#Japanese studies

[lauralearns]

Notes on ひらがな 📚✨️

Disclaimer: I haven't been posting a lot lately (life's been hectic) so I decided to start sharing some of my notes. These were taken a while back, based on Tae Kim's grammar guide.

Japanese consists of two phonetic scripts (Hiragana and Katakana, referred to as kana), with a little less than 50 characters each. Today we'll study Hiragana!

Hiragana (ひらがな) is used for a couple of reasons:

• Grammatical purposes;

• Words with really difficult/rare Kanji;

• Colloquial expressions;

• Onomatopoeias;

• Or by beginner students and children, in place of unfamiliar Kanji;

Every character in Hiragana corresponds to a [vowel] or [consonant + vowel] syllable sound, with the exception of [ん].

When practicing by hand, it's extremely important to remember that stroke order and the direction of strokes matter a lot! You don’t want to end up with the writing skills of a clumsy toddler.

(the chart bellow has hiragana and katakana btw, the hiragana characters are on the left side)

source: r/japaneseresources on reddit

Thought learning all the characters was hard enough? Fear not, there's additional sounds for you to learn.

📚 The Muddied Sounds 📚

There are five more consonant sounds that are written by affixing two tiny lines (dakuten) or a tiny circle (handakuten) to a character. This creates a less clipped version of the consonants, as you can see bellow:

source: japanistry.com

📚 The Small [や], [ゆ] and [よ] 📚

We can combine a consonant with a / ya / yu / yo sound by attaching a small [や], [ゆ] or [よ] to the /i/ vowel character of each consonant.

source: guidetojapanese.org

📚 The Small [つ] 📚

A small [つ] is inserted between characters to carry the consonant sound of the second character to the end of the first.

Note that when you encounter a small [つ] between characters, there's almost always a clipping sound to the pronounciation! You gotta make sure to clip the right consonant (the consonant of the second character).

Example: ざっし (zas-shi / magazine)

📚 The Long Vowel Sound 📚

You can extend the vowel sound of a character by adding [あ], [い] or [う] to them. See the chart bellow:

source: guidetojapanese.org

Example: to create a extended vowel sound from [か], we add a [あ] to create [かあ].

Remember to actually hold your vowels long enough, or you'll end up saying stuff like [ここ - here] instead of [こうこう - highschool].

Lastly, there are a few exceptions where and /e/ vowel is extended by adding [え] or and /o/ vowel is extended by adding [お], but those are few and far between, so pay attention but don't worry too much about it.

Example: おねえさん (older sister)

See you next time! 💌

[oshistudy]

introduction - oshistudy

✧˖*°࿐ hi, i'm oshi/luka !! teen, he/him, JPN learner for 5yrs

*. * · this is a sideblog for blogs mainly about learning japanese. i may change in the future to also include general studies, but for now that is the focus. i plan to document my daily study sessions, and also provide recourses for fellow learners on the way! if you like that sorta stuff, please follow.

*. * ·

[anza-langblr]

文学作品から学ぶ語彙

名詞 // Nouns：

権威（けんい）authority 清楚（せいそ）neatness 苦笑い（にがわらい）bitter smile 微笑（びしょう）smile 名誉（めいよ）honor

動詞 // Verbs：

朽ちる（くちる）decay さらす　expose しらばっくれる　play dumb ずば抜ける（ずばぬける）stand out　 はぐらかす　dodge (a question), evade 微笑む（ほほえむ）smile

形容詞 // Adjectives：

後ろめたい（うしろめたい）have a guilty conscience 薄気味悪い（うすきみわるい）eerie おんぼろの　shabby, run-down, worn-out 気だるい（けだるい）listless 微妙な（びみょう）subtle, delicate, fine 素っ頓狂な（すっとんきょう）wild, hysteric

その他 // Other：

概して（がいして）generally どうとでも　one way or the other, either way なぜか　for some reason, without knowing why なにやら　some kind of

