#日本語���強

[anza-langblr]

部屋探し｜Apartment Hunting

Let me share with you my current struggles on finding a place to stay in Japan with this long vocabulary list!

住宅（じゅうたく）housing, residential building

住宅街（じゅうたくがい）residential area

最寄り駅（もよりえき）nearest train station

共同住宅（きょうどうじゅうたく）residential complex, apartment house

不動産屋（ふどうさんや）real estate agent

物件（ぶっけん）object, property (real estate)

ネット���（じょう）on the internet

掲載する（けいさい）post, insert (advertisement)

家賃（やちん）rent

共益費（きょうえきひ）common fee, utility fee

加算する（かさん）add

月額（げつがく）monthly amount

初期費用（しょきひよう）initial costs

入居する（にゅうきょ）move into

翌月（よくげつ）next month

翌月分（よくげつぶん）next month's rent

礼金（れいきん）key money (fee paid for rental rights)

敷金（しききん）deposit

保証金（ほしょうきん）deposit

清掃費（せいそうひ）cleaning fee

火災保険料（かさいほけんりょう）fire insurance fee

内見（ないけん）viewing

賃貸（ちんたい）lease, rent

賃貸借契約（ちんたいしゃけいやく）rental contract

借り主（かりぬし）debtor, tenant

貸主（かしぬし）lender, landlord

大家さん（おおや）landlord

一時に（いちどき）at once

滞納（たいのう）falling behind (with a payment)

Moving into a Japanese property comes with high initial costs which can be broken down into numerous different fees. Unfortunately, share houses are not necessarily fully excluded from this, but it really depends on the company. I'm glad that I could take some time to work and save up money before going to Japan. The first month will be very expensive.

[sheeeshvangi]

Keeping up with my goals!

I'm struggling a lot with the reading section and I really don't know how to fix my reading skills. Everyone suggests to read more but it's so hard to focus and keep reading when you don't understand things and get demotivated. If anyone has any tips for me I would really appreciate it!

Hope you guys are doing great!

[corallitejp]

Hello everyone!

I haven’t been on tumblr for years, but I have decided to open a new blog to motivate myself in my studies!

A little about myself:

I am Italian born and raised

I’m 24 years old, so I’ve been in the trenches of this website

I’m a marine biology student currently in graduate school

I live in Japan!

I speak 3 languages fluently (Italian, English and Spanish), and I’m currently studying Japanese. I also know a little Russian but not enough to consider myself fluent…

My favorite animals are jellyfish and corals

I did ballet for 19 years

This blog will mainly focus on academia and study motivation, as well as my daily life here in Japan! I want to spread awareness on themes such as climate change, and teach you guys all about the Ocean! I also hope this will motivate some people to study, because staying informed and educated is important, especially in times like these.

[vocaloidstudent]

This might be a very niche take but I think we should take people's reasons for learning a language in mind when suggesting how they go about it

I've seen people in a lot of Japanese learning communities tell other to never watch fantasy anime (or anime at all sometimes) or read anything that's not slice-of-life or actual literature because "people in real life don't speak like that"

And while, yes, that's true, native Japanese speakers do not generally speak like anime characters, uhhhh... The probability of me watching a fantasy anime in the course of a month is significantly higher than the probability of me going to Japan in the next five years. So understanding anime character speech is in fact more relevant to me than, idk, business lingo

And, I don't think that's a bad thing personally? Learning a language because you want to better understand content you find fun is just as good a reason as learning it to live in the country where the language is spoken, and it's fine and reasonable to adjust your learning strategies according to your personal goals

[isshonihongo]

JLPT N5 - している [Part 2]

Hey everyone, welcome to Part 2 of talking about している. This N5 grammar point is very basic but also very important. Let’s get into it shall we!

But first, here is your vocabulary:

【English Helping Verbs】

As I mentioned in Part 1, the “して“ in している can stand for any verb in て form. Sometimes it is actually する, but most times it will be some other verb.

Ok great, but what is the いる part?? Take a look at the following English sentences:

① Traffic accidents often occur here.

② I am eating.

③ The window is open.

Two of these sentences have both a helping verb and a main verb. In #1, there is only a main verb, which is “occur”. In #2 the main verb is “eating” and the helping verb is “am”. In #3 the main verb is “open” and the helping verb is “is”. Notice that one of the main verbs has the -ing suffix while the other two don’t. Make a mental note of this for later. 😉

【The いる in している】

Japanese also has helping verbs. Allow me to introduce you to one of the most common ones: いる！

The いる helping verb* adds nuance to the main verb. But here’s the thing - there are different versions of いる！In the している Part 1 article, you actually saw what I call the いる of Repetition. This いる does not translate to the -ing form of our verbs in English. If you see よく起きている for example, you should think “often occur(s)”. This is similar to example #1 above.

