Dan Learning Japanese

意味 - Imi, meaning, significance, sense.

"It's in 名前, na-mae."

I will super easily remember 前 is "mae" for front! It's the present the goblin gets in namae!

"Shi" can be death (though different kanji). Death from overwork.

"Goto". "Go to". Go to death.

覚える is for something to be truly seen (understood, learned)

This can be nitpicked, but SSHHH! I'm mnemonic-a-ing a way to memorize a verb for memorizing over here!

😠

"Also, I'm in the word for afternoon! 午後, ごご!"

😡

"OooOoo, I'm behind you, 後ろ, うしろ..."

“Watashi wa raitonoberu kakitakute Nihon-go o benkyō shite i sekai ni ryokō suru”

Me today: "Going back to 10 my brain can't handle 15 right now it's too much."

I think one of the issues is simply that 15 is a BIG increase (100% -> 150%‼️), but it's small numbers, so it doesn't SOUND like a lot 🤔

But a sudden 50% increase IS a lot, don't be fooled into thinking otherwise! 🛑

I mention this because I'm hoping to practice Katakana by using it exclusively for my Pokemon names, and not necessarily names that mean anything beyond "these are Katakana I need to practice".

For example, a reply on a previous post brought up the difficulty of differentiating フワウ (Fu-wa-u), and ソツシン (so-tsu-shi-n), so I plot for those to be pokemon whose names I say when used.

"Fu-wa-u, GO!"

I have to... I HAVE TO...

Actually learn Katakana properly in spite of it being less frequent because it still pops up everywhere like a speed bump.

I have some manga (well, three volumes of Bofuri) and games with Furigana now, so Katakana has suddenly become more of an obstacle to reading practice than Kanji 🙃

Below are many practice charts, which is how I went about Hiragana. I basically read through them as fast as I can. With Hiragana, I gradually added to which ones I read each day, so that's what I'm also going to do with Katakana.

EDIT: I should note in the "W" column, it doesn't match up with the vowels on the right. It's Wa, Wo, and N. I THINK I was mimicking how it was written elsewhere.

I guess I may as well include the ones I made for Hiragana. I was worried about having too many images, but each of these are relatively small, so... It's fine. It's probably fine.

Dissecting this sentence from the Bofuri manga is interesting to me. 🤔

“Nani koitsu… yabaku ne?”

The English manga localized it as

“How the—Is she cheating?”

The original doesn’t mention cheating. It’s more like “what is this person? That’s not normal, right?” with the “what is this person” phrased rudely, according to Jisho.

I find “nani koitsu” interesting, because I assume that’s not a common way to ask who someone is. 誰ですか (dare desu ka), or something like it, is what I’d expect.

Absurdly SMALL Hiragana. This is smaller than English manga volumes…

GASP! I actually have a reason to use those clip-on magnifying glasses I bought gods only knows how long ago!

(Soon) I am SO near-sighted with these on, BUT EVERYTHING NEAR MY FACE IS HUGE

Anyway, what’s important is I CAN READ THIS! I might not know all the words, but just being able to read the characters is a huge first step.

I keep noticing this elephant, so I assume it’s a common kanji.

(Note: Not an elephant)

Which is actually fantastic, because it only has three readings, and two of them are the same: ki.

Kun: Ki き

On: Ki キ, Ke ケ

So pretty good odds on getting it right, or close to right (ki Vs ke).

I first noticed this kanji due to skyrim. Ice effects in it use 冷気 (reiki), and it stood out for looking like an elephant to me, so it made me think of mammoths.

This is supposed to be a “toss Dan into the deep end” thing. It’s similar to Skyrim in that regard, but it’s a lot easier to control.

For example, with this book, I can select a chapter, and repeat. Over and over again.

In Skyrim, it’s just “I think I heard ‘sanzoku’? Guess I’ve got bandits to take care of,” and getting a handle on item descriptions without in-game audio.

Ultimately, I do like playing Japanese Skyrim, but I think the book thing will be of more immediate help. Plus getting used to following the text will help with subtitles.