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You don’t think that… rather large handakuten makes it look like the number 30, do you? =P
Ah, I found the “beggar” radical. It’s a variant of the “enclosure” radical. I haven’t been able to find it as-is, but with extra strokes included, it appears in characters such as 写真 (しゃしん photograph) and 汚い (きたない dirty).
さ, り, ふ, な, や and ら also have slight differences between printed and handwritten styles. I’ve been assured by my native-speaking lecturers that people still write in the handwritten style when writing by hand. Realkana.com lets you practice reading both styles. I’ve also seen し written slightly differently, but I’m not entirely certain.
Not really sure how to answer that un-circularly. They’re two-stroke radicals because they’re drawn with two strokes. (I assume you’re talking about the radicals, in any case – the kanji for stairs is certainly not a two-stroke kanji.)
Granted, the images shown don’t really make that apparent, and this is kinda where Koichi’s reluctance to teach how they’re written comes back to bite you.
Edit:
Actually, on second thoughts, now I’m confused too. I haven’t been able to find Koichi’s “beggar” radical in any official list of radicals anywhere, and the character for beg is 乞 – a three-stroke character. Koichi’s radical might be a simplified version of the character used in some of the more complex kanji (in the same way the “liquid” radical is a simplification of the water character) but I’ve not been able to find any examples. Considering 乞 is one of the joyo kanji, I’m not too sure why It’s not in Koichi’s list of three-stroke characters – maybe it’s falling foul of his 80-20 picking and choosing.
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This reply was modified 13 years ago by
Joel.
Welcome. You’ve already learnt one language in your life, there’s no reason you can’t learn s second. =)
Just idly, I’m pondering doing English teaching in Japan at some point – who are you with? Since you’re in your second year, I assume it’s going well, but how have you been finding it? Fun? Challenging? Complete culture shock? =)
It’s all in subtext, which is usually omitted when doing a translation. 彼は足が短い is “speaking of him, his legs are short”. きりんの首は長い is “speaking of giraffes’ necks, they are long”. Since English doesn’t have a topic marker, it doesn’t really carry over in a more natural translation.
For a slightly more scientific approach, I weighed a pile of twenty manga, which gave a total of 4160g, for an average of exactly 208g. That said, this included two volumes of Twin Spica, which they’ve been making bigger so they can finish the English translation in twelve volumes instead of sixteen.
But yeah, that’s more than you asked for. I’ll stop now. =)
It’s not exactly that you’re “certified” for N4 and N5 if you do N3, but rather that it kinda goes without saying. Passing N3 (according to the official test guide pamphlet) indicates that you have “the ability to understand Japanese used in everyday situations to a certain degree” while N4 indicates “the ability to understand basic Japanese”. If you’ve mastered Japanese to a level where you can understand everyday Japanese, then it it’s pretty much a given that you understand the basic stuff too.
To give an analogy, suppose you passed an exam that proved you could count from one to a thousand. You wouldn’t then need to boast that you can also count to a hundred – it’s entirely implied by the fact that you can count to a thousand.
As for holding off on doing the JLPT until you think you can do the N3 (or whatever), that’s entirely up to you. I did hesitate myself before applying for N5 – it feels a bit like I’m boasting that I can count to ten, which is hardly going to spiff up my CV – but my lecturers urged me to try it as a way of having something to show for my progress. In hindsight, though, I’m wondering if I could have managed the N4 test by this point anyway…
Yah. Hotlinking is usually frowned upon, and often auto-blocked by servers.
While we’re speaking of large numbers, I’ve finished reading that section myself, and I must say I found the explanation of numbers over 10,000 to be a little too brief. Perhaps an extra half paragraph and an example is necessary.
The explanation currently there says that (for example) 1,000,000 is ひゃくまん and 10,000,000 is いっせんまん, which (if I didn’t know better) would give me the impression that 11,000,000 would be いっせんまんひゃくまん, when in actual fact it’s いっせんひゃくまん. As in, just as we’d say “eleven million”, in Japanese they say “(one thousand, one hundred) ten thousands”.
Mind you, I also thought that one thousand was always just せん, not いっせん. And he switches from using きゅうじゅう for 90 to くじゅう without comment. Same with くひゃく. I was taught that one of these was used more often, but I never could remember which.
Each higher lever supersedes any lower ones, so there’s no need to do more than one at the same time, even if it WERE possible. There’s also no need to do them in order – they’re not prerequisites of each other. You can do N5 this year, then N3 next year, or you can even start with N1 right off the bat, if you’re feeling adventurous. And well-studied.
Of course, I say “this year” as an example – you’re kind of a few months late to apply.
The tongue position when pronouncing ひ does make a bit of a hiss sound, which is exacerbated slightly by the fact that it’s being recorded on a microphone rather than being listened to in real life, but it’s definitely ひとり that’s being said.
Bleh, I’d noticed the page 2 button was broken a couple of weeks ago, but had forgotten and/or thought it was temporary. I’ll have words with someone, but in the meantime you can get to the second page by deleting everything from the question mark in the URL – the page turn buttons after that work fine. Alternately, you can click the “1st post” link in the post at the top of the main page, and then navigate using the calendar.
No, it’s when you post a bounty, Koichi makes a donation on your behalf.
I can’t speak about xenophobia, but I can certainly emphathise with the fear of practicing. When I go to a Japanese restaurant, for example, it’d be so easy to order in Japanese – “ramen, onegaishimasu” – but at the last moment, I second-guess myself out of it – “what if they’re only working here part-time, and they don’t actually speak Japanese? Then I’d look silly. Or pretentious.” When I went to Japan last year, my reluctance to ask directions from a random stranger, even when I had the phrasebook to tell me exactly what to say, cost my friend and I about ten thousand yen.
This may not be what you want to hear, and I can say from personal experience that it’s much easier to say than it is to put into practice, but frankly it’s a silly fear. The worst that’s going to happen is they won’t understand, and maybe it’ll be a bit embarrassing for all concerned, but they’re not going to ridicule you (and if they do, find new practice partners). Try it again. Speak slower, or use different emphasis, or whatever. Ask your practice partners for pointers. If they’re speaking to you in Japanese, they’re wanting to help you. They themselves probably had (or even have) the same fear of speaking in English.
You’re worrying yourself into a vicious circle – because you’re lacking confidence to practice, it’s affecting your motivation to study, and because you’re not studying, you’re not gaining the confidence to practice. Focus on the goal – don’t let the speed humps trip you up. You’ve got a dream, and it’s certainly not unattainable. Set yourself some intermediate goals, maybe – “by the end of the week, I’m going to at least greet a friend in Japanese”, something to get you over that first step.
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This reply was modified 13 years ago by