[miliyana1]

Vocabulary and sentence composition exercises #1

Vocab

気がつく (きがつく)- to realize

蹴る (ける) - to kick

刺す (さす) - to sting; to bite

触る (さわる)- to touch; to feel

捕まる (つかまる)- to be arrested; to be caught

包む (つつむ)- to wrap; to cover

殴る (なぐる) - to strike; to hit; to punch

sentence

気がつく - 父がレストランでスマホを忘れられちゃった。

蹴る - 今日は、弟に店で自分を蹴られちゃった。

刺す - 蜂(はち)に刺されちゃった。

触る - これを触ってみてもいいですか？

捕まる - 彼は捕まった。

包む - バッグでサンドイッチを包んでおく。

殴る - 娘に殴られちゃった。

[dontstaytiny]

me when someone asks how my japanese studies are coming along but i only know how to introduce myself, say die, shut up, and car

[korolife]

Blog No.004📚　24年6月13日

My Visual Method of Learning Japanese Kanji (漢字) part①

～ Let's Pair-up Similar-lookin' Characters Next to Each Other♥!～

There are many ways to learn Japanese. 📔

This way might not be effective or efficient (or even reasonable) for anyone else, but this is the visual approach that I'm currently developing + sharing for possibly any like-minded students it might resonate with!

【Background】

At first, I did the standard "write it down with repetition until you get it right" on flashcards, notebooks, etc. I don't think I ever got it 'right'ーevery optimistic attempt of "I'm gonna get in some daily lessons in today, and successfully absorb this knowledge!!" was always accompanied with this state of... confusion? and being so, so overwhelmed that neither the meaning, the reading, the stroke order, nor even the appearance of the kanji stuck to me at all. I don't think I've ever made it past the list of N4 kanji, even though most words I come across tend to be scattered around the N3-N1 level.

I've tried studying them strictly in order of the listing / then tried loosely with some doodling / or even a cherry-nitpicky minimalistic approach; just-take-what-is-frequently-used-style... but there just seemed to be no end in sight。

『Issue①:』 I wanted to see ALL of the kanji displayed at once, instead of dreading the 'higher levels' hidden from the limited amount displayed at a time; be it from reference books, screen displays on websites or mobile applications, etc. It's definitely just a personal issue, I think haha I just didn't like the surprise sneak attack from so much identical kanji from differing levels that scrambles my brain everytime I encounter a doppelganger. And boy, there's a LOT of those (as you will see).

I thought about making a series of biiiig posters or scrolls I could stick up on a wall, like those kiddie info posters but completely filled with kanji as decoration + motivation + and a bit of a cheat sheet I could easily access at a glance. But just imagining over 2,000 jumbled characters looming over me while I work on my desk or seeing something like that first thing after waking up………it feels a lot unsettling, I think-

『Issue②:』 They're often arranged according to their frequency of usage, stroke order, or general difficulty of the word. Although it's for practicality, it leaves the visual impact completely all over the place. I don't know if I have any underlying conditions that contribute to something trivial like this greatly bothering me past the point of productivity, but it's not even about aesthetics I have an issue with, I don't think? It's just...the arrangement feels so chaotic, or sometimes oddly restrictive that I keep getting distracted. It's like some kind of puzzle I've been trying to solve for 10 hours straight, but it's just me going in circles back to zero. Speaking of puzzles....

Maybe, to save physical space for literally thousands of characters, I thought about placing one kanji on each of a rubik's cube's faces. But that would take a ridiculous amount of cubes and printer ink/alternatively, manually cutting, pasting, and poorly writing very very tiny 0.5inch labels for...two thousand times, at least. By hand.

