One day I’ll stop sucking up everyone’s time, but until then, what’s the difference between あおいろ and せいしょく。 They’re both apparently ‘blue’ so is one maybe darker?

EDIT: Just looked some of it up, and apparently しょく is a counter for colors? I can understand what counters are for things like books or bottles or such, but for colors? I don’t really understand the idea.

• This reply was modified 12 years, 8 months ago by  Pencil.

^Sorry I never thanked you at the time, Gigatron, but now I’ve re-found this thread, I can at least offer this very belated apology. ^_^;;;;

Before I start making any videos, I’d like to make a lang-8 blog and I’m just now drafting out a rough introduction post. I want to say something like that improving my Japanese would make me very happy, so please criticize me as much as possible.

I know that Japanese tend to be polite, and what I’m trying to get across is that I’d like every ounce of ‘weirdness’ beaten out of me, (What’s the Japanese counterpart of Engrish? XD) and that the meaner people are, the better?

I’d go by は as ‘regarding’ or ‘as for’, mostly because of Tae Kim. Seeing は as ‘is’ might be an easy way of understanding it at first, but since it’s not really accurate, well…better to use a visualisation that’s closer to the truth, even if it’s a little odd to wrap your head around.

• This reply was modified 12 years, 8 months ago by  Pencil.

Thank you very much. =)

That sentence was from a character profile, and later on it refers to him as 主人公の義理の父親. I know that they basically mean the same thing,but what kind of nuance does 父親 possess that makes it different from 父?

温和で優しい主人公の義理の父。

In the first part of that sentence, both 温和 and 優しい (according to Rikai-kun) mean ‘gentle’ or ‘kind’, so what exactly does 温和で優しい mean?

As an added tip, if anyone’s using the Microsoft IME and you find a word containing the dreaded づ, just type ‘du’ and it should appear. =)

I’d really like to do some lang-8 posts and/or Mika-esque* videos about different Japanese books and movies that I’ve enjoyed, but there are two big things I’m unsure of:

1. The word for ‘main character’ or ‘protagonist’. alc.co.jp gives me 主人公, but I’d like to double-check that with everyone here to make sure I’m using it in the right context.
殺し屋１の主人公はやくざの垣原さん。

2. With fictional events and people, do I talk about them as if they were real, or is there some special way I need to relay things?
最近は彼の組長は殺した。

*Search YouTube for ‘Japanese Girl Explains’. (I’d like to hope that my Japanese would be slightly better than her English, but if it wasn’t, at least I’d get tons of helpful criticism. =D)