best for you is the way you should learn it.
Ichidan and godan are the Japanese names for the groups.
Ichidan verbs, sometimes called る-verbs, have a single verb stem that remains unchanged however it’s conjugated – they’re called る-verbs because the plain form stem always ends in る, and you conjugate by dropping the る from the end. For example 食べる -> 食べます、食べない、食べた、食べられる. This is what Koichi calls “Group 2″.
Godan verbs, sometimes called う-verbs, conjugate by changing the verb stem itself – they’re called う-verbs because the vowel on the end of the stem is what gets changed. For example: 飲む -> 飲みます、飲まない、飲んだ、飲める and so forth. This is what Koichi calls “Group 1″.
Confusingly, some godan verbs can end with る as well. This is part of the issue with defining the verb groups in Japanese – however you phrase it, there’s always going to be exceptions, verbs that look like they belong in one group but actually conjugate like the other.
The reason Koichi describes “group 1″ verbs as ending in い is because in ます-form, the godan verb stem always end with い. But again, there’s exceptions – some group 2 verbs also have verb stems that end in い anyway, regardless of how they’re conjugated. Like すぎます or みます. Koichi talks about that on this page.
I imagine that would help. =P
