#Karneval continues to use hard kanji for fun

[chouhatsumimi]

Vocab from Karneval, Vol. 3

縁起 えんぎ, いんえん omen, sign of luck, origin, history, causation, dependent arising, doctrine that everything has a cause and there is nothing that arises out of nothing / presagio

身内, 身うち みうち relatives, one's family, friends, members of the same organization, followers, henchmen, one's whole body / pariente, consanguíneo

無様, 不様 ぶざま unshapely, unsightly, clumsy, unpresentable, uncouth, awkward, ungainly

交戦 こうせん war, battle, hostilities / beligerancia, guerra

甚だしい, 甚しい はなはだしい extreme, excessive, terrible, intense, severe, serious, tremendous, heavy (damage) / sumo, extremoso

追跡者 ついせきしゃ pursuer

甚振る いたぶる to torment, to harass, to tease

繋縛 けいばく constraint, restraint

羅列 られつ enumeration, citation, listing / enumeración

引ったくる, 引っ手繰る ひったくる to snatch from, to steal from / arrebatar (robar) de

肴, 酒菜 さかな appetizer or snack served with drinks, performance to liven up a bar, conversation to liven up a party

前振り, 前ふり まえふり preface, introduction, lead in (to a joke, question, etc.), lead up, payment in advance (by bank transfer), swinging (one's body) forward

二股, 二俣, 二また, 二叉, 二又 ふたまた seeing two people (i.e. romantically) at the same time, two-timing, bifurcation, fork, branch, dichotomy, fence-sitting, playing it both ways, parting of the ways

ぐっしょり soaking (wet), wringing, dripping, drenched / empapado

息抜き いきぬき taking a breather, relaxation, vent hole

優越 ゆうえつ supremacy, predominance, being superior to / superioridad

浸る, 漬る ひたる to be soaked in, to be flooded, to be submerged, to be immersed in (joy, memories, alcohol, etc.), to give oneself over to, to bask in / bañarse, sumergirse, zambullirse

胸ぐらを掴む, 胸倉を掴む, 胸ぐらをつかむ, 胸倉をつかむ むなぐらをつかむ to grab (someone) by the collar, to size (someone) by the lapels

定石 じょうせき standard practice, playing by the book, established tactic, formula, joseki (in go), standard sequence (esp. in a corner), standard move

甚だ はなはだ very, greatly, exceedingly / en exceso, extremamente, muy

危惧, 危ぐ, 危虞 きぐ apprehensions, misgivings, uneasiness, anxiety, fear / miedo, duda, incertidumbre, preocupación, ansiedad, desconcierto, desconfianza

風通し, 風とおし かぜとおし, かざとおし ventilation, communication (within an organisation), openness / ventilación

強奪 ごうだつ pillage, seizure, hijacking, plunder, extortion

躍進 やくしん making rapid progress, making great advances, rush, dash, onslaught

謎めいた なぞめいた enigmatic, puzzling, mysterious, wrapped in mystery

謎めく なぞめく to be enigmatic, to be puzzling, to be wrapped in mystery / ser enigmático, estar rodeado de misterio

踊り子, 踊子 おどりこ dancer (usu. female) / bailarín

慇懃無礼 いんぎんぶれい hypocritical courtesy, superficially polite but rude in intent / exceso de cortesía fingida, cortesía meramente aparente, cortesía falta de sinceridad, cortesía hipócrita

きしきし squeak, creak

フワフワ, ふわふわ lightly (floating, drifting, etc.), buoyantly, soft, fluffy, spongy, unsteadily, flightily, fickly, frivolously / esponjoso, suave, volátil, inestable

ぼりぼり, ぽりぽり munching, crunching, scratching (an itch) / sonido al rascar algo: ras-ras, sonido al comer algo crujiente: crac-crac, ruido al rascar algo: ras-ras, sonido al comer algo crujiente: crac-crac

箱, 函, 匣, 筥, 筐, 凾 はこ, ハコ box, case, chest, package, pack, crate, car (of a train, etc.), shamisen case, shamisen, public building, community building, man who carries a geisha's shamisen, receptacle for human waste, feces (faeces), counter for boxes (or boxed objects) / caja, estuche, caja, caja con tapa, caja, caja rdonda de bambú, cesta cuadrada de bambú, caja

減点 げんてん subtracting points, points deducted / sustracción, deducción

笑う, 咲う, 嗤う わらう to laugh, to smile, to sneer, to ridicule, to be dumbfounded, to be flabbergasted / reír, sonreír, flojear, debilitarse, quedarse sin fuerzas en, fallar las fuerzas en, burlarse de, mofarse de, reírse malintencionadamente de, reír, sonreír

やり繰り, 遣り繰り やりくり making do, getting by (somehow), managing / ajuste, arreglo, acomodamiento

膨よか, 脹よか ふくよか plump, fleshy, well-rounded, full, pleasant (fragrance), rich

日向ぼっこ, 日なたぼっこ ひなたぼっこ basking in the sun

花形 はながた, かけい floral pattern, flourish, ornament, star (actor, player, etc.)