Examples #2 and 3 are not actions of repetition. For them, we need the other いる, which I call the いる of State or Condition. This いる sometimes makes us use that -ing suffix in our English translations. So if you just see 食べている, by default it would mean “started eating and then stayed in that state for some period of time”. Instead of all that, in English we would simply say “is eating”. This is similar to example #2 above.

開く is a different type of verb than 食べる**. Because of this, the いる of State or Condition does not lead to us using the -ing form. In this case, something is open and stays in that state for some period of time. We don’t say “is opening”. Instead we just say “is open”. For verbs like 開く, their English translations won’t use that -ing form. Instead they will be like example #3 above.

The key to the している grammar point is understanding what kind of main verb you have, and then which helping verb いる you are reading/hearing!

【いる of State or Condition】

Here are some examples where the helping verb いる expresses a state or condition.

This is how you say example #3 in Japanese.

= Tom is currently in the Philippines.

Interestingly, you could also say the following:

⑥ トムはフィリピンに来ています。***

⑦ トムはフィリピンにいます。

#5, 6 and 7 all say that Tom is in the Philippines but the nuance is different in each of them!

#5 says that Tom went to the Philippines and stayed there. This means that the speaker is NOT in the Philippines. On the other hand, #6 says that Tom came to the Philippines and then stayed there, meaning that the speaker is also there. #7 simply says that Tom is in the Philippines. We don’t have any information about where the speaker is located.

= Mizuki is wearing a white skirt and hat.

#8 has several things that I want to point out: First is that the て form of a verb can mark the end of a comment. Example 8 has two comments of equal value. This is one version of a Japanese compound sentence.

The second thing is that the ending helping verb can actually apply to TWO DIFFERENT main verbs! Native speakers hear #8 and understand the verbs to be both はいています as well as かぶっています.

The last thing is that verbs connected to clothes are very interesting. When you attach the helping verb いる, they can sometimes express the state of wearing something. However, in some contexts they can instead express the action of putting something on. For the N5 level luckily you won’t have to distinguish between wearing and putting on clothing so no worries. It is good to keep this tidbit in the back of your mind for the future though.

【Conclusion】

So there you have it. Now you know that the している grammar point can express several situations. You could have:

・Repetition - there will be a word/phrase that indicates that the action happens repeatedly. The English translation won’t use the -ing form of a verb

・State or a Condition - there MAY or may not be a word/phrase indicating repetition. The main thing to focus on is whether the verb is an action verb or not. This will help you decide if you need -ing or not.

As always, keep your eyes and ears open for different kinds of examples and try to notice patterns. You can do it!

Rice & Peace,

– AL

👋🏾

*I purposely say “the helping verb いる“because there is also the regular いる verb. It’s the same with the “be”, “do” and “have” verbs in English. “Am” in “I am a teacher” plays a different role than the one in “I am eating.”

** 食べる is a transitive verb while 開く is an intransitive verb. Usually transitive verbs will translate to -ing and intransitive verbs won’t. Of course there are exceptions so keep an open mind.

*** When choosing between 来ている、行っている、and いる think about where the speaker is located as well as if you want to stress the movement of the subject.

[minimalist-language-learning]

The more I read in Japanese, the more I feel like the constant stream of new words and expressions will never end. Despite all the progress, there's always more to learn.

It's intimidating and amazing at the same time.

[noctuadora]

About the Japanese relationship charts circulating around RE Twitter…

I've been seeing these images used to spark discussion... and arguments. Shipping wars aside, I was more intrigued by this Japanese term used to describe Leon and Ada’s relationship.

I want to explain these words in more detail, so this post will be about that + answering questions that some might ask. I'm also including Leon and Claire's chart as well.

Note: I am currently studying Japanese. I made this post partly because I like to understand advanced terms that are unique to a specific language. Despite this, my explanation is not immune to errors.

Leon and Claire’s relationship chart in Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness (2021).

Explaining this first because this is fairly easy to understand.

信頼関係 (しんらいかんけい・shinraikankei) - A relationship of mutual trust.

Kanji breakdown:

信頼 > reliance, trust, faith, confidence // 関係 > relationship

It should come as no surprise to anyone that Leon and Claire trust and rely on each other.

Q. ‘Is the term exclusively used for them only?’

No. 信頼関係 was also used to describe Leon's relationship with President Graham (and Jason or Patrick).

Leon and Ada’s relationship chart in Resident Evil: 6 (2012).

This is the term that others can't seem to grasp well (I mean they kinda do, but they also misinterpret it weirdly). In the English version, their relationship is described as ‘fatal ties’, but I don't care about that - I'm focusing on the Japanese version.