I'm still tempted to incorporate this idea in some way, but felt unmotivated and lazy with how flimsy and shoddy my handwritten labels were…also printer ink prices continue to be a goddang scam--

I've unfortunately never been a studious student, especially not when it comes to conventional learning methods. It tends to make me want to try ridiculous ideas to get around my own dysfunctionality, because the other option would be... to continue a system that doesn't work and be frustrated, and accomplish nothing; not even a smile.

Because I was learning Japanese out of my own free will, I wanted to have fun with it, because the whole concept of kanji seems really fun in theory!… but not so much in attempted practice as a clueless outsider with no knowledge apart from the standard English reading and writing system.

Even if perceived as a complete waste of time by a lot of people, I still want to understand each individual character to be able to appreciate and greet them accordingly when I encounter them in the wild.

For fun☆!

【Conventional Systems】

I mostly took inspiration from other existing popular learning systems that many people use:

➊The standard N5-N1 System was alright, but I found myself tempted to skip straight to ～N3 where frequently used characters appeared more, despite being barely at the lowest N5 level myself. I wanted all the characters to be visibly accessible…but it got intensely overwhelming so fast. The hierarchal labeling made finding a N1 character have this weird sense of pressure? Like, "oh sht , this word has N1 kanji. mY ELEMENTARY GRADE DUMBASS AIN'T SUPPOSED TO BE IN HERE--"

➋Then there's pictographs. It's interesting, but I thought a lot of them were a little bit of a reach? haha it's basically a visual mnemonic, right? But other people's mnemonics usually have their 'creative logic' that my own may not agree with, so I just end up getting distracted with the internal logic of the image and how it correlates to the kanji instead of absorbing any actual information. I think it has potential, but I'd need to personalize the visual imagery for it to be effective…or at least, have the mnemonic make enough sense to me and not be abstractly distracting. Even by then, the more strokes there are, the more convoluted it looks to even liken it to anything in the real world...Kanji by itself is already a pictogram, I guess...?

➌Then there's the Heisig method. I liked the concept; the goal is for (mostly) foreigners to easily familiarize the 'look' of the kanji character and attach it to a singular meaning. But personally, it wasn't working with how much my brain was confusing every variation of similar-looking patterns that kept reappearing over a span of different kanji, with the same radical appearing in different positions or orientations. Heisig's compilation was good in a sense that I could see a reoccurring pattern and it was most definitely less chaotic to look at now, but they continue to persist so far away from each other? Then adding that element of "the unknown" with kanji I've yet to encounter or seek out for being 'too advanced' with this doppelganger dilemma was driving me absolutely coconuts.

Plus, since it's a method created with absolute beginners in mind, it falls short with the lack of kun- and on- yomi readings…which were what I needed to learn the most.

I decided to combine these three ideas to make my own way.

【??? Personal System】

This system will continuously be developed from here on out until it can actually be functional, but so far, here's what's been done and being planned:

Apparently these were from 8 months ago good lord-

I pretty much just lined up screenshots of a full kanji listing (I believe it was a Jouyou listing) and just...painstakingly played a Match-3 game, but irl, pretty much... and with more back pain

※Reference used to curate these kanji and their information are primarily from ①an app called 'Satori', and ②another app called 'Yomiwa'. Both apps source information from KANJIDIC and JMDict + mixed with a variety of online dictionaries to cross-reference and check for additional info.

I was working on and off on it because staring at nothing but kanji all day will probably make a few screws loose, but I generally continued anytime I was feeling a little down, stressed out, or just had free time. It was oddly therapeutic when I saw the finished arrangements, though. This feeling of "I can't tell if I like it or hate it" reminded me of my thesis days lmao

I had originally planned to put them on 3x3 rubik's cubes, so I initially had to group them by a full set of 9 characters. But the distribution was so unbalanced that each look-alike group was either lacking or exceeding in numbers, and trying to evenly incorporate 'leftovers' into the other groups just looked forced as hell, visually. So, I gave up on the rubik's cube concept and just tried to match at least a row of just 3 look-alikes to then ascend or descend in complexity with their other cousin-distant-lookalikes.

