Japanese Language

3:25 AM

Until a few months ago, I had lived in central Tokyo for 25-26 straight years and I constantly heard male speakers use わ for an emphatic sentence-ender. I use it myself. It is used in Nagoya as welll, which is where I come from and currently reside.

It may have started in Kansai but Kansai IS our original "cultural/economic/political center". Even today, at least half of the most popular nationally-broadcast TV shows that are filmed in Tokyo are hosted by Kansaijin.

4:28 AM

"名をば" - how can I interpret this?

Oh I didn't know をば was a compound particle

classical Japanese is still such a mystery to me

Anonymous

5:25 AM

@ssb Yeah, it's what you used to get when you put を and は together, although I think the meaning is different than you'd expect from just those two

Anonymous

Classical Japanese is a mystery to me, too.

Anonymous

I figure I can get around to understanding Classical Japanese once I've got a handle on Modern Japanese :-)

をば basically is an emphatic を and it is still used if the writer sees it fit for his aesthetic purpose.

Anonymous

But it's rather literary, isn't it?

yes

It is used only as ofetn as "thou" is used by the modern English speakers.

*often

Use it at the wrong place and you will just sound like an idiot.

Anonymous

5:33 AM

Ah, that happens to me anyway :-)

Anonymous

Usually with things like をば, I try to learn how to understand them, but I don't really plan on ever saying them myself

Anonymous

Same thing with that 〜わ〜わ example from a light novel I posted earlier. I'm probably never going to use 〜わ〜わ like that myself

Anonymous

But it's still helpful to understand :-)

~~wa~~wa is far more common (and useful) than woba.

It helps your speech sound animated.

5:55 AM

Heya!! @snailboat @TokyoNagoya

@jkerian What's up buddy ?

Anonymous

@TokyoNagoya Well, maybe I will use it someday, then. But I've got to get the basics down first :-)

Anonymous

@TheLittleNaruto Hello!

Anonymous

I've never actually seen the anime Naruto, but I understand it has a spiral in it.

Well, it has moustache too. just look at the prof pic :P :D @snailboat

Anonymous

@TheLittleNaruto Ahh, it's too small!

Anonymous

5:57 AM

Let me try clicking it...

Sure

:)

Anonymous

Ah! I see a headband with a snail on it! :-)

Ahh! you din't see the moustache ?

Anonymous

Oh, I see that too!

Anonymous

But snail.

Q: It's 2013. Do we still like hats?

5:59 AM

is that cool ? ^_^

Anonymous

Umm... I'll go with yes!

Anonymous

0

Last year, Stack Exchange threw an end of the year party featuring special hats, and they're doing it again this year. But because hats might not be appropriate for all Stack Exchange sites, they're asking each community whether or not they want to participate. Last time, we decided that we lik...

it's not a snail though!

Anonymous

@ssb B-b-but it looks like a snail!

then a snail it is.

Anonymous

6:00 AM

Yay.

:D :D

speaking of meta

this may be a kind of ridiculous question but

do we care if people answer off topic questions in the comments on the question while voting to close it?

You know I joined SO this year on January 25th I guess. I don't have any clue about hats party

Anonymous

@ssb My personal opinion? People should be allowed to leave comments like that if they want. After all, they're trying to help people, and it seems kind of petty to stand in their way

Anonymous

And the questions will go away once they're closed, after some time has passed.

6:03 AM

closed questions get deleted?

A: Enable automatic deletion of old, unanswered zero-score questions after a year?

No I don't think so

Anonymous

So ultimately, it's not really that different than if we'd tried to get them to join chat and talk about it there, which is another thing we do sometimes to answer off-topic questions

Anonymous

Sure, if they've got a score of 0 and no upvoted answers

Anonymous

Just a moment, I'll go hunt down the wild meta

Anonymous

79

Just to formally document the exact policies we have in place to remove old abandoned / dead questions: If the question is more than 30 days old, and ... has −1 or lower score has no answers is not locked ...or... it was closed and migrated to a different site ... it will be automaticall...

6:06 AM

What various things I need to do for earning a hat ?

I want to have one like a magician has. :D

the long black hat

:D :D

Anonymous

@TheLittleNaruto I imagine they'll be different this time around, so I'm not sure. But last time, there were hats for things like "Vote or post on December 21"

Ahaaa! that's pretty cool.

So can we have hat of our choice ?

@snailboat

you get different hats for performing different tasks

so if you want a certain hat you have to do that thing

Aha! So we have categories of tasks according to hats

I'll perform that task which will give me my choice hat .. hehe

hoho~

Anonymous

6:22 AM

@TheLittleNaruto If you earns 'em, you can wears 'em

Anonymous

Hats are a wearitocracy.