腐れ縁 (くされえん・kusareen) - an undesirable but inseparable relationship.

Kanji breakdown:

腐れ > to rot // 縁 > relations

The highlight of this word is the kanji 腐る, which is a negative verb used to describe something rotting/decaying.

The "inseparable relationship" part may be interpreted as romantic to some; as some shippers say, 'they are fated' (more on that later). But first, we need to understand what 腐れ縁 means in more context. Here are some excerpts I've taken from multiple sources.

離れようとしても離れられない関係 - A relationship that you know you should let go of, but can't. (This is consistent with OG RE4 Leon's line of 'she's a part of me I can't let go'.)

Note: 離れ (はなれ・hanare) mostly means 'to let go (of something/someone)' and 'to separate/to give up/to part ways'.

離れよう、縁を切ろうとしても断ち切れない好ましくない関係 - An unfavorable relationship that you can't cut off no matter how much you try to.

Note: 好ましい (このましい・konomashii) means desirable. 好ましくない (このましくない・konomashikunai) is the negative conjugation of it. 好ましくない関係 - undesirable relationship.

Just from this alone, you can see that their dynamic is difficult to understand. And that's what 腐れ縁 is.

Q. ‘Is the word 'rotten relationship' an accurate translation of the term?’

Google Translate translates this word LITERALLY. I think there is no true English equivalent of 腐れ縁, but yeah, 'fatal ties' is the term closest to it.

Q. ‘Can Leon and Ada be described as 'fated'?’

The answer is yes... and no. Here is another excerpt I find to be interesting:

「運命の相手」 を思わせるようなニュアンス ですが、 実際には好ましくない関係に使われることが 多い言葉です。- The term 腐れ縁 does have a nuance that is reminiscent of "destined/fated partner (or in other words, 'the one')", but in reality, it is often used to refer to undesirable relationships.

Q. ‘So... Is their relationship that bad?'

The answer to this question will depend on your own interpretation of Leon and Ada's dynamic - and that's why people are quite divided when it comes to them. It is said that 腐れ縁 can be positive... in the sense that if you experienced it before, you can now have a better judgment of people (lol). But in some cases, a long-lasting rotting relationship (like theirs) could mean that they at least have some level of mutual trust only they understand. It can work... but even the article I've read wasn't so clear on how it can work, so.

If you made it this far, I hope you found this interesting. :)

[corvid-language-library]

Just rewatching FFVII Remake with Japanese voice/subs and I noticed something about the kanji on the mako reactors in the intro sequence. A lot of the time, Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, 4 etc) are used for numbers in Japanese, but if not, you typically see the following kanji to represent them.

一 (1) 二 (2) 三 (3) 四 (4) 五 (5) 六 (6) 七 (7) 八 (8) 九 (9) 十 (10)

BUT. If you look at the mako reactors here, you'll see very different kanji used! In this shot here, you can see mako reactors 1, 2 and 3 use the respective kanji: 壱; 弐; 参.

I looked them up, and it turns out these are called 大字 (だいじ). They're a set of numerals used in formal Japanese, and you can actually see them on bank notes too (which I use every day but have never properly looked at, I guess).

Behold: an 壱万円 note.

You can read more about them here!

[lupusmaxima]

2023/07/21

now that my summer school is over, i’ve got two free days from work, so i’m picking up japanese again! my writing is abhorrent, so, sorry

[languagelvlup]

i love when i go back to a book or comic or drama that used to be too hard and........actually understand it. nothing gives me a better sense of progress or improves my motivation more. a million times better than passing a test for me.

[anza-langblr]

オフィスで耳にした単語（１）

名詞 // Nouns

演習（えんしゅう）practice 開発費（かいはつひ）development cost 奇数（きすう）uneven number 後半（こうはん）latter half 借金（しゃっきん）debt, loan 実践（じっせん）practice, implementation 消防設備点検（しょうぼうせつびてんけん）Fire Safety Equipment Inspection 消防（しょうぼう）fire fighting 設備（せつび）equipment 前半（ぜんはん）first half 貸与（たいよ）loan, lending 点検（てんけん）inspection 添付ファイル（てんぷ）attached file 備品（びひん）fixtures, furnishing, equpiment 部署（ぶしょ）department 予算（よさん）budjet

動詞 // Verbs

該当する（がいとう）meet (qualifications), falling under, being applicable 加担する（かたん）assist, participate, support 換算する（かんさん）convert (currency) 記載する（きさい）list, note, record 計算する（けいさん）calculate 実施する（じっし）carry out 借金する（しゃっきん）borrow money 出社する（しゅっしゃ）go to the office 請求する（せいきゅう）demand, charge, bill 使いこなす（つかいこなす）handle, master 投資する（とうし）invest 並び替える（ならびかえる）arrange 配布する（はいふ）distribute 儲ける（もうける）make profit, earn

