05-14-2016, 11:44 PM | #427 | |
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Quote:
PS2 sample gameplay. This game is saccharine.
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05-16-2016, 09:00 AM | #428 |
Foot, meet mouth.
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I was reading Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! and I came across this. I immediately thought of you guys, so I'm posting this excerpt here (formatting's a bit shit, tried to at least split it into paragraphs):
Spoiler: show
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05-16-2016, 03:32 PM | #429 |
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He's describing keigo and related. Different words or conjugations for different politeness levels. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honori...ch_in_Japanese and scroll down to Types of Honorific.
Feynman is correct to identify the hurdle that keigo presents for those seeking true fluency. You take all the standard verbs of Japanese and you at a minimum multiply their conjugations by 4 just to account for core politeness usages. (Example: matsu, machimasu, o machi ni naru, and o machi shimasu.) Then you asymmetrically add additional words for certain specific verbs, like taberu gaining vulgar kuu or suru having itasu and nasaru. Reading things correctly is one thing, but speaking them correctly in 99% of social settings at lightning speed is quite another.
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05-16-2016, 05:50 PM | #431 | |
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I have no problem using a verb that doubles for both food and drink. The problem is that the words themselves can't possibly apply to anything other than food and yet are being (as far as I can tell) misapplied to beverage. The best English equivalent I can think of would be if in 400 years polite English-speaking society would say "Raise your glasses!" as the invitation to both eat and drink. Anyone from 0 A.D. to 2000 A.D. would well understand that "raise your glasses" is a toast thing and it refers strictly to beverage, but somehow in 400 years that information is lost to all but the most dedicated scholars of language and in common parlance people say "raise your glass" to mean "Dig in!" or "Feast!" If we're talking "lol same word for A and B" scenarios, my favorite to this day is the beginner-level lesson of させる:
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09-04-2016, 11:16 PM | #432 | |
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I have discovered that Wiktionary provides etymologies for some Japanese words. It makes me very, very happy. My only complaint is that these etymologies are provided as is, source withheld. It would be nice to at least have a name of some reference tome so that I could trust these etymologies were not just the "What if ...? " suppositions of a fellow enthusiast.
One of my favorite examples from this week has been the provided etymology for the lotus flower, 蓮 hasu. The kanji for lotus is already neat on its own, as it combines the radicals for grass, cart or (in this context) wheel, and movement or (in this context) way. Thus the lotus is "the plant which symbolizes Mahayana Buddhism." But as for the Japanese vocabulary word hasu, according to Wiktionary: Quote:
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09-07-2016, 08:20 PM | #433 |
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I've always found Japanese etymology to be interesting because some of it is really apparent and completely hidden by kanji (醜い being a great example since the kanji hides what is otherwise a really simple construct みる + にくい [meaning roughly "hard to see/look at"]) or is intimately linked to the kanji and have sounds linked historically to the characters themselves (basically every word from Chinese). There are some really neat little tidbits you can find in Japanese words that are just as interesting and subtle as other languages with a similarly diverse history of loans and influences.
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09-08-2016, 08:58 AM | #434 | ||||
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More etymology. This time we'll be looking at the history of the word "spoon" in Japanese.
① Spoon started off in ancient Chinese with the very simple character 匕. ② This character then became part of a more developed, more specific spoon glyph, 匙. ③ This second character then became part of the compound word 茶匙, saji, lit. "teaspoon." A tea spoon, classically saji. ④ Somewhere along the way, in Japan, the history and the meaning of this word became confused. People started using the term "teaspoon" to refer to all spoons. And thus the pronunciation saji became attributed to the solitary character 匙. Given how it sounds and usual kanji rules, the later Japanese simply assumed that saji was a kunyomi (native Japanese reading) for the word represented by the character 匙, rather than correctly recalling that the sa in saji comes from 茶 while the ji in saji comes from 匙. ⑤ In modern Japanese, the spoon that is used for tea is now called the 茶匙 chasaji. Literally "tea spoon" in modern Japanese, but chasaji would be 茶茶匙 "tea teaspoon" in historical Japanese. ⑥ But there's also the caveat that in modern Japanese the use of the loan word スプーン supuun is prevalent for "spoon," and that 匙 is still associated with the specific subset of spoons one usually finds associated with tea. Quote:
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09-21-2016, 06:19 PM | #435 |
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Been re-learning how to write a few characters I've forgotten how to write from disuse. Also studying characters I never knew how to write before.