Anonymous

Ah thanks for the more detailed explanation about the lost ら(ra) for ichidan verb. But I already thought of the possibility of confusion between godan verb and ichidan verb, so I asked for specific example, and 歌う　and 手伝う was given and claimed to be conjugated to 歌えられる and 手伝えられる so it couldn't be this confusion. And I cannot think of any other possible confusion, so I just think that maybe it is something specific to a dialect or a generation. Thanks for the answer but I am still holding out for more answer for the time being in case someone have other info. — Gina 44 mins ago

wearitocracy or meritocracy ?

Anonymous

Really? 「手伝えられる」?

Anonymous

@TheLittleNaruto That's a little something I cooked up in my spare time I like to call a "pun"

6:24 AM

@snailboat I got it now :P BTW I have commented on your question and +1 too

Anonymous

@TheLittleNaruto Don't worry. It wasn't a very good pun :-)

Anonymous

Yes! Precious meta reputation

Anonymous

I keep mine in the bit bucket.

Anonymous

You used to actually get meta reputation on meta.japanese.

Anonymous

And then one day I logged in to find it gone--all gone!

6:26 AM

o-O??

Anonymous

Yeah, now your meta reputation is equal to your reputation on the regular site.

So what i need to do to increase

Anonymous

You need to gain reputation on Japanese.stackexchange!

Anonymous

Ask and answer questions. It's a game! Earn the most points, and you win . . . Well, nothing, really.

Anonymous

It's like having the high score on Galaga.

Anonymous

6:29 AM

By the way, I apologize for always talking funny.

hehe. I like funny guys.

No need of apology

Well I'll ask question then

Anonymous

@TheLittleNaruto Sure, but what about me!?

Anonymous

Do you have questions about the Japanese language?

Anonymous

I should ask a lot more questions than I do.

As I am not good at answering in Japanese, I am not from this region, But I like the this language so much.

Anonymous

6:32 AM

How long have you been studying Japanese?

Anonymous

(Or otherwise learning)

I just started

Anonymous

Oh! Have you learned to read kana yet?

I hardly get time for myself as I have a lot of work in my company

Anonymous

Ohh

6:33 AM

Kana ?? What's that ?

Anonymous

Last decade, I worked a lot

Anonymous

I never really stopped learning Japanese, and sometimes I used it at work, but I never put enough time into it to get really good at it

You know , I am working on three projects all together. It's very tough to maintain if you're a team leader.

Anonymous

Kana refers to both "hiragana" and "katakana". They're the basic way of writing Japanese

I got it.

Anonymous

6:34 AM

You won't get very far in Japanese if you don't learn kana

these are like scripting

Anonymous

Many people recommend learning to read (and write!) kana first thing, before you learn anything else.

Anonymous

(Not everyone. But I think it's important. Plus, learning kana is fun!)

DO you have any link for that

?

Anonymous

You know, I'm never quite sure what link to give to people these days.

6:36 AM

Ahh! Should I ask on meta

?

Anonymous

Hmm... Usually people refer to the list of resources

Anonymous

The thing is, when I search Google for pages on stuff about Japanese, like how to write kana, or Japanese grammar, or so forth, I always find things that I don't think are 100% ideal

Anonymous

So then I always feel like, "Well, maybe I shouldn't link to this one..."

Anonymous

But there are tons of resources.

Anonymous

The list of resources links to the hiragana lessons on about.com, for example: japanese.about.com/library/blhira.htm

Anonymous

6:40 AM

Those show you how to write them with the correct stroke order, which is pretty important.

Anonymous

Although I think you could get a hiragana chart with stroke order on a single page instead of clicking through fifty bazillion pages. :-)

Yes right.

Now I am able to get a good link

Thanks Snailbot

:)

Anonymous

I've noticed that native speakers of English have a lot of trouble accurately describing their own language

I am from India, and my mother Tongue is Hindi.

Anonymous

Oh, really?

6:49 AM

yes

I am not very good at English :(

Anonymous

There are a lot of Indians here in the Silicon Valley, and I've worked with a lot of people from India, but I've never been there

You must visit once

Anonymous

Your English seems pretty good to me.

Thanks.

You'll like the place if you visit once

:)

Anonymous

Well, India is a pretty big place, isn't it? Diverse?

Anonymous

6:50 AM

I don't know which part of India I'd visit.

Anonymous

A lot of the people I've worked with are from Bangalore

Yeah! it is.

Yes. Bangalore is IT-Hub

Where you're working ?

Anonymous

Right now? Nowhere. That's why I can sit around and chat :-)

Anonymous

I'm working on a project of my own, which should be ready to sell early next year

That's good.

But I mean , from which country you're ?

Anonymous

6:52 AM

Oh! I'm from the US. I grew up in Illinois

Illinois. nice

Anonymous

Yep. Illinois. We've Got Soy!(tm)

Anonymous

I'm allergic to the entire state.