形容詞 // Adjectives

細かい（こまかい）small 精神的な（せいしんてき）mental, spiritual, moral

その他 // Other

気合が入る（きあい が はいる）be motivated 掲���の件ですが…（けいだい）concerning the matter mentioned before (common expression in business emails) ご一読ください（いちどく）please, read it through 承知いたしました（しょうち）Understood 即座に（そくざ）right there on the spot 即興で（そっきょう）improvised, without any preperation 本日の勤務を終了いたします（ほんじつ は きんむ を しゅうりょう いたします）I am finishing work for today

[carbon--14]

iirc niko’s name is spelled in katakana (ニコ) on the letters from her mom, which makes me think it’s referencing the term nikoniko (ニコニコ). as in, the onomatopoeia for smiling. my girl’s name is literally smile, of course she’s a perfect ray of sunshine.

[wolfish-trickster]

My dad just gave me the best reason to keep studying japanese.

My second year of uni started, it's getting pretty tough and with my mental and other issues it's been really difficult to even work on my comic, let alone keep studying japanese. Long story short i haven't done a thing to improve my speaking or reading skills in the past two months.

But today my dad was cleaning up his work space/packing up his stuff. He's changing works. He brought home lots of stuff, including this funny looking usb. He gave it to me to check it out. He said he has downloaded a movie on it a long time ago and forgot to give it to me (guess constantly forgetting stuff runs in my family 😅). So today i put the usb in my pc and i found a single movie there: anthem of the heart. I was so happy! Until i played it. Just japanese, no subtitles. And i couldn't understand as much as i thought i would.

So, i'm rolling my sleeves up and logging into my renshuu account, dusting my grammar book that has been successfully collecting dust on my bookshelf, pulling out my study notebook and continuing studying!

And here i thought satoshi kon would keep me going but i already have all his work with subtitles so i guess that wasn't such a strong motivation...but this? Yup, it sure seems like a challenge! Also side eying my no longer human copy written in japanese 👀

[kumabenkyou]

Expressions with がある

Do you know what you can say with がある?

やる気がある(やる気がある) : being motivated

私はやる気があるよ！: I am motivated!

食欲がある(しょくよくがある) ：having appetite

この子供は食欲があります。: This child has appetite.

時間がある(じかんがある): having time

今日は時間がありません。: I don’t have time today.

You can also of course employ the negative form « がありません »

If you manage to memorize at least one of those sentences today, you already did a good job! がんばって！

[gretheresa]

29th April 2024

Day 27th of 100 Days of Productivity

Things I managed to get done:

vocab of almost all the chapters that are going to be on the test(3 chapters to go)

read the text thoroughly

went for a walk, the weather was lovely today

wrote 200 of the 800 characters required for the essay I need to submit

cleaned out my desk and completely got rid of the clutter (as in threw the stuff I didn't need but kept telling myself I might need it someday kinda cleaning). also watched a few Gilmore Girls episodes while cleaning.

[minimalist-language-learning]

Light novel series recommendations?

I'm (once more) thinking about diving into a long light novel series. I think reading not only single novels but also a much longer story would improve my Japanese. My problem is, that it's difficult for me to find something I really like. Liking a series so much that I can't wait to read the next volume.

Whenever I see a post of someone who writes about how much they enjoy playing visual novels or reading light novels in Japanese, I wish I could enjoy this kind of stories, too. Unfortunately, many of the popular series are either boys love or typical Isekai/Harem stories, which is not my cup of tea. I really wish I would like them, because this would make finding content SO much easier. XD

Fantasy is okay, I'm just not a fan of stories with one guy plus many cute or sexy girls who (for some reasons) are deeply in love with him. Or main characters who are too overpowered (which makes the fights boring because there is no real challenge).

I'm sure there are more than this kind of stories, they are just difficult to find because most light novel covers I've seen on Amazon.jp look like your typical harem or isekai story. I'm really feeling lost... :(

What I would like to read:

I want to read an exciting story with likable and believable characters. A story with cool twists that makes me want to read more and characters with an interesting personality who are more than just "cool" or "sexy" or "cute".

I mainly like mystery but also action, adventure, science fiction and comedy. Preferably with no (or only a little) "fan service" / erotic elements. Romance is okay as long as it's not the main focus.

If you know such a (light) novel series please let me know! And it's okay if it's technically not a light novel. It doesn't has to be anime style. Any longer novel series with a cool plot and characters would be great.