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Learn Japanese (English)

Are you interested in learning Japanese? Look no further than our Telegram channel, @learnjapanese! This channel is dedicated to helping beginners learn the basics of Japanese, from essential vocabulary to grammar rules and more. Whether you're planning a trip to Japan or just want to expand your language skills, our channel has got you covered. Join us today and start your journey to mastering Japanese!nnIn addition to our informative posts, we also provide useful resources to aid in your learning process. Simply visit https://bit.ly/LearnJapaneseDocs to access these resources and enhance your Japanese skills even further. And don't forget to send us your feedback by typing /ping to our bot @LearnJapaneseBot.nnWho is it? Learn Japanese is a channel designed for beginners who are interested in learning the Japanese language. What is it? This channel provides basic knowledge and resources to help beginners start their journey of learning Japanese. Whether you're a complete beginner or just looking to brush up on your skills, our channel has something for everyone. Join us today and take the first step towards mastering Japanese!

Learn Japanese

30 Oct, 03:51

I found this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-x_EIPVhJE
to be quite interesting, in a Japanese class you might be told to say 「もう一度う言ってください」to ask someone to repeat what they said, but that's only appropriate in a classroom setting, if you are talking "in the real world", people won't usually talk that way, and because of Japanese customs and culture, it might come off as rude in some situations

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Learn Japanese

08 Aug, 04:32

I'd recommend reading this: https://docs.google.com/document/d/10bRzVblKVOsQJjTc2PIi1Gbj_LrsJCkMkh0SutXCZdI/edit#, it's quite comprehensive, the article linked in there as "Zipf's law" is particularly interesting (to me), I want to get good enough at Japanese to be able to understand native speakers, in both "normal" and "nonstandard" speech, to understand anime and manga, but not necessarily than the most difficult dialects, like regional dialects, and understanding how much more difficult it is to do that than to simply be able to hold a conversation is very important

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Learn Japanese

16 Jun, 00:35

this is from Episode 1 of ヲタクに恋は難しい [Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii] "Love is Hard for Otaku", around 00:19:27 in the episode

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Learn Japanese

16 Jun, 00:31

それな！

means something like "that's it!"

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Learn Japanese

16 Jun, 00:30

I want to learn a little bit of video editing, just enough to make clips, not to get a job doing that, so I wanted to add some clips with words or phrases, something like this

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Learn Japanese

28 Apr, 00:08

the bot is going to be down, there have been some issues with the server where it's hosted

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Learn Japanese

25 Apr, 23:06

I will be unemployed soon (I won't be in financial distress though), so I'll see if I can start posting again, though I won't promise any set schedule

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Learn Japanese

01 Mar, 05:53

some verbs don't mean that someone is currently performing an action, for example 結婚する [けっこんする] "to marry" in its ている (結婚している [けっこんしている]) form means "I am married" or "he/she is married"

this is also the case with 生きる [いきる], which means "to live", and 生きている [いきている] means "I'm alive", rather than "I'm living"

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Learn Japanese

01 Mar, 05:36

くれ can be substituted for ください when making a "desperate plea", or just being close to the person (or trying to "close the distance")

for example

in Overlord Season 2, Zaryus proposes to Crusch by saying

結婚してくれ [けっこんしてくれ] "marry me"

without くれ it would be "get married" but くれ makes it a personal request, it's not just "get married" but "get married [to me]"

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Learn Japanese

01 Mar, 05:31

when using this ている form, you can omit the い and it's still understandable, for example, in KonoSuba, episode 3, around minute 17:45, Kazuma says

喜んでる？ [よろこんでる？] "she's enjoying it?" when seeing his party member enjoying getting hit by cabbages

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Learn Japanese

01 Mar, 05:27

the ている/ています thing works for other verbs as well

for example, in Goblin Slayer, episode 3, around minute 12:25

the Priestess says: そんな、せめて決める前に相談とか [そんな、せめてきめるまえにそうだんとか]
which means something like "that's not fair, at least, before deciding, please consult" or "that's not fair, you should consult (me) before making a decision"

Goblin Slayer responds: しているだろ
which means "I'm doing it now", this could be more explicit adding 今 [いま], as in 今、してるだろ, but it should still be clear

だろ is "the informal to the point of almost being rude" version of でしょう which means something like "isn't it" or "am I not", by itself it doesn't mean anything, but it's similar to ね (as in いい天気ですね [いいてんきですね])

for example 好きだろ [すきだろ] means "you like, don't you?" it could be "you like her, don't you?" or "you like it, don't you?" depending on the subject of the conversation

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Learn Japanese

01 Mar, 05:17

in the previous example, 彼女はりんごを食べる can also mean "she eats apples" as in someone who eats apples vs someone who doesn't eat apples

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Learn Japanese

01 Mar, 05:16

to say that someone is doing an action, you use the て form and います (formal)/いる (informal)

for example

彼女はりんごを食べる [かのじょはりんごをたべる] "she eats an apple", it can also mean "she is eating an apple"

but if you want to be explicit that she is eating the apple right now, you'd say

彼女はりんごを食べている [かのじょはりんごをたべている]

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Learn Japanese

12 Feb, 19:17

you can do this with other い adjectives

like 美味しい [おいしい] meaning "delicious" or "tasty"

美味しい食べ物 [おいしいたべもの] "delicious food" or "tasty food"

美味しくない食べ物 [おいしくないたべもの] "non-delicious food" or "non-tasty food"

though, it isn't necessarily *bad* food

think of a single scale of

-5 to 5

where 5 is delicious, and -5 is bad

美味しい would be a 5 or very close to 5

美味しくない would be somewhere between 0 and 5, but not too close to 5

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Learn Japanese

12 Feb, 19:14

for all of the い adjectives (like 白い [しろい] meaning "white")

there are X-くない forms to them, meaning "not X"

for example

白い車 [しろいくるま] means "white car"

and

白くない車 [白くない車] means "a car that is not white"

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Learn Japanese

05 Feb, 22:12

or using あなた (which isn't actually used in conversation, with possibly the only exception of a woman talking to her husband), this is actually used for scolding someone

like saying 何してるんだ？ [なにしてるんだ] vs あなた何してるんだ？ [あなたなにしてるんだ？]

the first one is "what are you doing?" the second is more like "do you realize what are you doing?"

in textbook grammar they are both the same, but in conversation people usually don't use あなた

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Learn Japanese

05 Feb, 22:12

a lot of swear words in English are related to sex, like "fuck" or "bitch"

in Japanese, they do exist, but they are rarely used, at least in conversation, maybe they're used in novels? (I'm not sure)

for example

calling someone 部数 [ぶす] "ugly" or 禿 [はげ] "bald" or "baldy"

is more common

another way people "talk down" or offend others is by deliberately using pronouns that aren't respectful

like calling someone 貴様 [きさま] or お前 [おまえ]

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Learn Japanese

03 Feb, 00:01

意味 [いみ] means meaning, as in "the meaning of that word"

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Learn Japanese

03 Feb, 00:00

it does have a kanji by the way, I forgot to use it, it's 分かんない [わかんない]

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Learn Japanese

03 Feb, 00:00

わかんない is a sort of contraction of わからない, it's probably more common in spoken Japanese than in written Japanese

you might have heard it in anime, but I think it's more rare in manga? (maybe not?)

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