Discussion The Japanese Study Thread

[Jisinai]

Re: The Japanese Language

I figured that much out but I'm having trouble figuring out where one word stops and another one begins. I guess I need to just go study vocabulary stuff. can someone tell me what i-ka-to-i-e-ba means. please.

It really depends on the context of what it's in. It can mean a lot of things, being all hiragana.

As for finding out when words stop, you really need to study your particles, those clue you in big time on when stuff starts and stops. Kanji strings usually denote combination words and such. Practice, practice, practice.

 

[Pazuzu]

Re: The Japanese Language

Hell, I find a string of hiragana a lot more difficult to parse through than a normal sentence.

It'll all get easier when you start up with kanji. They make sentences a lot more readable. (and at the same time, less readable if you don't know them. o.O)

And yeah, you need to give more. "-i ka to ieba" needs something before it to make it make sense, otherwise it's just a trailing bit of grammar.
Unless the sentence is something along the lines of "so right, let's assume this is squid..."

 

[Nihongaeri]

Re: The Japanese Language

Can someone tell me what i-ka-to-i-e-ba means. please.

Assuming it starts out a sentence, "Speaking of squid..." would be the most conventional translation.

Then again, it really depends on the context. It could be the somewhat idiomatic "to ieba" construction that one uses when talking about (not sure what to call it) "intrinsic association", perhaps? Something like, "ika to ieba tako", translated along the lines of, "saying 'squid' makes [me/you] think 'octopus'"...

Point is, it could really be a lot of things... Also, if this is just normal Japanese writing, there's a really good chance that "ika" doesn't mean "squid" as "ika" would quite commonly be written in katakana.

 

[njt]

Re: The Japanese Language

Assuming it starts out a sentence, "Speaking of squid..." would be the most conventional translation.

Then again, it really depends on the context. It could be the somewhat idiomatic "to ieba" construction that one uses when talking about (not sure what to call it) "intrinsic association", perhaps? Something like, "ika to ieba toko", translated along the lines of, "saying 'squid' makes [me/you] think 'octopus'"...

Point is, it could really be a lot of things... Also, if this is just normal Japanese writing, there's a really good chance that "ika" doesn't mean "squid" as "ika" would quite commonly be written in katakana.

typo my friend "tako"

 

[Nihongaeri]

Re: The Japanese Language

typo my friend "tako"

Doh!

 

[One Eyed Sharingan]

Re: The Japanese Language

Whoa, thx a lot GK (and other informative persons who post here) for going through the trouble explaining these things....
i like this educative thread.....

 

[Eagle]

Re: The Japanese Language

ハイ~~イ！　みんなさん　

Even if I'm a Japanese to french translator/Manga Editor, I'm still learning Japanese... and I think I'll always !
I'd like to thank you all for this very interesting topic.

My parents gave me a nice present one day, a Japanese Calligraphy... I've decoded some Kanjis, but it looks like an ancient way of writing. As you are all very skilled here  can anyone help me to describe this ? i'd like to have the Kanji written if possible...

Thank you !!

Here is the thing :

Spoiler

 

[Gold Knight]

Re: The Japanese Language

It probably would be better to ask all Japanese questions over in "General Translation Questions" subforum in "Meet the Translators," or ask any individual translator in their threads.

 

[Aka Guymelef]

The Mysterious Japanese

As we discuss with Njt, this thread is dedicated to all the rare, creepy or hard japanese that you find in your translator's life. Words, expression or sentence construction are accepted, all that cannot be easily found . I begin myself with some abbreviation that I found in Genshiken.

As you may know in Japanese Schools, clubs are making an important part of the students life. Here some of clubs abbreviation that appears in the manga Genshiken.

現視研[げんしけん] : abbreviation of 現代視覚文化[げんだいしかくぶんか] which means "The society for the study of modern visual culture". This club is dedicated to gather the sutdy of manga, anime, game, in an nutshell, all Otaku's passion

漫研[まんけん] : manga club ; abbreviation of 漫画研究会[まんがけんきゅうかい] which means "The society for the study of manga"

アニ研[あにけん] : anime club ; abbreviation of アニム研究会[あにむけんきゅうかい] which means "The society for the study of anime"

I'll put also another abbreviation that use the author :

都産貿[とさんぼう] : abbreviation of 都立産業貿易センター[とりつさんぎょうぼうえきせんたー] which means "Municipal center of the foreign trade industry" (check, bad english >.<). It should be in Tôkyô but I can't say if this place really exists. The author said that this place is generally used to display and sale new Dôjinshi (同人誌即売会によく使われる)

 

[Hanabi]

Re: The Japanese Language

As a side note, to clear what someone mentioned. A small history lesson.