EXAMPLE:

人　大　木

person・big・tree

▲These three I would consider 'cousins'. I wouldn't classify them together in a row of 3 because there are far more identical characters, but after I gather all of each of their sibling groups, I'd most definitely arrange them next to each other in succession as if the 人 was growing more limbs.

太　大　犬

fat・big・dog

▲These three I would consider 'siblings'.

It reminds me of twins that only have differing beauty marks for distinction.

▲And these...are kinda cursed ngl, my double takes had to do their own double takes everytime I would finish grouping something to the 'tree radical' family, and suddenly spotting another one I could've sworn was the exact same character. It made me feel like I was going insane lol I know that the context showing the connecting hiragana is usually a dead giveaway on which kanji it is, regardless of how similar in appearance + how it's going to be read... but man. It's so surreal seeing them all lined up next to each other?? All I see is a forest-

Somewhere along the way, my brain remembered about the elemental periodic table and drew some layouting inspiration from there, too. Ideally, I would love to have all the information already present at a single glance with each character. But with the limited display space, assigning chronological identification numbers on them for now would help in navigating this wide, colorful kanji blanket.

I might've discarded a couple of archaic / overly complex kanji that no one really uses for this list at this moment, but in total, there appears to be 952 rows of trios.

= A total of 2,856 kanji have been included. Unless I miscounted somewhere-

my back hurts-

【Personal Limits + Goals】

I've been learning Japanese the same way I have Englishーvery, very informally; simply picking up what I hear and read in random places and applying them to how my brain interpreted their usage. It's literally like 'playing by ear', musically? except I'm tone deaf as hell-

There are some words (both Eng and Jp) that I surprise even myself when I know how to say it, or suddenly somehow using it during very specific situations, even if I don't know how to define their exact meaning…or even how to pronounce them correctly. Then there's very basic words that are so foreign to me because I have never heard or seen them before, despite possibly being one of the first things teachers introduce in proper lessons.

I can understand verbal Japanese just OK (some common dialects are recognizable too, just as long as it ain't extreme keigo-), my attempt at constructed sentences is weab-level at best and my butchering of the intonations is an atrocity, but most importantly, I can't read most kanji I come across for the life of me without furigana. Even with it, it's usually too dang small in print to even read…

Basically the nutshell of my 'Japanese Reading Practice with Manga' series orz I was so worried about potential copyright infringements, but I misread everything, it just became transformative on its own--

※ADDITIONAL NOTE: There is the onyomi (Orig. Chinese reading used when compounding the character with another to create a word) and the kunyomi (general Japanese reading of the kanji) that I ranked as the 'most important' thing to learn for me...then there's their long-lost wayward sibling: Nanori for Japanese name readings.

It is a ｗｈｏｌｅ new world out there......and I'm good staying indoors, thanks- don't even get me started on kirakira name readings I will cry for those poor unfortunate souls deadass named things like 'PEGASUS' or 'ANGEL LOVE' as their government name good lord

Speaking of names, when I saw Kaedehara Kazuha's name (Genshin Impact) in kanji for the first time :

「楓原万葉」

I read it as "Kazewara Manba"💀he is Manba-kun to me now

ーEven if my overall proficiency is at kindergarten level, for now,

I want to improve at at least recognizing the correct kanji at a regular reading speedーwith no mistaken identities, frantic dictionary pulling-out, or furigana dependency necessary!★

And that's what I want to achieve first and foremost with...whatever this is I'm creating。

+ so I can read manga and novels in peace without constantly squinting at a magnifying glass orz Fluency is kinda moot in my case because... I don't talk to anyone lol-

also, online shtposting in the Jp meme side rly do hit different

　〘ーand I'd like colors to accompany me!〙

『Issue③:』 Every Kanji list overview, regardless of arrangement or method, always gives me anxiety with how sharply white and black it is. That minimalistic uniformity forces you to depend on shapes alone to make inferences... but then you see sht like:

