日本語は話せます 🇯🇵

Think that’s killing me now is unfamiliar kanji with three different readings hitting me in the vocabulary.

At my Duolingo is actually helping, with some of the same vocabulary coming up.

At my level meant to say

And just now learned an interesting expression from Duo, 上の空, which means absent-minded.

a bit like head in the clouds, above the sky?
I did wanikani for a bit a few years ago and have started again, up to level 4 and am surprised how much I can remember
I just like the way kanji look and the words that happen when you put two or more together, fire + mountain = volcano etc

Yes, like that.

Really don't know how Ed kept up that pace for a year.

It kind of took over. I had to build it into my day. I wouldn’t recommend it, not least because towards the end of that period all other Japanese study went by the board.

I can tell. I am feeling that now at Level 7. I keep promising myself that I am only keeping to the seven day cycle for now to learn how that works but trying to figure out if I should shoot for a ten day cycle or a two week cycle.

Just took advantage of a tip that I could add fonts

And want to remark on the tiny helpful fact that Tsurukame lets you know if you should be typing in an on or kun reading for the kanji.

Drives me crazy when things are very similar in pronunciation like
私立 and 自立

Although I guess that’s the whole point

Almost done with level nine. Wonder if I should pause at ten before going on to eleven to review those first ten Pleasant levels.

Visually Similar Kanji is usually pretty far off though

Did anyone buy the 4,500 sentences?

The what now?

https://store.tofugu.com/shop/4500-japanese-sentences

hate when i finish a level on wanikani and suddenly there's like 100+ new lessons, all that purple to grind through before you get to the blues and pinks is kinda dispiriting

Are you still doing? I thought maybe you took a break.

You don’t have to do the purple right away. You can start with the blue and pink and do the purple at your leisure. That’s what I do, that’s what somebody else told me they do, I think.

nah still working away at it and got to level 6 yesterday
i'm doing it thru the website and can't see a way to pick and choose which lessons to do? teach me your ways

Use the tsurukame app, highly configurable

Maybe the recommended usage is to finish all the vocabulary first before proceeding but I dunno seems like I am going to spend forever on the vocabulary anyway so…

Anyway, I kept up the ever more brutal pace of leveling up every seven days until this week, when it finally gave way, which is fine I guess. I really don’t know how Ed kept up the pace for so long, although maybe I do know and I also know why he had to eventually take a very long break or two.

yeh I'm not capable of doing that. going at my own pace
that app seems to ios only, boooo

Flaming Durtles?

Kakumei?

Now looking for some easy readers so I can use this stuff.

Try Satori Reader, there’s quite a lot of stuff you can read without paying for. It also integrates with Wanikani so it will only show Furigana for stuff you don’t know.

Thanks! Will check that out. Already started looking at ManabiReader again, along with White Rabbit Press.

Okay, the White Rabbit Level 2 stories are at the right level.

How do you find stuff to read in Satori? I didn’t dig that part of the interface

The dictionary app simply called Japanese has a color tagging feature that I am finding really useful at the moment.

Okay, so just leveled up to twelve. I will know a lot if this thing doesn't pull me under.

It takes me at least a couple of days to internal the weird readings and nuances of meaning of the vocab which us why at this point I always start the radicals and kanji first in the vain pursuit of the next level up.

Always feels kind relaxing being in the eye of the hurricane when that two day pause comes before the radicals and (most or some of the) first batch of kanji go to Guru.

Eye of the typhoon, I should say

Is there some rule of thumb about a/e vowel sounds and transitive/intransitive or am I just imagining

I seem to see a lot of pairs where the e vowel is transitive, to act upon, and the a vowel is intransitive, to be acted upon.

Unless I’ve got that backwards.

Anyway, just found my copy of this book
https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9784872179408-us.jpg
flipping through which demonstrates that the Kanji reading is much improved.

I seem to see a lot of pairs where the e vowel is transitive, to act upon, and the a vowel is intransitive, to be acted upon.

Just found this

This is an intransitive verb, meaning it happens on its own. The かる ending is a hint, because verbs with かる as okurigana (kana added to the kanji) are usually intransitive.

That’s under 受かる

My main problem with learning Japanese grammar is that I have no idea what English grammar is or how it works. It's like I have to learn a third language to learn the second. Doesn't help that my brain seems to immediately shut off when I read things like "intransitive verb".

I wouldn’t worry too much about not knowing English grammar or grammar terms, they map poorly in any case.

I recommend the Cure Dolly videos on YouTube, once you get past the odd 3D avatar and squeaky voice there’s some great teaching on how Japanese works.

Here’s the one on Jidoushi and Tadoushi. Be wary of trying to look for patters is which is which, there are always exceptions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELk1dqaEmyk

Ed is correct as usual. Japanese grammar is completely unrelated to English grammar, unlike Indo-European languages, in particular close relatives such as Germanic and Romance languages.

So I have all five fonts installed in Tsurukame. Knew that if I long pressed it would show the standard font but just realized I can swipe left and right to iterate through others.

When I went through (most of) the reverse Duolingo tree I actually came across many Japanese terms for English grammar. Of course in the lessons there were multiple ways in Japanese to convey various things that were represented in the English tenses.

Did the bare minimum on Wanikani yesterday and today started with a stack of close to three hundred reviews. Dang!

Almost dug myself out. Also just realized that 例えば is tatoeba!