This question isn’t necessarily about Kanji, but more about grammar. I’ve been looking everywhere for answers to this question, but can only find examples of ながら and not まま. I understand they both mean “while/during”, but I know there’s some nuance to it that I can’t seem to place my finger on.
I figured since this is a friendly and clever community, at least one of you might have the answer.
When you ask a question like this, it’s useful to give example sentences so we can tell you the difference based on those sentences. Here’s the explanation I found from Maggie Sensei:
I don’t think you can use まま for singing songs, for that you have to use ながら. Singing songs is not a stationary condition (standing up, sitting down, lying down etc).
I think as more literal translation would be ‘As I was standing (didn’t move from position), I drank the coffee’. Correct me if I am wrong about this, but to me using まま like this, gives me a feeling of I drank thr coffee right where I was standing when I made it/got it handed to me.
Gotcha. I just have this devil on my shoulder now telling me that when a verb has “ing” on the end I should be using continuous form, but it would appear that’s not always the case.
My advice to you, at this stage in your Japanese studies, is that it is totally fine to get stuck in a particular way of saying something. When you’re starting out, its good to figure out particular ways of expressing things. If that’s how the logic goes in your head - then go for it. As you develop you will find more varied, more accurate ways of expressing yourself.
Though, having ながら or まま can almost literally translate to “while” or “during” so bear that in mind when you use them or hear them.
There are many other ways of expressing this, but like I say, stick with what works for now and focus on other things like increasing your vocabulary, and of course Wani Kani.