土　VS　士　

(dirt)・(samurai)

末　VS　未

(tip)・(sign of the sheep)

where it's literally the subtlest of LINE LENGTH, a tiny splotch, or the more complex characters that don't even share the same radicals but because they both vaguely have a similar silhouette, they start looking confusing to the brain, I just...............colors are absolutely necessary!! At least, it is definitely the case for my very easily bamboozled noodle that demands distinctive visual variations. I am in the belief that shapes alone will not suffice to memorize the correct information when you have over 2,000 subjects to sift through that... literally copied each other's homework. They kept gaslighting me throughout the process- Ask a Chinese or Japanese friend today if they're doing ok bc holy sht how do ya'll live like this, especially when web browsers tend to squash anything exceeding 14 strokes at regular display font sizes I-

I made the ｺﾛﾚｯﾃKoroLife System (Kororette Life; a wish for a 'colorful life') that pushes more focus on the creative and productive use of colors and patterns for myself, initially for drawing composition purposes... but I found that it was something just as applicable with making everyday tasks way easier and fun to look at.

It eventually took over this project too, and finally gave me what I was looking forーinner peace with a lifetime of beef and animosity with kanji…but in style★

When I said I was a heavy visual learner... this is exactly what I meant-

So…this is my way of arranging nearly 3,000 kanji by rows of 3 visually identical characters that confuses my dyslexic 外人 dumdum the most + making use of colors for subcategorizing them according to their shapes. And, hey, they make for pretty neat stickers!

⇒[FREE TO DOWNLOAD!]

△contains x4 parts of higher quality of each quadrant (transparent bg) + this huge overview display map...or kanji blanket, however you see it as-

Unfortunately there's very little to make of it apart from a display, but as soon as I add some practicality to this system, I will compile them into the 0+ Resource Shop. For now, please feel free to personally use them however you like~! I'm already sticking 'em everywhere-

I divided them into 6 colored categories according to the character's overall perceived 'shape'*: ・Curves (orange)

・Sparks'n'mix (pink)

・Criss-crossing (dark blue)

・Lines (light blue)

・Cubes (yellow) ・囧ﾒ (violet)

・imperfect matches (green)

Highlighted ones are stand-outs, or visually the easiest to digest (to me anyway).

＊these are very arbitrary classifications with flawed, subjective internal logic that has been revised multiple times over. (eg. Even if something has a curve, if I feel like the overall shape has lines that stand out more, then it's in the light blue category instead.)

And with that, I think I'll call it...

The「色々色 / IROIROIRO」 Method!! otherwise known as the 色³ for short!!!

■ 「色」・いろ・(Iro)

➊lit. Color, tint, hue, shade ➋kind, type, variant

■ 「々」・のま・同の字点 / どうのじてん・(noma / dou no jiten)

Kanji repetition mark; placed beside a repeating kanji.

■ 「色色 / 色々」 ・いろ・(Iroiro)

various, all sorts of

■「³」・３乗足す / さんじょうたす・３の立方 / さんのりっほう・(san jyou tasu / san no rihhou)

mathematical term.; Cubed, to the power of 3 pls don't ask me for the actual application specifics, I get a 3/10 average on my math tests-

It's a fun pun! Kinda.

【Preliminary Conclusion】

Is it an effective strategy to master Japanese kanji at all, though? Maybe not. At least, probably not just by this visual display alone. I honestly don't expect anyone else benefitting much from this project, but it personally really reinvigorated me to continue studying Japanese again. It's strange how something that caused me so much feelings of dread and anxiety for the majority of my early teen years, suddenly feels so much fun to work with. All it needed was sleep deprivation, some touch of personalization, and a little bit of color!… ok, well, a lot of color-

It's a complete homebrew, unverified by anyone, and I guess a little insane, but I thought it turned out kinda cool anyway, so I thought I'd share it! What do you think? I'll write up an update about any further developments in this silly lil system the next time. I'm thinking of somehow fitting in all the definitions, readings, stroke orders, and maybe samples of their usage... but also in style★ somehow-

We'll workshop it, even if it takes another additional 8 months!!!