媚, 媚び こび flattery, cajolery, flirtation

苛める, 虐める いじめる to ill-treat, to bully, to torment, to pick on, to tease, to be cruel to, to persecute, to be tough on (e.g. one's body), to treat harshly / burlarse, atormentar, perseguir, castigar

派閥 はばつ clique, faction / facción

男勝り, 男まさり おとこまさり (of a woman) strong-minded, spirited, mannish / (de una mujer) mentalidad fuerte, animada, hombruna

妖艶, 妖婉 ようえん fascinating, voluptuous, bewitching, captivating / fascinante, voluptuoso

屈折 くっせつ bending, curving, twisting, turning, winding, warping (of feelings, logic, etc.), distortion, twisting, refraction, inflection / curvatura, refracción, distorsión

分け入る わけいる to force one's way, to push through

[nageki-yuki-blog]

How I Learned Japanese

Since Anon asked how I learned, I decided to make a post about it in case anyone else was wondering or wanted to learn too~  This will sort of be a timeline of my journey, so I guess you could call it my Japanese journey, because that doesn’t sound weird at all. >w>   It ended up being longer than I expected so if you don’t want to read everything, just skip to the bottom and I’ll put a short version with all the main stuff that helped me learn if you are interested in learning too.  It’s under the cut~

 -Exactly five years ago, I knew absolutely no Japanese. I didn’t even know sayonara was a Japanese word to be honest until I heard them say it in an anime XD  To make a long story short, I got obsessed with anime when I was about 17, and that is around the time that I decided, maybe I should try learning the language.  It was almost exactly 5 years ago this month.

-I looked up websites about how to learn and they all said learn the alphabets first, so that’s what I did.  I made some charts of the kana and practiced with flash cards until I memorized them.  I then took some song lyrics in romaji and copied them down in both hiragana and katakana, trying not to look at the charts.  I think after about a month of practicing them, I decided to just move on and focus on the language.

-During that time, I also looked up and started watching some Japanese lesson videos on youtube ===> [Youtube Link Here] These were a great introduction to the language.  I had a notebook and I would write down the lessons like I was taking a class. LOL  I watched all the videos and memorized most of what I learned (there are probably way more videos on that channel now than there were back then).

-From that point I just started using a dictionary to learn words.  I would watch an episode of anime and write down words I heard, along with the possible translation from the subtitles.  Then I would look up all those words in the dictionary afterwards.  For example, there was an episode of Karneval where they saw smoke and Tsukumo said “kemuri?” and I read the translation of smoke so I wrote it down.  I looked it up in the dictionary afterwards to make sure it was right and then I would write all the new words I learned on another page that I would review later to memorize them all.  Although there were a ton of words I misheard or couldn’t find in the dictionary, this method helped me memorize a LOT of words.  I still remember the exact moments I first heard some words just like this example, which happened almost 5 years ago.  That is probably because hearing and seeing what’s going on in the anime, plus being able to read it in English, plus writing it down at the exact moment and reminding yourself of it later all helps it stick in your mind.

-I would review these lists of new words every morning and every night.  Studying in the morning helps you absorb it with a clear mind, and studying at night helps you memorize it because it will stay in your head all night.

-I did that and tried to memorize vocabulary lists for several months.  Another thing I did during this time was write down song lyrics in kana, and then write the meaning of each word underneath it.  This helped give me an idea of how Japanese grammar worked because I could visually see the set-up of each sentence along with the meanings.

-After those several months, I realized that I still couldn’t understand much because I didn’t really study much grammar, I only knew the meaning of nouns and some verbs, but didn’t know how to use them. I looked up Japanese grammar books online and found a free guide (or at least I think it was supposed to be free when I downloaded it, but now it looks like it’s for sale. You can still find the old version online if you look it up).  It is called the “Japanese Grammar Guide” by Tae Kim.  This guide actually helped me a lot so I need to mention it.  It took me about a year to learn everything that was in this guide.

-While I was learning from that guide, and it was about a year since I started trying to seriously learn the language, I reached a point where I still couldn’t understand pretty much anything in Japanese without a translation.  I got really upset and stopped learning for a week and wanted to give up because it was too confusing and too much work and I didn’t see any results.  But then I thought, all of this time I spent studying will be wasted if I stop now and I will regret it forever if I continue watching anime, so I HAVE to keep going.  So I forced myself to gain some motivation again and I kept going.

-After finishing the grammar guide, I decided I better learn some kanji too.  I only knew a few kanji at that point and hadn’t been that interested in learning to read Japanese, until I decided that I really wanted to be able to play otome games too.  I’m sure you’ve heard of “Remembering the Kanji” by James W. Heisig.  I found a copy of it online (although I’m sure this book isn’t supposed to be free XD) and started using it.  I would write down each kanji I learned along with the meanings and review them every day.  DEFINITELY get this book if you want to learn kanji, it really helps and there are still kanji I remember learning from it that I rarely even use, so it does work.   You shouldn’t need to use the second volume unless you really want to learn every single kanji, but many of them are rare so I never used the second one.