One such character in the second camp is the 麗 rei in 綺麗 kirei. Apparently it's deer, 鹿, with two little square-like glyphs above it. Wanted to find the meaning of these squares on their own, but Wiktionary offered no assistance. The simplified Chinese character for 麗 is 丽, which resembles the boxes, but JDICT doesn't appear to have any entries for it. Reminds me of modern Japanese 毎 vs. classical 每. (Preserved in modern 母 and 苺, yet lost in modern 毎 and its derivatives, e.g. 海.) The simplified Chinese 丽 looks like the bar on top would have originally been broken in half, that it would've been the two boxes atop 麗.
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10-10-2016, 12:11 PM | #436 |
我が名は勇者王!
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I have a verbal (more written) tic where I'm constantly adding things like "though" and "anyway" in my sentences.
How would this be conveyed in Japanese, like ending your sentences with a "however" or "anyway" like in English? I know "demo" is "however" but I've never heard anyone end a sentence in ~demo. That sounds weird.
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10-10-2016, 12:19 PM | #437 |
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Demo is purely sentence initial so you can't really conclude with it. I feel like the closest thing might be darou/deshou. But they mean something more like "isn't it?". Ending a sentence with an open ended ga is also possible but it implies something unspoken.
In this case the tic would probably manifest as something sentence initial if translated for content. I don't know that there's something that's stylistically one to one. |
10-10-2016, 12:55 PM | #438 |
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でも means "but", not "although".
But you're in luck if you want でも -- because you can have ですが! ですが (or だが masculine or simply が in some stand-alone cases) is a way you can end your sentences much the same way you wish to do so currently. "Are you free Sunday night?" "I am, but ..." 「日曜日、暇?」 「そうですが…」 "Do you like cats?" "I do, but ..." 「猫が好きですか?」 「好きだが…」 Another clause ender meaning "but" is けど, which you can also use in this manner. "Are you an American?" "I am, but ..." / "I am. So what of it?" 「アメリカ人ですか?」 「そうだけど…?」 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you strictly want "Anyway ...", sentence-initial "anyway" is とにかく et al.
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10-13-2016, 02:20 AM | #439 |
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Reformatting some old documents of mine. One thing leads to another and I'm reading Wikipedia's article on Jōyō kanji.
Prologue: Spoiler: show So I see that the list hadn't been updated in some thirty years, and that then, out of nowhere, big changes were made in 2010. I hadn't heard about this. And since I graduated college in 2007, that would necessarily mean that the lists we were studying from back then would have been the old, 1980s lists instead of the new, 2010 ones. Curious to see what changes had been made, this line grabbed my attention: "The 196 additional characters are:" And would you believe what I see ...! Story 1. 鬱 The first thing that grabs my attention is 憂鬱's 鬱. I have known how to read this character since 2006 owing to a small little book series, you might have heard of it, called ... Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu! :O I am convinced this character squeezed its way on thanks to the massive success of Tanigawa's book series. That's probably not the full truth of it, but that's my headcanon and I'm sticking to it! :P :> Story 2. So many common words! O-o So after the surprise of seeing 鬱 on the list wears off, I decide to take a closer look and see what all kanji I can pick out. And I'm amazed to see so many supremely common characters listed there. O_o In descending order from what I'd argue as most common / "How the fuck can someone not be expected to know how to read this!?" to least common ...
This is a partial list because I plead the Probably the one that blows my mind the most out of any on this list, though, even more than 俺, is motherfucking 藤. How on earth could 藤 not have been Jōyō before now? I can't even begin to imagine it. That character shows up in bajillions of contemporary people's names, God only knows how many historical people's names ... you have an entire quarter of Japanese history dominated by the Fujiwara family (藤原) ... I suppose what it mostly boils down to is, the expectation with Jōyō kanji is that you can not only read them but write them as well. Quite simply, that has to be it. It has to be the case that everyone understood you were going to know how to read 俺 and 藤 and 亀 and 狙われた, so on and so forth, but that maybe you weren't going to know how to write them. (And fair enough! I still can't write 亀, 蜂, or 拶 from memory even if I can read them on sight.) But like ... 嵐 is already simply 山 plus 風. ^^; How do you not just go ahead and make 嵐 a Jōyō kanji too? I just don't get it. "It's too complicated :x" might work for a 藤 or a 藤, but what's the excuse for 嵐 or 尻?