Until then! バイバイ(￣▽￣)／

つづく

➡To be continued...

・・・ホームページALL LINKS・・・

・Art Gallery・Commission Info・Ko-fi shop・

[riversidewings]

Sometimes I feel like I'm the Diogenes of Japanese studies, holding up a kokeshi in the middle of the academic conference and proclaiming "BEHOLD A TENURED PROFESSOR"

[nicholasandriani]

Japanese Myths in Dungeons & Dragons

D&D is if anything a playground for brewing cocktails of legendary stories. Stories steeped in a broth of human experiences that penetrate the greater depths of our psyches. I don’t know about you, but that’s half the incentive — to try on new ways of being, seeing, and moving through the world. I’ve long had an interest in researching the East Asian aspects of D&D and took a moment during…

[niuniente]

Aizuchi: The Noises Japanese Make 

I stumbled upon Kaname Saito’s Youtube, where he teaches with great examples and easy to follow examples different nuances in Japanese speaking. This one contains all Japanese aizuchi filler words with their meanings - like ee, yare yare, uwa, ge, aramaa etc. - and how and where to use them.

[language-hyperfixation]

Langblr intro~

Hello! - Hallo! - こんにちは! - 안녕하세요!

We're new to this community and wanted to see what it's all about. We've been practicing languages on and off for years but still have a long way to go!

📖 Studying:

German

Japanese

Korean

📖 Previously studied:

Spanish

Mandarin Chinese

Swedish

Sign language

📖 Want to study:

Hindi

Ukranian

Icelandic

Tagalong

🩷 Some info about us! 🩷

Pronouns: They/them

We're plural system and prefer the term "headmates" over alters, plz! Due to being a system we'll be using I/me and we/us interchangably

Hope to move abroad someday ✈️

Wanna become a polyglot but ADHD makes studying hard 💔

Dividers by cafekitsune and saradika

Tschüss!~

[nihongo-de-asobo]

10/10/24 勉強要約

⏱️: 2 hours

🎧: didn’t really listen to music today

to do:

Finish なんとなく、クリスタル

Article on Methodological Nationalism in Japanese Studies

notes:

finally remembered to take pictures! the article was very interesting, though i think it could have been written better (lots of filler)

[hades100stages]

100 Days of Productivity 1/100

Sunday 1st September 2024

I didn’t do much studying today because I spent most of my day getting ready for uni tomorrow- cleaning, cleaning clothes, organising my bag, preparing my diary, changing my earrings (for the change of scenery.)

In my diary I took notes of everything I need to do this week and prepare for. It doesn’t look like a lot but it was.

Starting anything today was pretty difficult but overall this week my mood has been ok, I’ve been quite anxious (like usual) but somewhat positive. Depending on how tomorrow goes, my first week at university could be really fun or really difficult, so I’m worried about what’s going to happen.

But despite all of that, I’m really looking forward to starting studying and receiving my student card so I can start checking out books at the library and accessing ebooks. I’m also really looking forward to choosing my classes, I have studied the syllabus extensively to pick out the best classes and I think I’ve curated a really good selection of classes that don’t clash or don’t interest me enough.