-There is also an app called “Kanji Stories” that gives stories for each kanji following that book, so this comes in handy when the book stops giving examples for you to use.  I used this app a LOT and still sometimes use it to refresh myself when I forget a kanji.  Although I downloaded it a long time ago on my old Iphone 4 which I pretty much just use as Japanese Dictionary/music player/camera at this point XD  So I’m not sure if it’s still available in the app store.

-I also downloaded another app called “JEDict Lite” which lets you look up kanji by writing them or by using radicals.  BUT you need to learn stroke order first otherwise it won’t work if you draw the kanji in the wrong order.  I still use this app all the time because I still have problems remembering all those darn kanji. XD  [Itunes Link Here]

-I should also mention that I use a Japanese dictionary app made by Bravolol.  [Website Link Here]

-All of these apps were free when I downloaded them, and it looks like they still are, but my phone is super old so I don’t know if they would still work on newer phones.

-So after about 3 years of studying and memorizing stuff, and just getting bored of doing the same thing, I started trying to use the language.  I started playing some visual novels and it was still very hard to read so I would measure how much time it took me to get through each chapter or section.  It started out as taking about 3 hours for each part but after a couple of weeks it would take only 15 minutes to read through the same amount of text.  It was the same thing when I first started listening to drama CDs.  I would have to use my dictionary almost constantly while listening to them and would even have to pause the CD in parts so I could look up words I didn’t know.  Now I still have to look up words once in a while but there are some CDs that I can understand completely without using my dictionary even once.  It is extremely important to jump in and just start listening or watching things without subtitles or translations, because that is what will really help you learn.  It may suck when you get to a part that you just can’t understand, because I know that happened to me a lot in the beginning, but you don’t have to fuss over it, just skip it for the moment and it might makes sense later.

-It’s important to also listen to non-anime/game stuff since normal Japanese doesn’t sound the same.  I listened to some radio shows like DGS and watched videos of live events.  I also got really into stage plays and musicals in the past year, which I had difficulty understanding at first too, but now I can understand them fine.

   Short Version:

-I made kana charts and flash cards, then practiced writing song lyrics in both hiragana and katakana.

-I watched some lessons on youtube ===> [Youtube Link Here]

-I used a dictionary to learn and memorize words I heard in anime, games, etc.

-I reviewed the new words I learned every morning and night.

-I studied the “Japanese Grammar Guide” by Tae Kim.

-I read “Remembering the Kanji” by James W. Heisig and used the “Kanji Stories” app with it. (not sure if this app is still available)

-I use the “JEDict Lite” app to look up kanji, but you need to know stroke order for it to work.  [Itunes Link Here]

-I use a Japanese dictionary app made by Bravolol. [Website Link Here]

-After about 3 years, I stopped studying and just started reading visual novels and listening to drama CDs.

  -So that has led me to the point I’m at right now.  My Japanese skills got better really fast after I started using the language and translating things myself.  I am always still learning and wouldn’t say that I am fluent, but I also didn’t expect to be able to understand it this well, so that’s perfectly fine with me.  Part of the reason I started doing these translations was because my reading and comprehension skills weren’t at the level that I wanted.  It takes another type of skill to translate, so even though I know what they are saying, it is still hard to put it into English, but I’m getting better at it.

-If anyone wants to learn Japanese and wants some tips, I would recommend studying the grammar, vocab, and kanji all at once, rather than how I did it.  My kanji skills are still lacking because I started studying it a whole year or two after I started learning the language.

-My other tip is…… Just have fun!! When I first started learning, I would get super happy whenever I heard a word I could understand in a song or anime.  When I thought about giving up, it was mainly because I was too focused on trying to rush, but you need to remember that it is impossible to learn an entire language overnight.

-I have heard a lot of other people say they learned the language because they studied it in college or used a textbook, but you can definitely learn it through self-study so don’t give up hope!  You just need to find what works for you. ^u^

 -Just a random note, Tsukiuta is special to me because it is the very first drama series I started following each month. Although I couldn’t speak any Japanese back then, I followed it for the music.  When I started listening to drama CDs, Tsukiuta was at the top of my list and I listened to all of them in the several months before the anime came out, so it was the first drama series I knew that got turned into an anime.  It was a super weird feeling seeing the characters animated after only being able to hear them.  The very first live stage I watched without subtitles was also the Tsukiuta stage, which got me obsessed with stage plays and musicals.  Now it has become the first series that I have translated for other people. (Just my own thought here but I’ve slowly been working on some cosplays, maybe I should make my Rui cosplay first too so it will follow the pattern XD)

 -Well that got long but I hope I have motivated someone else to learn the language too!  It is still crazy for me to think that 5 years ago I knew absolutely nothing, but I’m translating stuff now.  I love being able to give back and help other people, especially since I know how upsetting it is when you want to read or watch something, but there aren’t any subtitles.  >x<

-If anyone else has any other questions, feel free to ask! ^u^