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10-16-2016, 07:25 PM | #440 |
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Every now and again I have a mind blowing moment while picking up new words or new readings for old characters. Tonight I had two back-to-back ones I thought I should share here for any Hunter x Hunter and/or Ace Attorney fans:
The mitsu in 秘密 himitsu "secret", when written as 密か, becomes the word hisoka. The word 比丘尼 means "a fully ordained Buddhist nun." It is read ... bikuni.
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10-23-2016, 07:51 PM | #441 |
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I've been doing a lot of writing practice recently, and thought I should share ...
I've been really enjoying writing with gel pens. They bleed through paper a little worse than ballpoint pens do but not nearly as bad as markers do. Yet they provide nearly the same calligraphic satisfaction that markers provide. Nice, thick ink. Bold strokes. Pressure differences. These are barely manageable with graphite and ballpoint pens. It makes the gel pen a nice middle ground between markers (satisfying calligraphy, bleeds through paper too easily) and graphite or ballpoint pens (great for using both sides of a piece of paper, unsatisfying calligraphy). Conversely, for some people the gel pen might be the worst of both worlds (being not quite as good as markers while at the same time still bleeding through paper), so you might not agree with my assessment whatsoever. I think that, unsurprisingly, it will come down to personal preference. Here's a sample. Sorry for the small size; the phone is taking rather blurry pictures in this lighting:
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11-06-2016, 12:04 PM | #442 |
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Hey guys! I have a bit of trouble with Japanese translating ^^; (Admittedly I've been very, VERY behind in learning OTL) I thought you guys could help me I would really appreciate of you do!
So recently I discovered a wonderful shopping website where it acts as a middle man between other Japanese shopping sites and customers around the world, so for a small fee, said customers can get items you could normally not able to get (as some Japanese shops doesn't deliver outside Japan). Problem is, as much as they have an English version of the site... they rely on Google translate for pretty much everything -_- So although I was able to understand things in general enough to make a bid/purchase, because of the Engrish, there's a bit of some loose ends in terms of information! So I wanna check with you guys to see what you think First thing first, here's the Japanese version of the page of what I ordered. And now for the parts that are a little bit hazy for me:
Sorry for bothering you guys for that ^^; Again, I will appreciate giving me a helping hand on this And next time I'll be more informed! (And hopefully learn more some Japanese to read all this myself without any help.) |
11-06-2016, 01:54 PM | #443 |
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My Japanese is incredibly rusty and I am not 100% familiar with a lot of these words but I can give you a second opinion at least!
1) It seems that the seller either marked something incorrectly or is being dishonest about the condition of the cards. You're right in that they were advertised as unopened but with the condition being as "used/secondhand". idk they also might just put that warning about the scratches to cover themselves if there is any damage. 2) The options (really roughly) translate to "If there is not the quantity I wanted, do not accept the bid" and "Accept the bid even if there is only part of the quantity." Not really totally sure what that means without context though! 3) I'm pretty sure that phrase translates to "If you won multiple bids, the items may be packaged together." Again lot of these words are pretty new to me but my understanding of syntax + my dictionary give me that. |
11-06-2016, 02:28 PM | #444 |
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Even if it's rusty, it's sure a LOT better than Google translate XD
1) Hmm, darn. Well we'll see how they look like when I'll get them X) 2) Although it's not the same item, I found another that have a similar situation (the options are right under where you put your bid price and quantity.) Does that help you out? Seems though that as you said, it's to choose between if my bid should be canceled or not if at the end of it I don't have the quantity that I want. Which is strange if you ask me. But then again, I do not know much about bidding beyond ebay ^^; 3) Oh ok, that makes more sense! Although the question remains that since I took only "one" out of the "two", what I'll be getting: both of the sets (as he may have a pair of them and selling both) or just one of the two? I guess that's something the seller in general wasn't very clear about it, beyond translation... Thank you so much for the help! ^^ I just hope now my order will have a happy ending X) |
11-06-2016, 09:53 PM | #445 |
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What we already knew:
