The Japanese Language Help Thread

[Not Safe For Adults]

Thank you everyone, but now I need this please: 花の映る塚

First one means flower, pronounced 'hana', with particle no making it possessive. Thus, it means 'flower's' roughly.
Second one (映る) is 'utsuru', and it is a verb meaning to be reflected.
Third one means hill, mound, or heap and is 'tsuka' or 'dzuka'.

I looked it up on google and got phantasmagoria of flower hill. So thus, probably reflections of flower hill. You are looking up a lot of Touhou stuff huh?

As you can see, this title - 東方花映塚　〜 Phantasmagoria of Flower View - features the same kanji, minus kana. Thus I would say reflections of flower hill or reflections of flower view is accurate.

[miyoun]

does anyone here use lingualift? i had a free trial (intending to use another email for another; i only got 2 days of my trial as i was working the other 5).

it's for beginners and i was wondering if it was worth doing again? i may not get into university this year (masters in japanese, maybe a masters in linguistics too), but i want to be an english teacher/japanese translator. i'd rather learn now, and revise for my first few months in uni if i dont get in this year.

also does anyone know of any books i can order online (workbooks or textbooks?) that may help me? especially with kanji as i want to at least have some knowledge in that asap!


edit: i can read katakana better than hiragana right now, but thats mainly because i've been practicing with words like scotland, my name, my friends names, etc!

[SSJ_Jup81]

does anyone here use lingualift? i had a free trial (intending to use another email for another; i only got 2 days of my trial as i was working the other 5).

it's for beginners and i was wondering if it was worth doing again? i may not get into university this year (masters in japanese, maybe a masters in linguistics too), but i want to be an english teacher/japanese translator. i'd rather learn now, and revise for my first few months in uni if i dont get in this year.

Sorry, I don't know of this. Hope someone here can give their opinion on it.

also does anyone know of any books i can order online (workbooks or textbooks?) that may help me? especially with kanji as i want to at least have some knowledge in that asap!

I would personally buy flashcards to study kanji. They have them in levels, for example, like 1st grade (beginner), etc. and study them.

edit: i can read katakana better than hiragana right now, but thats mainly because i've been practicing with words like scotland, my name, my friends names, etc!

Well, for me, writing hiragana and katakana helped me to remember them, but ironically, if you ask me to write something (now anyway) using hiragana or katakana I have to really think about it, but if you give me something to read with them, I'm fine as I know them when I see them. lol

But yeah, if you come here, you'll definitely have to get your hiragana/katakana down at least. Flashcards should be good for this too, as well as constantly writing them (same with kanji).

I need to take my own advice. I've forgotten a lot (as far as kanji goes).

[xrick]

Excuse me, is someone here capable of translating this tweet from Sugimori?
«短い文章で正確に答えにくい質問もあることを 理解していただけると助かります。»
I've been using Google Translate to get his answers and send mine to him but this time his reply is big enough for the translator to mess up.
«It survives and is also serving to understand that difficult question to answer accurately in short sentences.»
I really need to know if I'm finally starting to get somewhere with my conversations with him...

SSJ_Jup81 has the gist of it, but the whole tweet means, "I'd be thankful [literally 'saved'] if [unstated subject, presumably his followers] could understand that there are some questions which are difficult to answer correctly with short sentences."

The unstated subject was myself, he was answering some questions I made to him through Twitter regarding the timeline, stuff about Gen1 Blue and the "proper" names for Silver and the Gen1 cast.
It seems these small points are "delicate topics" to discuss with fans... I just can't come to believe it...

[kiera2]

also does anyone know of any books i can order online (workbooks or textbooks?) that may help me? especially with kanji as i want to at least have some knowledge in that asap!

I second the flashcards suggestion for kanji. Kanji are really just a matter of rote memorisation. The ones I use are made by Tuttle Flash Cards, and are very good. As well as meanings and pronunciations they show stroke order, compounds, radicals, even dictionary reference numbers.

For textbooks, the Minna no Nihongo series is very popular for beginner to intermediate levels. If you're planning to sit the JLPT, you might want to look into textbooks specifically tailored to the tests. Just make sure you get ones made for the new levels (N1-N5), as the tests and their content were reorganised a couple of years ago.

It seems these small points are "delicate topics" to discuss with fans... I just can't come to believe it...

The way I read it, his point is more that it's hard to give a proper answer to complex questions when constrained by Twitter's character limit.

[OverlordRuby]

I'm sorry if this is an annoying question, or has already been answered, but does "mikazuki" (with the characters for "three", "sun/day", and "moon") mean crescent moon? I was going to use it for my username, and I just wanted to be sure.

[kiera2]

I'm sorry if this is an annoying question, or has already been answered, but does "mikazuki" (with the characters for "three", "sun/day", and "moon") mean crescent moon? I was going to use it for my username, and I just wanted to be sure.

Yes, 三日月 means a crescent moon. It literally means "third day moon", which according to Wikipedia refers to the third day of the lunar calendar (which starts with the new moon as day 1).

[AkuromaKun]

When do we use the particle Ni and He?

[Satoshi_Pikachu]

Both ni and e (represented by へ）　are used for destination, but ni has many more uses. For example, you can say Gakkou e iku and Gakkou ni iku and both will mean I'm going to school, but you can't say America he sundeiru, you have to say America ni sundeiru (I live in America).

Ni has a lot more uses, such as time, "by", "from", indirect object marker, blablabla. But I don't want to confuse you with my bad explanations, so just check out this website:
Particles: Ni

[OverlordRuby]

Yes, 三日月 means a crescent moon. It literally means "third day moon", which according to Wikipedia refers to the third day of the lunar calendar (which starts with the new moon as day 1).

Thank you for the help.

[J. S. Köttbulle]

I've been trying to translate some lyrics, but ran into some trouble:

"それを沢山沢山振りまいちゃって
なにそれうすっぺらい"
I got to "a lot, a lot/lots and lots of that" and then the translation got a bit shaky. My attempts to translate the next verse yielded utter nonsense, although I think "うすっぺら" means either "superficial" or "thin" ("Cheaply made" and "flimsy" also came up.). At least one source I checked suggested the い at the end negated the adjective.

The line shows up again here:
"あたしはおまけなの
それともその人がおまけなの
なにそれうすっぺらい "
The first two verses seem to mean "I am bonus content, or he is." which could be a metaphor, but could also be me screwing up. Are there other ways to write "おまけ" which would change the meaning? Does it mean something different as an adjective (which the な seems to suggest it is)?

Thank you.

[Pyroclastic Friend]

This please: 危険なゆらめき

[Kthleen]

This please: 危険なゆらめき

Kiken na Yurameki=Dangerous Sway

[Pyroclastic Friend]

This please: 危険なゆらめき

Kiken na Yurameki=Dangerous Sway

Thank you.

[Fab]

Not sure if this is the right place, but someone might be able to help. There's a an antiques shop in japan called Liu Min. What would be the correct pronunciation of that, if anyone knows. I've been pronouncing it Lie-oo-min, but I don't know correct that is. Thanks for any help :)