Just checking that I’m not the only one that has trouble converting hundreds and ten thousands into millions? It’s like a mini math problem every time and it takes me a while to get there XD
14 Likes
Every time I have to do it I have to stop and think too 
Wish I had a rough feeling for it, but nope.
3 Likes
Don’t worry, same here. If anyone has a better trick to do it smoothly I’d like to know too
3 Likes
You just get used to it eventually. Just find things to practice that are frequently of particular sizes. City populations are good for that range.
Tying it to something you already grasp, like the size of a major city, can make it more concrete.
7 Likes
Think about how devastated Japanese learners of English are that there’s no word for 万 or 億! Foreign languages are a beast 
But yeah, it makes reading large numbers a painful extra step haha.
10 Likes
Yeah, the trick is thinking in powers of ten thousand rather than one thousand. Frame of mind and all that.
Whereas we would read the number 123,456,789 as (one hundred and twenty three) billion, (four hundred and fifty six) million, (seven hundred and eighty nine), in Japanese it’s read as 1,2345,6789, or (one) [ten thousand ten thousands], (two thousand, three hundred and forty-five) ten thousand, (six thousand seven hundred and eighty nine).
Though note that when it’s written in purely Hindu-Arabic numerals, it’s still written as “123,456,789”.
10 Likes
Japanese Numbers PT 3 (10,000 to 99,999) - Japanese From Zero! Video 05
Japanese Numbers PT 4 (100 million and above) - Japanese From Zero! Video 06
Change your YouTube Language settings to Japanese. You’ll see a lot of numbers on YouTube, and quickly get used to them.
3 Likes
At least it’s not french, where it’s literally math when you want to count lol
6 Likes
I don’t see what quatre-vingt dix neuf you’re talking about
12 Likes
I don’t see what four twenties ten nine you mean 
1 Like
You have that in old English as well. Remember “four score and seven years ago”?
2 Likes
This was because France used base 20 for a long time.
I have heard of French speakers outside France don’t use this way to count.
12,34,56,789 — Twelve crore, thirty-four lakh, fifty-six thousand, seven hundred and eighty-nine
3 Likes
I know that in Wallonia, they use ‘septante’ instead of ‘soixante dix’ and ‘nonante’ instead of ‘quatre-vingt dix’
1 Like
Is octante also a thing?
TBH I wish this would make it into official Paris-dialect as well.
Octante is not a thing except certain Swiss region (not Belgium) Belgium use septante for 70 (soixante-dix) and nonante for 90 (quatre-vingt dix). Everywhere else (France, Quebec, Cote d’ivoire, etc) we don’t use those shortcuts, while definitely meaningful.
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.