I don’t know if this would be more appropriate for the Grammar category, but I’m looking for some advice on how to come up with ideas for creating practice sentences. In my study logs, I come up with a practice sentence every day, but I am having issues coming up with complex enough ideas for sentences that feel rewarding. In my early stages of combining early grammar concepts and vocabulary, crafting sentences is kind of like solving a puzzle, I just need help creating what I call “target sentences”. My target sentence every day is the “goal” translation, from English to Japanese.
If there are any resources for something like this, or if you just wanna throw me a sentence that would be appreciated too!
Thanks :]
Edit: @madikp has provided a beautiful solution that kills two birds with one stone: practicing writing and practicing sentencecraft (it’s called that now). Thanks for all other suggestions!
my suggestion is to use GPT (or a similar AI) to generate samples.
you could also tell it difficulty level of the sentence or even which WaniKani level you are (so it knows not to use words you don’t know yet)
Here is a live example I just generated. my prompt was:
can you create for me a sample sentence for “tadashii” ? i’m still wanikani level 3 so only use terms up to that level. it should be complex enough but not too complex.
And the answer i got (excluding its elaborate explanation about it):
先生の言うことは正しいと思います。 Sensei no iu koto wa tadashii to omoimasu.
“I think what the teacher says is correct.”
not sure how well it adhered to the level restriction (since i think both sensei and omou are beyond level 3? maybe i’m wrong)
If you’re very early in the process, maybe just copying interesting sentences you encounter during your studies could be a starting point? And then maybe try substituting words, change the tense, put them in the negative etc…
I find that “stealing” full idiomatic sentences from native speakers is often a good way to boost your ability to express yourself while sounding natural. It’s a form of shadowing I suppose.
What I do is keep a diary where I try and describe what I did that day and then amend it after.
My process is (1) Write down the date, what I did, how I felt, and maybe what I plan to do later in the day/ tomorrow. (2) Plug that into google translate to make sure the meaning comes out alright and (3) put it through https://bunpo-check.com/ . It might not change what I say to the most natural way to say it, but I’ve found its a great way to make sure I’m using grammar points correctly. The AI will give one explanation of a change per day, and you can chat with it a bit to get help saying what you mean to say. (4) If I’m feeling extra adventurous, posting on HiNative after all that is a great way to find out how to naturally say what I mean! The Japanese speakers on there are very helpful.
(Speaking of HiNative, eventually you could try and reply to questions about English in Japanese to practice as well. Its a great way to tell if you articulate yourself well enough to be understood.)
This process has really been working for me. However, I’m someone who chats to myself all the time and loves a good over-explain sesh, so its quite natural and enjoyable. If you’re looking for a pen pal service I’m sure someone will recommend one soon!
If you’d like, I can post what my diary entry was today. This, though, was my first attempt at complex/ unprompted sentences…
Awful awful awful but I learnt a lot from it. I actually plan to continue the story next Feb to see what my progress has been! Doing things badly is how ya learn, so go make a mess of it
Gen AI is good (imo) for explaining grammar, but cant be reliable for ready to use sentences, because you wont have any way to know if it’s correct.
I remember a youtuber using this kind of chatgpt “trust me bro it’s this way to say it” sentences, and actually using a very old and outdated way to speak without knowing.
I’ll just put it here! Today I actually didn’t need to amend as much so the google translate step didn’t need more than a few kanji. As a better example of what I mean I added one from last month which needed a lot of editing. (修 miss-write and all )… I recon not doing much made today much simpler to explain lol
This is honestly really inspiring. Thank you for this, truly. I want to slowly start picking up this routine, so I’m going to figure out a game plan. This is also a really good way for me to start practicing writing physically, as that’s on my priorities list.
weird, this is the first time i hear about this -
so you’re saying it’s capable of generating perfect english but generates unnatural japanese?
is it true for all the gen-AI’s?
Heres my personal guess as to what might be happening…
Something I’ve noticed abt chatGPT is that its English actually changes based on how the user speaks. So it’s English is reflecting your use of the language, but it’s Japanese has nothing to base on other than misc online resources available to it (a lot of which are stylised anime’s/ light novels and old textbooks).
Also also, English is actually a language that varies a lot more than you would think (as someone who moved English-speaking countries and is still figuring it out… despite it being the only language I know lol.)
That all said, my opinion is, as long as you understand and are understood, who cares. Do I care that some friends of mine use really big/ old words bc that’s how they were taught English? No! We communicate just fine and that’s the whole point. If it’s helping you learn to communicate that’s great, just be careful and take a natives word for it if they say you sound a little weird haha
)… I recon not doing much made today much simpler to explain lol
)
thank you for saying