#like “I am a cat”

[ra-men-noodle]

As both a learner of japanese and PhD student in linguistic, I think the biggest confusion comes from teaching students to use personnal pronoun and/or subject arguments at all

Because japanese is a pro drop language, meaning that you can omit parts of speech very easily, and as such subjects are not mandatory the way they are in English, to the point that you need to use a dummy subject (e.g. "It's raining" -> the "it" only serves to fulfill the need of a grammatical subject)

A very quick search led me to this paper that found that nominative arguments (aka subjects) are omitted around 50% of the time in Japanese (source)

Which means that most of the time, you should not be using neither pronouns nor names when conversations, because subjects are not mandatory if they can be contextually retrieved

It's not a problem with "anata" specifically, it's the problem of using a subject

On another note, I remember learning that some linguists have argued that japanese does not possess the grammatical category of pronouns per say (a concept imported from western traditions, to describe Indo-European languages) but "terms of address" or "terms of self-reference" because these words (kimi, anata, atashi, boku, wareware, etc) do not simply replace a noun (the definition a of pronoun), but they give additional information (age, gender, social status, relationship, etc). In that sense, proper nouns, titles or terms of kinship such as "tanaka-san", "okaasan" or "sensei" belong in the same grammatical category as "anata" or "watashi"

This is probably also why consciously or unconsciously, teachers tell students to be careful when using japanese pronouns, sometimes oversimplifying it by saying "it's not polite", because there are social constraints behind the use of personal pronouns in japanese (source)

質問がある…

僕は日本語の学生だ。僕の日本語の先生はいつも「『あなた』 is not polite unless it's your only option」と言っていました。でも、よく日本語をする人は「あなた」を使うことがみれるね。

So I have to wonder: what's the truth? Is "anata" impolite, or is my teacher being too strict?

My landlady says she can't list politer second person pronoun than anata without omae-sama, but omae-sama is only used in period dramas

[obsob]

i am a being capable of immeasurable love and whimsy

[badolmen]

WARNING 18+

19

[fuckinnear]

everybody Must say hello to burger boy immediately

[rythyme]

me when i fucking Boop you

[donutdrawsthings]

Can we talk about this? I feel like not enough people talk about this happening in the movie

[captain-jacks-coat]

I want to go to a gay bar

However I do not want to go to a gay bar because I do not, nor will I ever, drink alcohol. I do not particularly want to be around drunks.

So instead of a gay bar, I propose a Queer Cat Cafe.

Hypoallergenic cats ofc

There's a section of the cafe where the cats can't go if you don't want cats near you. That section is the library.

There are lil pride flags everywhere, even the obscure ones.

They sell pride pins for £1.50ish each at the counter.

There are LED lights.

It's autism friendly, lights can be toned down if needed and everything is neatly spaced out

You can have a sticker to write your pronouns on

Mostly queer artists/songs played

feel free to add on

[icestorming]

- oh.

[i-like-to-look-at-your-back]

°˖✧ Hayakawa family unit ✧˖°

[rink3]

Sebastian chilling on the surface bc he deserves it

[peachebo]

I remember I had a concept about alternative ending of sl where michael brings ennard home and jus lives very normal life with a killing machine...

also here's ennard with da cat

[heartorbit]

happy halloween! 🎃🐈‍⬛👻🐇

[mikkeneko]

PSA to fan creators who don't have a lot of regular contact with children: They are almost always bigger than you think. A 1-year-old baby may already be walking. A toddler is likely already hip-high. A 10-year-old may already be taller than at least one of their parents. A 14/15 year old may already have reached their adult height.

[k1tty5]

kitties :)

[fringession]

Group photo !!!!!!

[pangur-and-grim]

HELLO, welcome to the kitten gacha game!

here's how it works: all pointed cats are born white and mysterious. that's because pointing is temperature dependent, and cats are baked at an even temperature in the womb! as they age, their colder extremities develop colour

a while ago, I received photos of three pointed kittens, and had to guess where they fell on this chart based on subtle clues:

I ended up choosing a grub who developed into a seal point with white (my sweet Belphegor!)

and now I'm giving YOU the chance to choose! kittens A, B and C will each become one of the colours on the chart as they are manufactured age.

reserve them now at greerstothers.shop, and receive your enamel pin grown kitten in the mail!

(close-ups of the clues under the readmore)

feel free to guess their colourations in the replies/reblogs! I'm curious to see how many people get it right.

the enamel pins will come with a breakdown of their colour genetics on the backing card!