(Note: This is what I've heard, some things could be wrong.)
Hiragana was originally created as a way to allow women to write. Men were required to write in only kanji. At some point a man actually masqueraded as a woman to write a novel with hiragana in it which became famous. (One of the first Japanese novels in fact, if I'm right he wrote the Genji Story.)

Things like that happened and eventually Japan adopted the kanji and hiragana/katakana style they have today.

This is what I've heard, not sure if it is 100% historically accurate by the way. Japanese TV gives out so much info it gets jumbled in my head.

 

[Gold Knight]

Re: The Japanese Language

Thanks for that, Hanabi. Yeah, the Tales of Genji. You're right, it was a very interesting fact.

 

[njt]

For those wondering about the JLPT

A friend tipped me off to a site that has a bunch of practice tests (8 old tests of all 4 grades) plus some study stuff scanned. So I thought I'd let you know about them to see if you'd like to try them out / see what they are like.

[url]http://www.rustyspork.org/jlpt/[/url]

Enjoy

 

[Rikki-Tikki-Tavi]

Re: For those wondering about the JLPT

Thanks.

Also thanks for the hilarious frogs. *rofl*

 

[njt]

Re: For those wondering about the JLPT

Thanks.

Also thanks for the hilarious frogs. *rofl*

haha no prob, find more here
http://mangahelpers.com/forum/index.php?topic=816.0

 

[AyaK]

Re: The Japanese Language

emm, Hi! xD

I'm new here.. and I was looking for somewhere I could present myself but I'm a lil' bit lost by now :_D

First of all, I'm spanish and I've been studing japanese for 4 years (I've been in Japan, have some japanese friends, etc.) And I make the corrections for a bleach spanish fansub.

well, now I'll comment this.

I read all the posts and found very interesting the detailed information everybody gave. I new the history of japanese but not that much.

I wanted to ask something. Since in Spain there's an oficial national exam (done in Barcelona and once a year) called "nihongo nouryoku shiken", I suppose it's the same in other countries, isn't it? :\

I would like to add that there are around 50.000 kanji (if we count old, and new, the majority are not used today). And a person needs to know about 3.000 kanji to be able to read a newspaper xD *that hurts*

 

[destinator]

Re: The Japanese Language

3000 to read a newspaper >_>? i think japanese is a kinda interesting language i am currently try to learn it but i have no time at the moment but what i have seen so far looks pretty interesting. japanese seems to be a lot about learning because you need to know the kanji, spoken expression of it and the translation. what i find very useful is that some kanjis look like their meaning for example forest = 林. and that similiar kanjis also lead to the meaning for example 木(wood/tree) and 本(book, which consists of wood xD ). next step is to look at the grammar but kanjis are more interesting at the moment

 

[karasu]

Re: The Japanese Language

こんばんわ、みんなーさん！！！

私はひらがなとカタカナが読みます。。。でも、漢字はむりです。。。

私の日本語はあまり良いじゃありません。。。四月間、大学に勉強しました。。。

今はアルタービスターのトランスレーターで私を助けた。。。

私の名前はヂルガです。。。どうぞよろしく。。。

translation (although pretty useless coz i think most people here can read it? and i don't even know if i wrote it correctly or not...)

good night, everyone!

I read hiragana and katakana, but kanji is hopeless..
My japanese is not really good... 4 months, i learnt it in university...
now, i was helped by altavista's translator..
my name is Dirga, how do you do...
========================================================
i really sucked at Japanese...learning it for 4 months...introductory level...
i gave up on kanji long time ago..even before starting the course...
i had real difficulty remembering 20 each week for tests...
we learnt about 70 kanjis during our introductory level...
i really think that kanji is not necessary for business purposes...
possibly after i graduate from master, i start learning japanese again, but speech only...

uh, i had an argument with my gf before...
is it 大学に勉強しました　(daigaku ni benkyou shimashita -- studied in university) or 大学で勉強しました (daigaku de benkyou shimashita -- studied at university)？ which one is the correct/more proper one?

 

[HisshouBuraiKen]

Re: For those wondering about the JLPT

Bitchin!

今年こそ二級に合格してみせるぜ！　（去年は休みだった）

 

[Nihongaeri]

Re: For those wondering about the JLPT

今年こそ二級に合格してむせるぜ！

「むせて」どないすんねん！（悪ぃ、ツッコミを我慢できへんかった。）

 

[njt]

Re: For those wondering about the JLPT

（悪ぃ、ツッコミを我慢できへんかった。）

That's the first time (er that I can recall) Seeing kansaiben conjugated