災い わざわい disaster, calamity
火災 かさい fire
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I went to a climbing gym yesterday so I decided to learn some indoor-climbing vocabulary in Japanese 
ボルダリング indoor climbing (bouldering? not me learning vocabulary in Japanese I don’t even know in English)
傾斜(けいしゃ) inclination; slope
液体チョーク liquid chalk
壁のブロックを掴みながら登る (rock climbing holds being ブロック or ホールド)
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Well, bouldering is a specific type of climbing, usually done without harnesses. It’s not a synonym for indoor rock climbing… at least, not in English. Couldn’t honestly tell you what indoor climbing is in Japanese, though rock climbing in general is 岩登り.
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Thank you for the clarification! That means I didn’t do indoor climbing but (indoor) bouldering yesterday 
something like that →
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二酸化炭素 (nisanka tanso) = carbon dioxide
Still surprised it stuck with me. I was watching a VTuber and just heard her say it. I looked it up on jisho.org because I didn’t know it and it sounded cool. I guess I’m destined to become a chemist. Cool stuff.
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面喰い😜
I don’t think this word is wani kani vocabulary. They should include it though
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よく、‘often’. I was attempting to read/translate かき氷は、あついなつによくたべられます。
Of which, I understood a decent amount, but my knowledge was lacking a little (still is).
Incidentally, this sentence is the first context sentence in the lesson for the vocab word かき氷, ‘shaved ice’.
My first attempt at translation:
Shaved ice is nice in hot summers.
The WK translation:
I eat shaved ice a lot in hot summers.
So as you can see, my lack of understanding of vocab/grammar made me interpret the sentence differently. If I had read it more carefully, I would have realized that よくたべられます was actually two words: よく and たべられます, thus I would have understood the word about eating, and that would have led me to question the context of the sentence.
I assumed the subject of the sentence was shaved ice, but it was actually ‘I’ as in the speaker of the sentence. (I haven’t looked at grammar yet, so statements like this are likely to be comically
inaccurate!)
So if I had noticed that I could have translated the sentence as :
I eat shaved ice during the heat of summer.
Which is very much closer to the actual translation.
And as for the word: よく、I had to look it up, and I now know it can mean ‘often’.
So if I had known this, I could have included it in my translation, so with it included, my final translation, using all of that, would be:
I eat shaved ice often during the heat of summer.
Which is closer, but shows I still have a ways to go, and I’m beyond stoked!
So thats my word, よく！
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かもしれない - my student explained this to me as might/may.
I just learnt this word a few minutes ago during an English lesson with one of my Japanese students. Though, to be honest, I don’t really understand the nuance of using it just yet. I’ll have a look at some articles about how to use it shortly. Of course, if anyone feels gracious enough to teach me and save me the effort, I’d appreciate that too 
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夏バレ is one I learned recently. It’s roughly summer sickness.
I was talking to someone who said they had a lacking appetite because of 夏バレ.
In short, take care of yourself!
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Welcome to the community!
I didn’t know this word so I looked it up and I think you made a typo (apparently it’s 夏バテ)
Very interesting word though, useful in countries like Japan where the summer is really hot!
Someone else might be able to explain the nuance to you but I personally just add it at the end of my sentences:
→ もう知ってるかもしれない you might know this already
→ 時間がかかるかもしれない it might take time
→ 別の方法があるかもしれない there might be another way
It’s nice to learn new words with your students!
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It’s a sentence clause ending expression, preceded by simple/short forms or nouns/na-adjectives without adding だ. It kind of means “not impossible to be known”, because it comes from the verb 知る.
It expresses lesser likelihood than たぶん, but still means that something is possible.
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Wow, that is actually incredibly helpful!
The examples you provided make it quite easy to understand.
I am once again reminded that not all heroes wear capes, unless you are wearing one.
Yeah, it feels like they teach me as much as I teach them. I really am quite fortunate in that regard.
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Thank you for the explanation!
does the かも~ portion of the word/phrase convey any particular meaning? Is it possibly a particle I have yet to encounter? Is it commonly used with other negated verbs?
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Etymologically, they’re the か and も particles - か marks an embedded question, and can be translated here as “whether”, while も is “even, too”, so Xかも知れない = whether X is even unknowable.
But yeah, just think of it as one whole unit かもしれない that means “maybe” or “perhaps”. Can be abbreviated to just かも, or written more formally as かもしれません. It’s not really a mix-and-match construction like other grammar structures can be.
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Thanks and good catch!
It goes to show that you shouldn’t be posting when you’re sleepy… 
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Thanks for the breakdown! I think I’m going to need to spend a bit more time engaging with the か particle to fully understand how to form an embedded question. Fortunately, I’ve recently bought Tofugu’s book on particles. I’ll revisit this post once I’ve cleared it.
I was actually quite curious as to whether or not I’d be able to mix and match it with other verbs. Thanks for clearing that up.
You , @Akifuyu and @AndyMender are truly the heroes we deserve.
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I think @Belthazar did most of the heavy grammar lifting 
. Anyhow, happy to help!
Today’s sponsored by the local library so…
図書館員 - person working in a library (librarian, sort of)
図書館長 - chief/head librarian
図書係 - librarian, but more sort of book keeper (?)
図書目録 - library record
図書カード - library card (for a book)
成績書 - transcript of records
学園長 - dean or headmaster
Also:
黄金 - gold (the element and mineral)
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抜刀斎 - battousai - from the Rurouni Kenshin Beginnings film. I’d heard it many times but couldn’t find it in a dictionary. Watching it on Netflix with Japanese subtitles I finally saw it written. I’m still not sure of the English translation though. 抜刀 is to draw a sword and 斎 is purification but putting them together?
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Urban dictionary mentions 抜刀斎 comes from 抜刀術 - the art of drawing a sword, performing a slash and returning it to the sheath. The 斎 part is supposedly a moniker.
EDIT:
Just remembered this famous gentleman whose nickname had the same kanji: 伊東一刀斎 - Wikipedia
And an article on 武号: 武号 - Wikipedia
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電光石火 - lightning fast
社交辞令 - saying something just to be polite, empty compliment
二束三文 - dirt cheap
前代未聞 - unparalleled, record-breaking, literally “unheard of by the previous generation”
According to my teacher, including idiomatic 四字熟語 in speech is a way to impress people, but I try not to overdo it to not look pretentious. I’ll learn a couple new ones everyday mainly out of interest, and during my conversation lessons, I’ll drop at most two if the opportunity arises.
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