Seems like no one has posted a question about 神無月 on this site. It would be an interesting question to post here because there're some web pages where 神無月 is explained as "a month with no gods" and I don't think I'm the only one to have believed it. I think my junior high 国語 teacher also explained the 無 as "without"...
Ah, no I'd like you to post it, cos I don't think I can write/explain it properly in English. (If I were to ask anything about Japanese language I'd look for a place where I can post in Japanese... but probably not on 知恵袋, goo or OKwave. I think there're too many mistakes/ much wrong information there)
That way we can redirect all "I'm starting from scratch" questions there.
Something like a FAQ
English stackexchange has this for a close reason: General Reference: This question is too basic; it can be definitively and permanently answered by a single link to a standard internet reference source designed specifically to find that type of information.
Well, we do already have a resource recommendations post in meta. I suppose entry-level learners could theoretically hunt for the information on their own.
Simply just redirect them to the resource page on meta each time I guess.
"definitively and permanently answered by a single link to a standard internet reference source designed specifically to find that type of information", I suppose the links in our meta post count.
Why is French.SE a freaking great place to get help learning a foreign language? There are a million foreign language forums. What makes this one special?
Heh... most of his questions on french.se have actually been pretty good questions... for some reason he seems fit to bless japanese.SE with evidence that he can't read wikipedia
From his French.SE post: "Everyone here gives thorough and complete answers, makes a point to understand what is being asked and answer it precisely, goes out of their way to give extra information, and just generally makes this a fantastically helpful learning environment."
I don't see how JLU doesn't fit the same description
I'm not certain, but I think his French had already been somewhat established before he started using that SE site. Whereas, he is learning from the ground up here.
Your question assumes that people typically learn the kanji, for instance 歩, and then go on to try to figure out what extra meaning the okurigana impart on the kanji -- for instance, the addition of く creates a verb 歩く "to walk", and the addition of いた to 歩 creates the past tense verb "walked".
...
I learned a little from nihongoresources, and from their IRC. Then I came over to JLU to have sawa tell me that nihongoresources has some parts that are unreliable.
After fixing my basic particles, I went on a massive vocabulary memorisation excercise on my own up to 2k words.
@cypher: You know what I like about that japanese.about.com? The author has this "question of the week archives thing" which handles stuff similar to Aerovistae's questions.
Chocolate.. I just briefly revisited a question I asked a while a go but didn't get a satisfactory answer to. You mentioned "verb + そう" when I asked about difference between "verb + みたい" and "verb stem + そう".. If you don't mind me asking, are these really the same, or are they just often similar in use? I mean I was taught that the two I try to differ mean "it seems like" while the one you mentioned means something more along the lines of "I've heard"
Yes ～～するそうです is "I've heard", I think. So ハワイに行くそうです is "I heard someone's going to Hawaii", and ハワイに行けるそうです is "I heard someone(or I/we) can go to Hawaii".
I'm at work so I don't have my textbook, but I want to remember that verb + みたい is essentially the same as stem + そう, hence my question about distinguishing the two. I think I'll edit it to make more clear. For instance why not say ハワイに行けるみたい?
Ａさんはハワイに行けるみたいです sounds to me like, ...Maybe you heard that A-san can go to Hawaii directly from A san (=I mean, A-san said that directly to you), but it sounds to me more like, "Judging from what I've heard/seen, I think A-san can go to Hawaii".
On July 23, question 4281, asked in January was downvoted for the first time ever. On July 19, question 1804, asked in July last year, was downvoted for the first time ever. On July 16, question 2978, asked in September last year, was downvoted for the first time ever. On July 14, question 2698, asked in August of last year, was downvoted for the first time ever.
Well, there is a non-zero possibility that it was not an anomaly. But we wouldn't know. Perhaps you should raise this to a mod because they can see the information about the votes.
@AndrewGrimm how is "lame" inappropriate to say? I'm not a native English speaker, I don't know what other meanings or connotations this word may have.
South Park had an excellent episode on this not long ago. Essentially the kids were calling people "fags", then the homosexual community got mad because they found it offensive to them even though the word is now used to put down annoying people of any sexual orientation. (And it had some meaning before being slander for homosexuals, but I don't remember what)
I get a little frustrated at the euphemism treadmill myself.
Operating systems used to talk about disabled accessibility, as far as I can tell. Then they talked about accessibility without mentioning disability. Now they talk about "universal access", which is too broad in meaning. Is it talking about people with disabilities, or people who don't speak English?
I'm more worried about the meaning, than the words themselves.
The majority of your questions are fine, except for some that were bordering on off-topic http://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/4555/ http://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/101
Someone asked on lang-8 difference between "my friend" and "friend of mine", and I came across this on Wiktionary en.wiktionary.org/wiki/friend_of_mine
I am Portuguese, and thus have a Portuguese keyboard layout on my laptop. I want to write in Japanese, and have already installed Microsoft IME and am able to write in Japanese.
What I want to know is if there is anyway to get a "preview" of the virtual Japanese layout (preferably in kana) so th...
Yeah... I'm American, but I didn't see any of my Japanese fellow-students use anything but the romaji-based IMEs when I was at a Japanese university a few years ago
I'm sure more people are wondering and it kinda related to what we talked about earlier today, so.. Hey @AndrewGrimm, why do you have a bounty on 6256?
I need help understanding 向こう. Context: Instructions to find a 会場. 五番出口を出て、タワービル方面に向かって歩き、四つ目の信号で左折してください。そこから１００メートルほど行ったところにドラッグストアがあります。その角から**四軒向こう**のビルの地下です。
Exit at exit no. 5, walk towards the tower and turn left at the fourth traffic light. From there walk about 100 metres to a place with a drugstore. At that corner, it's at the basement of the building facing 四軒
@AndrewGrimm: as far as i can tell, there is no unique pattern of one person consistently downvoting you (aside from a few in the past, that have all been reversed). Only a bunch of people who do tend to cast mostly negative votes toward your entries, but do so in a statistically reasonable way. Sorry, but it just seems you rub some (/many) people the wrong way.
Primarily... that requires a massive increase in Questions/Day. we're not that far off on the answers/question metric, and it's really hard to have a direct effect on the visits/day metric.
@Flaw 向こう means "the other side". その角から四軒向こう is "four buildings on the other side (from you with respect to the corner)", or "four buildings away from the corner".
@jkerian: sorry for leaving earlier, but I do need my sleep sometime too. Anyway, you should feel free to consolidate and weed out the FAQ entries if you are inspired.
@sawa @Flaw (might be missing context on that conversation but...) whenever Japanese use 向こう with a foreigner, there's a 50% chance they are talking about "abroad" ;)
Why is French.SE a freaking great place to get help learning a foreign language? There are a million foreign language forums. What makes this one special?
