Here’s a rather ironic example sentence that I came across in the Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar:
私は日本語が話せるどころか、一度も勉強したことがありません。
Translation:
I am far from being able to speak Japanese; I haven’t studied it at all.
That’s a pretty complicated sentence for an absolute beginner with no experience studying the language to be saying in Japanese. It reminded me of [...]
Posts Tagged as ‘Japanese’
July 11, 2008
Rather ironic example sentence
July 7, 2008
Just for fun…
This is just a memory device that popped into my head while studying うちに:
A君：忘れないうちに言っておきたいことがある。
B君：はい。どうぞ。
A君：なんだったっけ…
Translation
A: There’s something I want to tell you before I forget.
B: Yeah, sure. Go ahead.
A: What was it again?
さすがA君！
July 3, 2008
Getting pissed in Japanese
Let’s look at a few phrases that are useful when you want to get pissed in Japanese. (Here, I mean the American-English ‘pissed’ as in ‘angry’, not the British-English ‘drunk’, although it would be an interesting thing to see someone actually getting drunk on Japanese.)
よくそんなばかなことをしたもんだ！
How could you be such an idiot!
When your friend, in [...]
July 1, 2008
What happened to Nihongojouzu.com?
Calling Will of NihongoJouzu.com. Will of NihongoJouzu.com to the white courtesy telephone.
What happened to NihongoJouzu.com? It just disappeared!
I just thought I should point that out, since I haven’t seen it mentioned anywhere in the “Japan blogosphere”. Admittedly, my exposure to the Japanese blogging world is very narrow.
***Update***
It seems that it was just [...]
June 26, 2008
Ambiguity in English
I continue to realize the existence of problems in English the more I study Japanese.
Of course, I’m sure everyone already knows the problem with the sentence, “The boy watched the girl looking through the telescope.” Was the boy using a telescope to watch the girl? Or was the boy watching a girl who [...]
June 25, 2008
Something to consider
In Japanese, いる expresses that an animate object exists. This does not include trees and shrubbery, as they do not move of their own volition (except treants).
ある expresses the existence of an inanimate object. Things like boxes, cars, and books ある.
But what about the AI robots of the future?
June 9, 2008
Back on the table - Japanese subtitles once more
My wife and I went out to see Charlie Wilson’s War after dinner last night for our wedding anniversary. When we watch movies in English together at home, we usually have Korean subtitles on for her, and the result is that when I describe the scene I watched in English with the same scene [...]
June 3, 2008
Yet another story of super kanji to the rescue
Yet another story of how kanji saved my life…would have sounded a lot more dramatic and probably would have been a more interesting read. But, seriously - Kanji rock. Kanji are superheroes. In fact, in the upcoming 8th season of Smallville (yeah, I watch it - What’s it to you?!), we find [...]
May 31, 2008
Kanji - The Layman’s Best Friends
Sesquipedalian. I don’t think I’ll ever fall out of obsession with that word. The definition is itself. It is its own definition. There’s something so satisfying about that. But that’s not what this is about.
Sesquipedalian is far from being a common vocabulary term. The same holds true of its [...]
May 26, 2008
Japanese Homophones - A Blessing or a Curse?
I have the impression that most foreigners who study Japanese get frustrated by the inevitable homophones which accompany a language with so few vowels. However, I prefer to think of them as very useful tools - Mnemonic devices!
I’ll repost my most recent mixi.jp entry below as an example of this.
外国人にとって、日本語の同音異義語は、意味の誤解になる原因だと言われているが、
一方では記憶術として使えるので、便利だと思う！
「東大は学界の灯台」
日本語では分からないが、灯台は英語にするとa light houseで、船を案内する機械という意味だけではなく、「案内して、明らかにすること」という定義も持っているので、「東大は学界の灯台」といったら、「東大は学界の一流」という意味になる。
引き続き、「東大は当代の学界の灯台」もできる。
Toudai in Japanese [...]
