#kanji study

[fullmetalgirl98]

30 days Paradox Live challenge

DAY 15: a feature you consider absolutely brilliant about a unit

💿 How 獄Luck revolve around the concept of "dogs"

It took me a while to solve this puzzle since I noticed that somehow it seemed that 獄Luck unit has the dog as its symbol animal, because I could see the connection clearly enough for all the members but not for Kenta.

I think it took me at least a year since the 4 new groups were introduced to figure out where the pun with him was.

So, ladies and gentlemen, below you will find my conclusions in the form of a mini Japanese lesson, which never hurts:

Yuto: this one is easy. The reference is in the kanji "犬", the first one of his last name, pronounced as "inu", which means, obviously, "dog". It's also easy to think of Yuto as a typical guard dog, given his role as a prison guard. Personally, I've always pictured him as a German Shepherd lol.

Ryoga: easy as well. For him, the reference to the canine world is in his MC, PITBULL, a breed of dog (I know you all know this, but I specify it for completeness) (a very ugly one, imo, but nobody cares about that).

Shion: also for Shion as for Ryoga, the pun is in the MC, smokin' dog.

Kenta: ok, that's got me racking my brain. I knew for sure he had to deal with dogs in some way too, but I didn't understand WHAT it was! Until my brain was able to do 2+2 (Eureka!). What is special about Kenta is that the puns on dogs, with him, are at least 2! The first one is provided by dear Shion, who refers to the little guy by the nickname ShibaKen. And therein lies the interesting trick! Shiba + Ken in fact has two meanings: 1) it's the union of the final part of Kenta's surname with the initial part of his name; 2) the Shiba is a typical Japanese dog breed and the kanji in question is "柴", pronounced, in fact, as "shiba". The funny thing is that Shiba Inu literally means "small dog" (Kenta is indeed the youngest among GL) and is a dog with a strong character, indipendent and difficult to submit... Well, perfect for Kenta, I daresay ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Moreover, it's characterized by an underlying distrust of people and other unfamiliar dogs. Therefore, I thought, "Ken" stood for "dog". Only problem? Kenta's name does not contain the kanji for "dog". The kanji are the following: 御子柴 賢太. So, where's the trick? The pronunciation. Only pronunciation, without reference to kanji, was used. The kanji "犬" (the same of Inukai), in fact, can also be read as "Ken." I just didn't know it! I got there a year late! [one more funny thing: that the kanji "太", read as "ta", the second one of Kenta's name, has a very similar shape to the kanji for "inu"... Mabye this was made on purpose too? It means "plump, thick, grand, magnificent, excellent", tho] MOREOVER, I would just like to point out how the whole nickname itself is absolutely brilliant (Shion, my love, you sure know how to affix nicknames): the kanji "賢", the first of Kenta's name ("Ken"), stands for "intelligent, wise, wisdom, cleverness"... soooooo the whole thing can be read as "Shiba Dog " ooooooor "wise Shiba" (as to say "the genius Mikoshiba" but also as an insult (?) …I mean, you would be calling him smart dog -Shiba-, after all).

One more thing: the kanji of "Goku," "獄," which stands for "prison," contains within it the inu radical (犬), on the right, if you notice.

TELL ME NOW IF THIS IS NOT BRILLIANT.

I'll conclude by saying that the whole name of the group, pronounced as "gokurakku," in terms of kanji could also be written like this: "獄楽," taking on the meaning of "Music in Prison," which is indeed what these 4 poor wretches do in the course of their rap battles in the slammer. The kanji "楽", in fact, stands for "music, comfort, ease" and can be pronounced as "raku" (the same pronounce for the english word "Luck", in Japanese) or "tanoshi".

This also extends the interpretation of the unit name to "Lucky in Prison" or "Fun in Prison" (well, I'd say that the Shion, Ryoga, and Kenta are quite lucky to be able to have such fun, compared to the other prisoners…goodness, they can even participate in competitions outside the prison! Better than that…)

All of this makes me realize that GL is a group for which there was some very serious reasoning behind it. And this makes me VERY pleased.

[mika-studies]

currently on that kanji grind!!!!

[imtryingtolearngerman]

4 kanji + vocabulary - Day 23

宅

**音：**タク

訓：

Meaning: residence

Vocabulary:

宅配「たくはい」＝ home delivery

字

**音：**ジ

訓：

Meaning: letter

Vocabulary:

数字「すうじ」＝ number

字幕「じまく」＝ subtitles

安

**音：**アン

**訓：**やす*い

Meaning: safe/cheap

Vocabulary:

安全「あんぜん」＝ safe

安定「あんてい」＝stability

宣

**音：**セン

訓：

Meaning: proclaim

Vocabulary:

宣伝「せんでん」＝advertisement

[euos-the-cat]

Studying and I just... I mentally call Kanji like this "snail Kanji" because they look like a snail with a cool shell

[chibih]

I have a love hate relationship with kanji, I enjoy writing it I find it relaxing. Shame I can never recall the meanings though but, I guess that will come.