[momoxstudies]

JAPANESE DIARIES

7月19日

京都へ行った。東京駅から新幹線を乗った。新幹線の切符を買うのはストレスのことだったが、大丈夫だった。

新幹線はとても速いが、私は気が悪くになる。だから、窓から景色をすかせない。

そして、自動販売機で同性愛にはさんせいの言葉あるペットボトルを探した。日本には同性結婚は違法ですから、その言葉は驚かさせた。しかしとても嬉しかった。

last episode / next episode

[miliyana1]

Vocab and Sentence Composition #2

The following links in the vocab section contain more sentence examples:

Vocabulary:

めちゃくちゃ - 1. absurd 2. messy

苛める（いじめる) - to bully

着替える （きがえる) - to change clothes

貯める（ためる) - to save money

続ける（つづける）

褒める （ほめる）- to praise; to compliment; to speak well of; to speak highly of

出す （だす）- to take out

Sentence:

めちゃくちゃ - example 1. (absurd) この食べ物はめちゃくちゃ美味しいんですよ。- translation: this food is absurdly delicious. example 2. (messy) この部屋はめちゃくちゃなので、片付けなくてはいけません。- translation: I have to clean this room, because this room is a mess.

いじめる - 高校の時、私はキムさんにいじめられちゃった。- translation: when I was in high school, I was bullied by Kim.

着替える - 家に着いたら、着替えるつもりです。- translation: when I arrive home, I plan to change clothes.

貯める - 貯める人はお金がたくさんあります。- translation: people who save money have lots of money.

続ける - 日本語の勉強を続けます。 - translation: I will continue to study Japanese.

褒める - ふだん、弟をたくさん褒めます。 - translation: I usually praise my younger brother a lot.

出す - 冷蔵庫からお菓子を出してくれる？ - translation: Will you take out the snacks out from the refrigerator for me?

[choshasan]

More whining about japanese studies giving me a hard time..

I've been studying Japanese non stop for the past 3 days and omfg.. I'm not really learning anything bro.. I just been writing down kanji until my body aches and I can't feel my hand anymore, and then I come back a few hours later like..

I can't tell if I'm just not meant for studying, or if I'm just studying wrong bro..

Also.. I really don't get the JLPT classification test cuz like.. I can't even take it for the lowest level, cuz I can't fucking read japanese for shit.. but like.. I can somewhat speak it, like.. I'm lost and need to ask someone to help me find my way, I can do it very clumbsily.. like.. "Train. Vehicle. Place. City." Level..

But yeah.. I'd need a classification test that like.. actually evaluates what level of japanese you understand..?? like.., show me words and ask me to associate them to their english translation.. please...

Writing this I just realised the test I'm speaking of is called Duolingo... 💀

Not going back to that hell hole.. ever..

Anywayyy.. japanese is a complicated language ✨️

I will keep on failing at studying ✨️

[gurenalbion]

Suzaku: "ふふ" (fufu) ("chuckle")

Kallen: "何?" (Nani?) ("What?")

Suzaku: "こういう話を君とする日が来るとは思わなかったよ" (Kōiu hanashi o kimi to suru hi ga kuru to wa omowanakatta yo) ("I never thought/I never dreamed the day would come when I could talk/have conversations with you like this.")

Kallen: "ふつ" (futsu) ("Heh," like a very small chuckle; little soft laugh)

(next speech bubble is machine noise)

I asked my Japanese friend for her thoughts on this part of the chapter and she says Suzaku's choice of words show he's being serious with Kallen, in a nice way, meaning...yeah, just as the dialogue says, that he never believed they would be able to talk in this way, but here they are. Something has changed, and for the better. She says that Suzaku's choice in words shows this means a lot to him, what he is choosing to share and to say to Kallen.

My Japanese friend also wanted me to add/make clear that the words Suzaku chose when saying the "I never thought I would talk to you like this" part to Kallen in this chapter was VERY serious, as, she noted, that if you were to read his speech bubble at face value/with no context, it could be read as him sort of saying goodbye forever to Kallen (again, her words, not my own), but, since we KNOW the context and we know that this is a "kind" scene, with Suzaku smiling and everything, we know that this is not the case, and the intention/feelings in the words are 100% a different intention/feeling; a complete 180.

Anyway, like them just as friends, or as a ship, either way, all in all, this is a very nice moment. :)