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Well, that’s exactly how the puzzle is described. I have an idea as to how it’s supposed to work, but if it’s my frame of mind that’s hiding the solution from me, I’d rather avoid leading you into the same place, though. =)
August 11, 2013 at 3:37 pm in reply to: The "I found some Japanese I don't understand" thread. #41491I really wish they’d put English subtitles instead of dubbing over the presenters and interviewees on the street.
Ditto. It kinda feels like they’ve only got two or three people on hand to do the dubbing, so they have to put on stupid voices to sound unique. Some other shows do dubbing too, but it’s usually not quite so much as Cool Japan.
That’s the translation they have? That exact wording? Guess I was spot on :D
No, I just copied your translation – didn’t make a note of the exact wording, but it’s something fairly close. =P I’ll be getting my copy back from the person who borrowed it on Wednesday, if you want an exact quote.
@Astralfox: 前 doesn’t just mean “front”, it also means “before”.
Same as 後 means both “after” and “behind”. =)
August 11, 2013 at 2:34 pm in reply to: The "I found some Japanese I don't understand" thread. #41488I’ve occasionally had to think twice, but when you think of it as “three days before” and “three days after” it gets easier to remember which is which. =P
August 11, 2013 at 2:21 pm in reply to: The "I found some Japanese I don't understand" thread. #41485前 as a suffix is まえ.
I sometimes watch Cool Japan, but I often find it kinda wince-worthy…
Incidentally, I found the official English translation of the book, and “Had she not been born a dog, she mightn’t’ve died this soon.” is what they have. =)
August 9, 2013 at 5:39 am in reply to: The "I found some Japanese I don't understand" thread. #41450Yah, was going to say it was probably なければ. =P Still not quite sure why it’s なきゃあ and not just なきゃ.
Your idea sounds pretty good, though.
August 8, 2013 at 6:33 pm in reply to: The "I found some Japanese I don't understand" thread. #41440Hey, I’ve asked the occasional question before. =P
It was originally written in 1976 (though published in 1986, and I don’t know how much post-editing went into it) so some archaisms may be possible. Wondering if maybe it’s “If she hadn’t been born, perhaps she wouldn’t have died so soon.”
I’ve got an official English translation of the book somewhere, though I can’t for the life of me find where it is…
August 8, 2013 at 3:03 pm in reply to: The "I found some Japanese I don't understand" thread. #41434Ooo, ooo, my turn to ask a question!
犬に生まれてこなきゃあこんなに早く死ななかったろうに。
Context: the author is lamenting that her dog has been killed by the neighbour’s dog. I get the gist of what this sentence means, but I’m uncertain of the exact meaning of some of those chunks of hiragana. Specifically, こなきゃあ and 死ななかったろう and the final particle に. Is こなきゃあ perhaps the abbreviation of 来なくては(ならない)?
Welcome! You going for a holiday or something else? I reckon you’ll be fine – I went in 2010, before I actually started learning Japanese, and managed to survive with a phrasebook and charades, though actually knowing what was going on would probably have been helpful. Even with the phrasebook, there was no point in asking people questions, because I’d never understand the answers. =P
Welcome! Feel free to ask all your dumb questions. =P
Welcome back! =) I feel the pain of having everything escape when you stop practicing – every time I come back from holidays, I discover I’ve forgotten all of my kanji, even the ones I thought I’d memorised properly years ago…
I’d love to be able to visit Japan every few years, but I have neither the money nor the time. Where was your homestay, exactly?
Yeah, I did Mandarin for four years way back in high school. Not sure I ever really got the hang of tones, though I don’t actually recall how fluent I actually got. I just remember enjoying it in year seven and eight, which made me choose it as an elective for years nine and ten, but then I got put in a combined background/non-background class and just got completely overwhelmed. Hated it.
Always seemed fine to me. Still, even if it didn’t work properly, at least it worked. =P
It’s always had a search function – it’s just been very well hidden, and more so with every update, to the point where on the second-to-last update, it became so well-hidden that I never managed to find it…
Welcome! Why are you moving to Japan?
If there’s a Kinokuniya in your area, that’s a good place to start for Japanese manga. Doesn’t look like there’s any in Europe at all, though, much less Denmark…
Shounen Jump manga tends to use furigana, though, even if it is occasionally too puny to read. Though again, the furigana is sometimes used to indicate a different reading to the kanji they’re written above, as a sort of double-meaning thing. For example, Negi’s spells in Negima are written in kanji with katakana-ised Latin as furigana. Still, like missingno, I reckon buy it anyway. I even managed to find a copy of the magazine itself at my local Kinokuniya. (On that note, I’m still astonished that the three-hundred-odd page Shounen Jump costs roughly the same as a thirty page American comic book, and even comes out weekly instead of monthly.)
Anyway, for other suggestions, if you’re still weak on kanji, your best bet is probably to aim for manga aimed at young children. I found a manga called Ryushika Ryushika written by Yoshitoshi “Haibane Renmei” ABe – the main character is a small child who only speaks in kana. Also, Yotsubato. As well as that, I picked up one or two volumes of manga that I already had the English translation for, so that I could read them side-by-side.
Not that I’ve actually gotten around to reading any of this. Tsk…
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