Spoiler: show Additions: 細かな傷や色ムラ等極度に気になさる 方の入札はご遠慮下さい。 Those who are extremely bothered by fine scratches, color imperfections, etc. should please refrain from bidding. 落札条件 Conditions For Having Your Bid Accepted ---------------------------------------- I agree with Jeri. I don't think this person was scamming you, and I don't think you should have put a "2" in the quantity field unless you wanted two of each. Pretty sure the auction you won is for one of each theme deck. (One appears to be purely Pokémon, the other half-Pokémon half-Mario.) A lot of the language you've given us has made me run for the dictionary as much as it did Jeri, haha ^^; , and sounds super familiar to anyone who's spent much time on eBay: because it sounds just like what you always see in English-language eBay auctions. It's just the seller covering his own butt. He doesn't want someone to bid on an unopened deck, they open it, there are ink imperfections, and then they complain to Yahoo Auctions and demand a refund at the seller's expense. So he's saying, "Look, if you're anal retentive then please go away, you have been warned." I don't think it means he expects the imperfections, just that he doesn't want to deal with the hassle of a perfectionist refund. It is pretty strange that it says they are unopened multiple times but then goes on to list the status as used. That's pretty heavily frowned upon on eBay, but at the end of the day, the guiding principle on eBay is that it doesn't matter what the title or text summary says -- it's all about the standard fields with the dropdown menus. In other words, his decision to go with "Used" here may signal that you are in fact getting used goods. But ... that's really, really weird that he would be so brazen as to lie about them being "UNOPENED" only to then list the item as Used. Weird, huh? Yeah, I don't know what to make of it either. Could be an innocent error if he's a vendor who sells craploads of used Pokémon Center goods. (Selected Used out of habit but really should have selected New / Like New.) We shall see.
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11-07-2016, 09:42 AM | #446 | |||
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Thanks a lot for the additional precisions Talon! ^^
Quote:
I'm pretty excited because I love hanafuda (been playing a lot with my Club Nintendo Mario deck) and I got interested at getting both of these! And although I know it's gonna cost me more with the actual shipping, it's quite the bargain at Ą3,600; As what I've seen just the Pokémon/Mario crossover set is at the cheapest Ą3,760! (Ok Ą2,700 for the Pokémon one, but the fact that I get both for less of the price of the most expensive one...!) ...Ok I'll stop rambling now Quote:
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Anyhow, thanks again for all your help you guys! ^^ I'll keep you guys up to date (and perhaps try to find something a little bit more on-topic ^^; ) |
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11-07-2016, 09:21 PM | #447 |
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Hmm, I do know a thing or two about shopping services! The two options that you were confused about are actually pretty common among these services, and are nothing you would have to worry about. Basically, if you are ordering several items and one of them sells out before they can place the order, they'll contact you to make sure it's still OK to buy the rest. Or you can let them know ahead of time that you don't care and they will order everything they can.
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11-21-2016, 01:48 PM | #448 |
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@Morg: Ooh, okie dokes! =b
Now for an update: After a very confusing week*, I finally got my package! \o/ The verdict:
Alright, so to be more on the topic, I had a little fun reading some of the Japanese text I had everywhere on my delivery box, papers and whatnot. (Thank you Google Translate app; You may give shitty translations, but you still help me look over kana and learn with "concrete" text that's on paper instead of the internet =3=) I know that 花札 is for, obviously, hanafuda, or more literally "flower cards". However, on the Mario Pikachu box, the kanji are reversed, shown as 札花. Is there a reason for that? *(Long story short, I didn't get any news whatsoever (not even confirmation e-mail) for a week after I paid for the international delivery fee, until I got an e-mail saying they "have delivered your goods to your residence address"... when I didn't receive anything? wtf?) |
11-21-2016, 02:42 PM | #449 |
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Left-to-right text ordering is a western import mostly related to printing conventions that were solidified by computers. The opposite is more traditional (though generally read vertically). Occasionally because of this more traditional signs or packages with a horizontal layout may opt for right to left.
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11-21-2016, 03:41 PM | #450 | |
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I have no idea in this instance. The reverse spelling is not a word. The positioning is identical to the correctly-ordered characters on the other deck, which shoots down any possible theories about the placement affecting the character order. They're not written horizontally enough to suggest a sign post (or other forms of RTL single-line reading). No idea what happened there.
Quote:
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