atejapan

Japan is my favorite place to vacation. There’s so many interesting places to see, the people are so nice, and the food so good. I really like Japanese culture too. I know I’ll probably be visiting there pretty often throughout my life, hopefully even living there for a little bit, so I decided this year to start taking my Japanese studies more seriously. 

After I got deeper in learning kanji and grammar, I started enjoying studying the language, so it has become fun for me. I think the language, grammar especially, is really different from English and it’s super interesting to learn about the complexities behind it. I like learning about the history/meaning/culture behind grammar points, which my teacher at university sometimes goes into and A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar often talks about. 

Honestly I can’t give any good advice on this because I have the exact same problem. I have a hard time speaking because it’s hard to come up with all the grammar stuff on the spot. 

The only thing I can say is it’s really crucial to find a speaking partner to practice with if you want to improve speaking skills. Even texting people in Japanese won’t help nearly as much as actually talking to them out loud. If you don’t have anyone around you, try to find one online to skype with?

Hello! I would first of all say that if you’re intimidated by how many kanji you have to learn, maybe go in the order of frequency. If you go by frequency, you’ll start using and recognizing kanji much quicker. I usually recommend people to use WaniKani, which I talk about pretty often on my blog, but it doesn’t exactly go in the order of frequency. The JLPT N5 Kanji list is a good place to start.

Another suggestion is to simply incorporate it with your vocabulary building. So when you learn new vocabulary words, don’t just study the hiragana, but look up what the kanji for it is. Maybe search other words that kanji is used in. For example, in the word for movie theater, “えいがかん,” the かん part is the kanji 館, which means building. It’s also used in words like としょかん (図書館; library) and たいいくかん (体育館; gymnasium). This can really help for memorization for vocabulary, too. 

As for resources and advice beyond that, I can’t really say since I almost only use WaniKani to learn kanji. I recommend at least looking into it, as it starts off slow so it’ll be good if you’re intimidated. 

CONTENTS

ほしい (expressing desire) 

〜かもしれません (expressing uncertainty) 

あげる・くれる・もらう (giving and receiving) *skipped in this post; look at this post for notes on あげる and くれる

 〜たらどうですか？(giving suggestions)

# + も・# + しか + negative (as many as/only)

1. ほしい : EXPRESSING DESIRE

To say you want to do something, we use 〜たい, but to say you want something, a noun, we use ほしい.

ほしい means “desired” and is used to say you want something. It is a い-adjective and conjugates as such.

(Object of desire)　が　ほしいです。

(Object not desired)　は　ほしくないです。

ほしい is limited to first person. Here are some ways to say someone else wants something:

(Subject)　は　(object of desire)　を　ほしがっています。= subject is showing signs of desiring object.

(Subject)　は　(object of desire)　が　ほしいと言っています。= subject said they wanted object.

(Subject)　は　(object of desire)　が　ほしいと思っています。= subject thinks that he wants object.

(Subject)　は　(object of desire)　が　ほしそうです。= it seems like subject wants object.

Examples:

妹は子犬をほしがっています。

My little sister wants a puppy.

子供の時、いつもニンテンドーDSがほしいが、だれもくれませんでした。

When I was a child, I always wanted a Nintendo DS, but no one gave it to me.

2. 〜かもしれません : EXPRESSING UNCERTAINTY

かもしれません can be used to say something is a possibility but you are not sure what is really the case. The same concept can be expressed with でしょう, but かもしれません sounds more uncertain.

It is placed after short forms of any kind, present or past, affirmative or negative. If a な-adjective or noun precedes it and it is not in past tense, だ is dropped.

Examples:

先生は日本人かもしれません。

The teacher might be Japanese.

あの人は英語が話せるかもしれません。

That person might be able to speak English.

メアリーさんは子供の時、低かったかもしれません。

Mary might have been short when she was a kid.

4: 〜たらどうですか？: GIVING SUGGESTIONS

This can be used to give suggestions but can sound critical. It’s translated as “how about...?” or “why don’t you...?” It follows the past tense short form of a verb. 

This cannot be used to suggest NOT doing something. In order to convey this, you can say “(verb in short form)　のを　やめたらどうですか？” which means “how about you stop doing...?”

Examples:

医者に行ったらどうですか。

How about you go to a doctor?

服を買うのをやめたらどうですか。

Why don’t you stop buying clothes?

5.  # + も / # + しか + negative : AS MANY AS/ONLY

も can be used to say “as many as” when describing amount. It implies the number is above expectations and may have a tone of surprise.

しか is used to say “only” when describing few amounts of things. It implies insufficiency and may have a tone of disappointment. When しか is used, the sentence must end in a negative predicate.

Examples:

彼は車を四台も持っていますよ。

He has as many as four cars.

友達は一週間に二回しか学校に行きませんでした。

My friend only goes to school two times a week.

I’m glad it’s been helpful! 

In my opinion, providing the Japanese translation after seeing an English word is more effective in memorization. It tests you on recall rather than recognition, and I believe recall is much harder. Once you’re able to recall a Japanese word, you’ll probably be able to recognize it really easily. 

It’s kind of along the same lines of how reading is much easier than writing. When you read something on your level, it should be easy to see a word and know what it means. Once you get to writing, you have to come up with the vocabulary words out of thin air. If you have practice with that through the English-prompt to Japanese-answer order of flashcards, it shouldn’t be too difficult. But if you did Japanese-prompt to English-answer, you’d only be tested on recognition and would probably have a harder time with recall.

