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Old 05-14-2016, 05:30 PM   #426
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Ooooh fun! I love Shiritori, though this has made me realize how rusty I am lol
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Old 05-14-2016, 11:44 PM   #427
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kindrindra View Post
So I fouFFnd an online Shiritori game when thinking about fun things I could use to practice and expand my vocab~!

My vocab is mostly verbs so this is utter suffering tbh
You really want that feeling, try Mojipittan. The most adorable word game you will ever play ... that will also make you painfully aware of just how illiterate you are in Japanese. orz Oh man, this game is brutal like that. I remember brute forcing a lot of stages through trial and error, I was so stubborn ... but yeah, eventually you reach a point where even brute forcing won't work. Early game is like, "Can you name 50 words that start with な? :D If so, you win!" By the middle of the game, those days are gone and it's stages like, "Can you provide me the exact 20 words I am thinking of which, if we link them in a game of Shiritori, will take us from りんご to くだもの using exactly the tiles provided? GOOD LUCK, GAIJIN-TACHI! ;D" But goddamn if the game's not adorable. I haven't played it since upgrading from the DS line to the 3DS line. I really miss it. I should see about importing it ... oh crap, I forgot, 3DS line is region locked. Sigh. It's a really cute game. Check it out!

PS2 sample gameplay. This game is saccharine.
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Old 05-16-2016, 09:00 AM   #428
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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):

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While in Kyoto I tried to learn Japanese with a vengeance. I worked much harder at it, and got to a point where I could go around in taxis and do things. I took lessons from a Japanese man every day for an hour.

One day he was teaching me the word for “see.” “All right,” he said. “You want to say, ‘May I see your garden?’ What do you say?”

I made up a sentence with the word that I had just learned.

“No, no!” he said. “When you say to someone, ‘Would you like to see my garden? you use the first ’see.’ But when you want to see someone else’s garden, you must use another ’see,’ which is more polite.”

“Would you like to _glance at_ my lousy garden?” is essentially what you’re saying in the first case, but when you want to look at the other fella’s garden, you have to say something like, “May I _observe_ your gorgeous garden?” So there’s two different words you have to use.

Then he gave me another one: “You go to a temple, and you want to look at the gardens . . .”I made up a sentence, this time with the polite “see.”“No, no!” he said. “In the temple, the gardens are much more elegant. So you have to say something that would be equivalent to ‘May I _hang my eyes_ on your most exquisite gardens?’”Three or four different words for one idea, because when _I’m_ doing it, it’s miserable; when _you’re_ doing it, it’s elegant.

I was learning Japanese mainly for technical things, so I decided to check if this same problem existed among the scientists.At the institute the next day, I said to the guys in the office, “How would I say in Japanese, ‘I solve the Dirac Equation’?”They said such-and-so.“OK. Now I want to say, ‘Would _you_ solve the Dirac Equation?’–how do I say that?”“Well, you have to use a different word for ’solve,’ “they say.“Why?” I protested. “When _I_ solve it, I do the same damn thing as when _you_ solve it!”“Well, yes, but it’s a different word–it’s more polite.”I gave up. I decided that wasn’t the language for me, and stopped learning Japanese.
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Old 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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Old 05-16-2016, 05:41 PM   #430
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Don't forget confusing keigo like meshiagaru that means both eat AND drink!
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Old 05-16-2016, 05:50 PM   #431
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jerichi View Post
Don't forget confusing keigo like meshiagaru that means both eat AND drink!
I don't really think of that one as confusing for us foreigners as I do irritating for those interested in the evolution of language. I'd bet dollars to donuts that people didn't say "meshi agaru" 500 years ago for 飲む in Japan and yet over time the 飲む equivalent was lost and less-educated aristocrats of more modern times (last 300 years) popularized the idea of meshi agaru as a verb that doubles for both food and drink. It makes zero sense etymologically -- "meshi" means "cooked rice" specifically and "meal" generally! You're raising (agaruing) food (meshi) to your mouth.

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:
  • to make somebody do something
  • to let somebody do something
POLAR OPPOSITES in English, yet the same damn verb in Japanese with only context to inform you whether the person was forced or allowed.
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Old 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:
Originally a compound of 蜂 ‎(hachi, “bee”) +‎ 巣 ‎(su, “nest, hive”), literally “beehive, honeycomb”, from the way the lotus seed resembles a honeycomb.