[dunmeshistash]

I bet the topic of gender and sexuality in this universe is super interesting. Extra-canon stuff points out that the long-lived races have an effect on what’s seen as attractive by short-lived races. The beauty standards of humans leans towards feminine androgyny, because elf gender presentation is very ambiguous. While on the other hand, half-foots on average see dwarves as the beauty standard. Oh, the in-universe discourse surrounding this would be so compelling!

Here's the extra about beauty standards!

Speaking of which, while going back through ryoko kui's blog I realized there's a last bit I haven't seen translated? I attempted to translate it with my poor jp, the help of google and by going by how this first part was translated. But there's these kanji I cant understand at all! Ryoko Kui's handwriting is my worst enemy

Here's what I got so far

So besides Elf beauty standards tallmen also have their own specific tastes! Makes sense considering they're such a wild spread race. If anyone knows what the elf is saying please help

Edit: thanks to iamluminia in the replies! Aparently the elf is saying "邪魔", maybe they think this conversation is a bother?

[goodplan-ipromise]

[lauralearns]

learning the basics 📚

(yet again)

(this time i won't abandon the language istg 🥲)

[heavenlyraindrops]

japanese is such a kind language. like you forget a character it will hold ur hand and tell u that everything will be ok and you can just write it in hirigana and everyone will understand :)

and then chinese is like oh im sorry you forgot a character? youre illiterate. you mispronounce a word? your mother is now a horse

[expiationist]

[rigelmejo]

Beginner Resources: Studying Hanzi

Are you starting to learn Chinese? Are you trying to figure out how to approach studying hanzi?

First, I would suggest you read some short article that explains radicals in hanzi. Those are the components that 'spell' the hanzi character, there's not very many, and they can often help you guess the meaning or pronunciation of a hanzi you run into. Here is a list of Chinese radicals on Berlitz.com so you can get some familiarity with what they look like, their pronunciation, meaning, and some example hanzi that have those radicals. This Chinese Character Radicals wikipedia article explains how radicals can sometimes contribute a meaning or sound to the hanzi. I suggest reading through both of these articles fully, and saving them to reference later. You do not need to memorize, or spend more than a couple hours reading these. Just having a basic familiarity with what radicals are, and what they contribute to a hanzi, will be helpful as you learn hanzi.

For Chinese beginners, this is still absolutely my favorite study resource for learning hanzi. The book teaches 800 common hanzi, from HSK 1-3, and it uses mnemonic stories it provides you (so you don't have to come up with stories on your own - unlike Heisig) to teach meanings and pronunciation and tone. After studying this book, it's achievable to keep using the same kind of mnemonic story strategy used in this book to keep learning hanzi on your own. That's what I did. This book got me from 0 hanzi knowledge, to enough to read graded readers (I read Mandarin Companion and graded readers sold on Pleco app), and then from there I'd picked up enough additional hanzi to start reading the Newcomer/Beginner stories suggested on Heavenly Path Notion Site's recommendations. (I jumped into reading harder stuff way faster than I perhaps should have, and eventually went back and read some of the Newcomer/Beginner stuff Heavenly Path recommends such as TuTu DaWang 禿禿大王).

Learning Chinese Characters: (HSK Levels 1-3) A Revolutionary New Way to Learn the 800 Most Basic Chinese Characters; Includes All Characters for the AP & HSK 1-3 Exams

There is also an anki deck, with mnemonic stories provided, to keep studying hanzi if that method works well for you and you need a little more aid for a while before moving onto learning hanzi entirely on your own. This is the anki deck I used for around ~500 hanzi when I was trying to speed up my hanzi recognition, since I jumped into reading BL webnovels pretty fast (faster than I probably should have lol): Mnemonics - 3018 Simplified Chinese Hanzi

There is also a traditional version of that anki deck: Mnemonics - 3035 Traditional Chinese Hanzi

[hamusuke-japanese-learning]

I have collected the four most basic Japanese verbs.

[senchastudying]

I learned it's easier to learn verbs in their ない form first, vs. their dictionary form first. Makes recognizing the difference between Godan and Ichidan verbs 100% easier and removes the need to "remember" the "hidden/fake/lying" verbs that parade as the other verb type. The trick to doing it is far easier and I hate how Genki teaches it in the book. Leaving me with only having to learn the conjugation patterns for Ichidan, Godan, and Irregular verbs. Far, far easier.

[megvmins]

losing my mind because I just figured out that not is one of the kanji in togame's name a turtle/tortoise ((亀) (kame/game)) but so is one of the kanji in choji's name meaning rabbit/hare ((兎) (to)) so they basically are the The Tortoise and the Hare from Aesop's fables.

[catboy-a-day]

catboy 170.. me rn.

[studyjapanesewithme]

Credit to @japanese_with_josh

I found this really helpful to hear a real life situation- not just from a textbook!