Hey guys! Since I’ve made my blog a couple months ago, I’ve really been enjoying being a part of this little Japanese studyblr community. Your asks make me happy, and I love seeing everyone motivated to study. To celebrate reaching 1.5k followers, I wanted to throw a little giveaway for my followers to show my appreciation!

I’ll be giving away items that I use myself in my studies. All the items are brand new except for the Graded Readers that are really lightly used by me. I only opened the pencil/pen/highlighter to remove the price tag (and retaped it with cute dog tape!!).

WHAT’S IN IT:

For notes: a Campus notebook (lined)

For kanji/writing practice: a Sumikko Gurashi squared notebook

For highlighting: two Zebra Mildliners (blue and yellow)

For writing: a Zebra Sarasa Clip Pen (in 0.4) and a Sakura Nocks Pure Mechanical Pencil (in 0.5)

For erasing: a tiny Pentel Hi-Polymer Eraser

For beginner reading: Japanese Graded Readers Level 1 Volume 1

For fun reading: Yotsubato! Volume 1 in Japanese

RULES:

Must be a follower of @atejapan

Reblog this post (likes don’t count)

Each reblog equals one entry

Will ship (almost) worldwide (there may be some places out of my reach)

Winner will be chosen randomly on July 2nd

Make sure I can contact you through your ask box or messages!

ハロ！

How much do I have to pay to use it? 

You can pay monthly for $10/month or annually for $100/year. There’s also a one time payment for $299. There are some coupon codes floating around that’ll get you 20% off. The free trial lasts until the end of level 3, so you’ll have a good amount of time before deciding if the method works for you!

Do they provide examples/readings/etc.? 

For each vocabulary word, they provide a sample sentence. That’s about it. It’s usually a bit weird too, like stuff people wouldn’t normally say. You can always go on other websites for sample sentences. 

Is there a chance to belong to a “community”?

The forums are pretty active and full of people who are passionate about the language. They’re also really, really helpful if you’ve got questions. And there are some members who post scripts to personalize/improve your WaniKani experience and Anki sets that are modified to look like WaniKani. Just remember to read the WaniKani FAQ because they hate reexplaining things, haha. 

PREFACE: This is a nine part series of some important things to keep in mind while studying Japanese grammar. It’s very different from English, so try not to study it through an “English lens.” To understand grammar points better, it’s really beneficial to learn the characteristics behind Japanese grammar. These notes are taken from A Dictionary of Japanese Grammar. To see the other parts, click here.

PS: I’ve decided to skip part 6 (politeness and formality).

9. Viewpoint

There is more than one way to describe an event, so viewpoint is important when choosing which expressions to use. For example these two sentences express the same event but uses a different viewpoint: 1) A hit B; 2) B was hit by A. In 1, the event is described through A’s perspective while in 2, it is described through B’s perspective.

Here are some rules regarding viewpoint that are generally universal:

The viewpoint should be consistent within a sentence.

When the sentence includes “A’s B” (for example, John’s wife), the speaker is taking A’s viewpoint rather than B’s.

When the speaker empathizes with someone, the speaker tends to take that person’s viewpoint.

The speaker usually describes events from his own viewpoint when he is involved.

Here are some rules regarding viewpoint that are specific to Japanese:

Giving and receiving verbs require certain viewpoints depending on the verb

やる / あげる: to give; requires the giver’s viewpoint or a neutral viewpoint

くれる: to give; requires the receiver’s viewpoint

もらう/いただく: to get/receive; requires the receiver’s viewpoint

(I go more in depth about this on this post.)

For the verb くる (to come), the arrival point is somewhere close to the speaker’s viewpoint. Similarly, for the vern いく (to go), the departure point is somewhere close to the speaker’s viewpoint.

Example:

(If speaker is currently in Japan)

私は来年アメリカに行きます。わたしはらいねんアメリカにいきます。

not 私は来年アメリカに来ます。わたしはらいねんアメリカにきます。

I will go to America next year.

not I will come to America next year.

When adjectives like ほしい (want/desirable) うれしい (happy) and かなしい (sad) are used with a third person subject, the speaker is empathizing with that person. It implies the speaker is taking the viewpoint of that person.

Example:

通りがかりの人が嬉しい。とおりがかりのひとがうれしい。(** incorrect **)

A passerby is happy.

This sentence is incorrect because the speaker is unable to empathize with the subject.

When じぶん (self) is used, the speaker tends to empathize with who じぶん is referring to, implying the speaker is taking the viewpoint of that person.

Example:

メアリーはジムが自分を愛していると信じていた。メアリーはジムがじぶんをあいしているとしんじていた。

Thank you! There are a lot more better guides around the studyblr community (like this one), but here is what I usually do: 

Have a color scheme. Don’t go too overboard with your colors. I usually just do two colors that look good together plus my black pen.

Write smaller and nicer. When I make mistakes, I use correction tape instead of crossing out. Just try to make everything look neater.

Have a nice header. I usually do cursive or capital letters then decorate it by putting shadows or something.

Have section headers. Make these consistent with the rest of the page.

Here’s another worksheet for you guys! These verb conjugations are all introduced in Genki I: short form aka the dictionary form, long form aka ます form, negative short form, past tense short form, and te-form.

Just write the verb you want to practice conjugating on the left most column and write their conjugations! You can check your answers by searching the dictionary form of the verb on jisho.org and clicking “show inflections” under the entry.

I made a guide to conjugation here. Te-form is missing but te-form is basically past tense short form except with て as た or で as だ.

Worksheet PDF