Indeed, hachisu is an alternate (and, I am told, an older) reading for lotus. So you have hachisu (from hachi "bee" and su "nest", i.e. "honeycomb"), and over time this word is shortened to hasu. Fascinating.
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Old 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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Old 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:
Originally a compound of 茶 ‎(sa, “tea”) +‎ 匙 ‎(ji, “spoon, scoop”).[1][2][2][3] This on'yomi reading for a two-character term was then applied to the single-character 匙 spelling, and re-interpreted as kun'yomi.
Quote:
The saji reading is the most common in modern Japanese when using this term as a standalone noun.
Quote:
茶匙 ‎(cha saji): a teaspoon (a spoon used for tea); a teaspoon, a unit of measure of 5ml
Quote:
In modern Japanese, the term スプーン ‎(supūn) is used to refer to spoons in general, including spoons as found in the Western world. The term saji generally refers more to the broad, usually flat-bottomed Asian-style spoon shown at right.
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Old 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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Old 10-10-2016, 12:11 PM   #436
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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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Old 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.
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Old 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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Old 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:

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"The jōyō kanji is the guide to kanji characters and their readings, announced officially by the Japanese Ministry of Education. Current jōyō kanji are those on a list of 2,136 characters issued in 2010. It is a slightly modified version of the tōyō kanji, which was the initial list of secondary school-level kanji standardized after World War II. The list is not a comprehensive list of all characters and readings in regular use; rather, it is intended as a literacy baseline for those who have completed compulsory education, as well as a list of permitted characters and readings for use in official government documents." - "Jōyō kanji" on Wikipedia

"1946: The 1,850 characters of tōyō kanji were adopted by law "as those most essential for common use and everyday communication". This list included 881 'basic requirement' kanji for elementary school.

"1981: The 1,945 characters of jōyō kanji were adopted, replacing the list of tōyō kanji.

"2010: The list was revised on 30 November to include an additional 196 characters and remove 5 characters (勺, 銑, 脹, 錘, and 匁), for a total of 2,136. The amendment also made changes to the readings of kanji present in the previous jōyō kanji list. Twenty-eight kanji gained new readings, three kanji lost obscure readings and the kun'yomi of 側 was changed from kawa (かわ?) to gawa (がわ)."

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 ...
  • 俺 おれ "I"
  • 藤 ふじ "wisteria"
  • 尻 しり "butt"
  • 狙 ねら(う) "to aim for; to target"
  • 椅 いす "chair" *
  • 嵐 あらし "storm"
  • 頃 ころ "time period"
  • 爪 つめ "nail; claw; talon"
  • 瞳 ひとみ "pupil (of eye)"
  • 呪 のろ(う) "to curse, i.e. to place a curse on someone or something"
  • 餌 えさ "food (for animals); feed"
  • 熊 くま "bear"
  • 亀 かめ "turtle"
  • 蜂 はち "bee; wasp; hornet"
  • 拶 さつ the second half of the word 挨拶 "greeting"
  • 腺 せん "gland"
* 椅 might be because, investigating on Wiktionary, it looks like you can get away with just writing 椅 now and have it mean "chair" instead of having to write 椅子

This is a partial list because I plead the 5th tiredness (it's 3am local, I'm just waiting on poorly-timed bed sheets to finish drying). Furthermore, I'll admit to a personal bias with animals, medical terminology, and sexual terminology. But ffs! 俺 Ore? 頃 Koro? 嵐 Arashi? Fuck, I've known how to write 嵐 since I was a first year student! Self taught, sure, but don't ask me to believe that a graduating high school senior in Japan wasn't expected to know how to read and write 嵐 before now! O_o Or that government documents weren't allowed to use that character in any official writing! (The thing with Jōyō kanji is, if it isn't Jōyō, you're not allowed to use it in legislation. The idea is supposed to be that Japanese legislation should be legible to all adult Japanese citizens, and that in turn all adult Japanese citizens are expected to be able to read from a proscribed list of characters determined by the government.) How on earth were you supposed to write legislation about actual, meteorological storms without being allowed to use the word 嵐, huh? That's just nuts!