Anonymous

I like California. I can breathe here!

Anonymous

Although California is known for its terrible pizza.

6:57 AM

Which state is most known for visiting in US

?

I hope it's Florida

Pizza... mmmmm... my mouth is watering :P

Anonymous

Florida is where people go to retire.

Anonymous

They're also known for their oranges and their capacity to be hit by hurricanes.

Anonymous

In fact, they have a sports team called the Hurricanes.

That's good.

Miami is city in Florida, Right ?

Anonymous

Yep!

Anonymous

7:00 AM

Home of vice and mice alike.

I used to watch a serial "Dexter"

Anonymous

Oh yeah. I watched that whole thing.

Anonymous

I've never been to Florida, so I just imagine that it's exactly like it is in that show.

Me too. the season ended with a bad end.

Anonymous

It sure did.

Anonymous

7:01 AM

Geesh.

Anonymous

I've told you almost everything I know about Florida now.

Anonymous

It's my solemn duty as an American to be ignorant about any place I don't live in.

Yeah! right

Do you watch BBT ?

Sorry,I should have told Big bang Theory.

The seven season started already, I din't see any episode of this season

:(

Anonymous

Nope, sorry!

Anonymous

I don't watch a whole lot of TV shows right now.

Anonymous

7:06 AM

I tell myself that if I want to watch TV, I should watch something in Japanese so I can get in some listening practice.

That's a very good way to learn any language. If you want to learn a language, just read it, watch it, speak it. that's all, and here we go!!

Anonymous

For Japanese, writing it too can help :-)

Lunch time BRB :)

Anonymous

It's easier to remember how to read a kanji if you've also learned how to write it.

12:05 PM

@snailboat You know I used to come more often here before, but people rarely used to come online here in this room, So I left coming. But I started once again from today.

12:48 PM

@TheLittleNaruto It's exam season so I've not been active

@Flaw I see, You're college student ?

Erm, that depends on the definition of college

if it means university then yes. (Since the meaning of college varies depending on the country)

What does it mean in your country ?

We don't really use the term college

We do have junior college though

it's pre-university

I din't understand

What about graduation ?

1:02 PM

what about it?

What about degree's study ? how does it work over there ?

Oh, maybe I should explain it like this:
primary school→secondary school→junior college→university(college)

what is junior college ?

it precedes university, and completing it gives you a GCE A level cert

1:18 PM

Now I got it.

So you're from UK ??

Well, we have following pattern:

primary school→secondary school→Higher Secondary→university(college)

I'm from singapore

1:40 PM

Bubye guys Cya Tomorrow :) :)

2:49 PM

I'm not sure if I'm studying studying, or studying so that it feels like I'm doing something about the exam.

Anonymous

8:06 PM

Metastudying!

The battle is already lost if you're studying for the sake of confidence before an exam :P

Anonymous

I've never crammed for a test before.

Anonymous

I don't think I would be very good at it.

I did, once.. Second year in uni, first nonsense class (sustainable development) I was just forced to take.. I remember reading the notes on the way to the exam in the morning :P I failed.

Anonymous

A sustainable development class? What do you learn in one of those?

8:17 PM

Otherwise I've always felt "done" at least a day or two before the exam.. I rarely even picked up a book the day before an exam

Anonymous

It's more important that you get enough sleep before the exam, I think. :-)

We were taught about energy sources and whatnot.. how and why different sources have different efficiency rates (what does it cost to transfer bio stuff by truck? What gasses does that possibly release into the atmosphere? how efficient is the plant?) what challenges are in the more "green" sources etc, why even farm animals affect the environment and why cows are more "green" than pigs or the other way around etc..

I didn't pay much attention tbh.. it covered a lot, it was a long time ago, I don't remember much

Everyone at my uni had to take it though (engineering only uni), I think the point was that engineers should be aware of the effect we have on the environment, and how we can make it better.. and I agree.. unfortunately as a CS major I can't do THAT much really :P

Oddly I'm nostalgic to even those shitty lectures.. college was not bad.

Anonymous

8:36 PM

My dictionary says:

Anonymous

柔らかい…しなやかで、弾力性がある。 and it gives the example 「柔らかい日差し」

Anonymous

In what way exactly can a 日差し be either of those things?

Hm why couldn't it be?

also is 柔らか more common as an い-adjective? I always thought of it as a な-adjective but lately I've only seen it as い..

Anonymous

Maybe I'm thinking too literally.

possibly..

Anonymous

8:40 PM

A quick search on 少納言 http://www.kotonoha.gr.jp/shonagon/ gives:

柔らかい 918
柔らかな 474
軟らかい 145
軟らかな 16
やわらかい 503
やわらかな 276