Guess 1 is correct. Granted, this particular sentence seems an odd thing to say, but the concept itself is correct. Same trick goes for past tense adjectives.

I’d do it if I didn’t have to become a twit…

Also, my reading speed still isn’t all that fast. =(

I’ll quite probably be coming to visit NZ for a week in December. Actually, there’s a non-zero chance that we’ll be passing through (or at least near) Hamilton. =P

Anyway, welcome, Joshua. I’ll try not to hold your kiwiness against you. =) Take some care, because there’s quite a few Japanese kanji that aren’t the same as their Chinese equivalents, and a fair few Chinese characters that have no Japanese equivalent.

Aye, the “give us your credit card number for the free trial, and we’ll automatically start charging it afterwards if you don’t specifically tell us otherwise” is pretty standard practice for website subscriptions. It’s… less than ethical (and studies have shown that it scares more people away than it attracts) but it’s not actually illegal. Unless, I guess, they’re ignoring your attempts to specifically tell them otherwise.

In some contexts, よん and なな are always used, in order to avoid confusion – when giving phone numbers, for example.

The that said, the avoidance of し for four is probably fairly common (since し = 死 = death… but you knew that already).

I was also taught が only. The grammar dictionary, however, says “In general, the choice between が and を seems to depend on the degree of volition expressed in the action the experiencer takes. That is, if his volition is high, を is preferable.” I love how they use “seems”, like they’re only guessing from what looks to be common usage. They use the following sentence as an example of a weird place to use が:

私はやめようと思えばいつでも今の仕事をやめられる。 (I can quit my current job whenever I want to quit.)

They also add that できる always uses が, and that the spatial を (i.e. 公園を歩く walk through the park) and the detachment を (i.e. うちを出る leave home) are never replaced by が.

Very nearly none at all. They come out as something like “watakshi” and “gaksei”. That said, you’re not really going to get funny looks if you say “gakusei”, unless you put too much emphasis on the く.

Not sure how often people use わたくし these days, though…

Another fun one is the name of the new Tokyo Skytree – in Japanese, it’s スカイツリー, which is pronounced something like “skaitsrii”…

Detailed guide: the う sound sometimes gets crushed to near-silence… and that’s pretty much it. =P Happens to つ sometimes as well. Basically, if it’s a short う-sound, you can often expect it to be very short, especially if truncating it makes the next syllable easier to say.

Incidentally, in your list of examples, the がくせい is the same word each time – 学生. =)