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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Old 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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Old 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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Old 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 and hope that I didn't get in trouble

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:
  • Used or not used? The translation of the title, "ポケセン限定 ポケモン/マリオ花札 2種set 未開封", tells me that it is "unopened". However, later on, we have the information "商品の状態: 中古", which translates me to "Item Condition: Used" So is it new or used? ^^; (I don't mind either way.) Is it a translation problem or maybe the seller messed up? But then there's this line in the description: "・未開封品。 ・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。" Translation is horribad, but what I can understand from it is it is unopened, but it is possible that there's some scratches or uneven colors. Could it be that although it is "unopened", he considered it "used" because it have scratches and whatnot?
  • Bid options This unfortunately doesn't show in the page anymore as the auction is over (Don't worry, that single and winning bid is mine!) but before I have bid, I was given two options for something: [title] "落札条件" [option 1] "希望の個数がそろわなければ落札しない" [option 2] "一部の個数でも落札する". I know they're about how my bid reacts or something but... has anyone have any idea what exactly these two options are? All I know is I picked the default option (1) and things went fine X) But I still wanna know exactly what it means, so in the future I would do a better choice...
  • "If more than one successful bid can be bundled."? A line in the description I would like to get more info on as it sounds important, but unfortunately Google Translate Engrish is at it again. The original line is "複数落札頂いた場合は同梱可能です。" What do they mean exactly? As far as I can tell, the "item" is two things, that is the two sets of Pokémon hanafuda (one original, the other that Mario crossover). When I bid, they say that they had a quantity of 2, which I believe that the seller has two pairs. But that "weird" sentence makes me wonder: Did he mean that I had to put the quantity to "2" to get both? But it doesn't make sense because if I wanted just one of them I would have to choose which one I want... unless it's one of those scams where they show you two items on the pictures/title but you get just one? (That would suck. I want both of them as the only reason I brought from that seller in particular was the fact it sold both for just a tiny bit more than the price of one.)

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.)
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Old 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.
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Old 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)
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Old 11-06-2016, 09:53 PM   #445
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What we already knew:
Spoiler: show
ポケセン限定 ポケモン/マリオ花札 2種set
PokéCenter Limited Edition Pokémon/Mario Hanafuda 2-deck set

未開封品
unopened/sealed goods

商品の状態: 中古
Item Condition: Used

[option 1] 希望の個数がそろわなければ落札しない
Bid will not be accepted if desired items are not completely present (i.e. if it's not a full set)

[option 2] 一部の個数でも落札する
If there's even one article present, the bid will be accepted.

複数落札頂いた場合は同梱可能です。
In the event that multiple winning bids are received, it is possible to package (the goods) together.

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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Old 11-07-2016, 09:42 AM   #446
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Thanks a lot for the additional precisions Talon! ^^

Quote:
Originally Posted by Talon87 View Post
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.)
Well that's some good news to hear I did order just "1".
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:
Originally Posted by Talon87 View Post
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.
Right, that makes sense. The bad translation got in the way of understanding it that way, plus the whole "unopened vs. used" made things even more confusing ^^;

Quote:
Originally Posted by Talon87 View Post
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.
Indeed we shall. I've seen that mistake done on ebay and Amazon before though, like all the description is just screaming "BRAND NEW" yet in the filters it is shown as "used" ^^; I've even seen the way around, putting it as "new" but it's advertised as used! I usually stay away from those because mixed signals is a bit suspicious, but I can understand that it can very well be an honest mistake (as one who fills out online forms often while working, I know a mistake with dropdowns and checking points can be easily done).


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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Old 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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Old 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:
  1. The order was indeed both of the hanafuda sets as a package. So huzzah for getting 2 for the price of 1! ^^ Even though the international delivery fee was a bit more expensive than I thought it would be, oof
  2. Both seem very, very much brand new. The cardboard boxes are unopened and generally in good condition, the plastic boxes that protect the cardboard boxes aren't even scratched... Jeez, they even are (well, were) still in their Pokémon Center wrapping paper! (green with yellow pokéballs and Gen 6 starters/legendaries =3=) And that's not mentioning how well it was packaged... So fair to say they're not used, and easy to assume that the seller did an honest mistake!

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?)
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Old 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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Old 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:
Originally Posted by Jerichi View Post
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.
Right, but the characters are printed at an off-center angle that is mostly yet not entirely horizontal. It rules out vertical RTL as an answer, and it suggests against horizontal RTL as well (esp. given the other deck). While you could still be right, I still think it's very strange.
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