Study Log to Japanese Literacy

Japanese Language Study Logs (Public)
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Sept 2024 - I’d been avoiding the community because I want to focus on doing my reviews than getting lost in the forum, but today felt like a good time to begin my study log.

Quick history of learning Japanese

I was forced to start the language after testing well in French during a college placement test (military school). I wanted to quit. I played lots of video games growing up, but I was never into anime and wasn’t exposed to Japanese culture at all - so it was a big mental adjustment.

But after the first semester, I came to enjoy the class (I had a really fun teacher).

That was over 20 years ago.

Since then my Japanese has ridden time’s roller coaster. It was ok, decent, dormant (terrible). Now after 3 more years living in Japan (Okinawa), I’m the best I’ve ever been.

My goal with Japanese has been nothing less than literacy. I want to be able to use it like I can with English. It’s taken a lot of work over the years. The bulk of the effort has been in the last two years. I hosted Japanese students in Japan, was president of a club with English and Japanese members, I also started reading my first book in full Japanese (Harry Potter). I even gave my first public speech in Japanese a few months ago as well as translated and published my military game tech fiction novel into Japanese (among many other micro-achievements.)

I’m looking for work as a translator now. You might think I’m far along, but there are still significant holes in my game that I want to improve. For one, my conversational Japanese is still fairly low.

While in living in Japan, I got good at using it during small interactions, but never really had consistent conversations with native speakers or friends that were fluent enough to hold a conversation. I’m looking for that now.

I just moved from Japan. So now it’s even more critical that I keep my skills fresh. This log seemed like a good way to attract like-minded people like you.

Over the years, I’ve approached Japanese with nearly every method possible: flashcards, books, courses (I have a minor in Japanese from college), apps, Meetups, Anki, italki, AI. From all those, I’ve finally found the small set of tools and strategies that work best for me.

WaniKani has been a huge help. Before (like you) I struggled hard with Kanji. I tried multiple programs and brute force tactics to beat them into my head, but they never worked. Kanji would leak out the back of my brain like water from broken sink. Super frustrating.

But since I started this last year, things have been better. I’m level 21 now. WaniKani combined with reading and writing has been a crazy effective combo. I look forward to seeing how far I get in another year.

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Only got half way through a page of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone today.

But wrote and analyzed 4 sentences.

By the way, I’m reading a hardcover version of the book (I have the entire series in Japanese). So that means I have to type the sentence in order to analyze it with a custom AI prompt I designed.

This makes things much slower. But the goal isn’t to rush through the reading.

Here’s the sentence I re-wrote and the analysis:

「そのうち学校であのポッターに出会って、二人ともどっかへ行って結婚した。そしてお前が生まれたんだ。ええ、ええ、知ってましたとも。おまえも同じだろうってね。同じように変てこりんで、同じように・・・まともじゃないってね。それから妹は、自業自得で吹っ飛んじまった。おかげでわたしたちゃ、お前を押し付けられたってわけさ!」

Translation: “Eventually, she met that Potter at school, and they both went off somewhere and got married. Then you were born. Yes, yes, I knew it. I knew you’d be the same. Just as strange, just as… abnormal. Then my sister went and got herself blown up. And we got landed with you!”

Grammar explanation: This passage uses several important grammar concepts:

  1. て-form for connecting actions: 出会って (deatte), 行って (itte), 結婚した (kekkon shita)
  2. んだ (nda) for explaining or emphasizing: 生まれたんだ (umaretanda)
  3. とも (tomo) for strong affirmation: 知ってましたとも (shittemashita tomo)
  4. って (tte) for reported speech or thoughts: だろうってね (darou tte ne)
  5. じゃない (janai) for negation: まともじゃない (matomo janai)
  6. てしまう (te shimau) to express regret or completion: 吹っ飛んじまった (futtonjimatta)
  7. わけ (wake) to explain reasoning: 押し付けられたってわけさ (oshitsukerareta tte wake sa)

Examples:

  1. て-form connection: 宿題をして、友達と遊びに行きました。
    (Shukudai wo shite, tomodachi to asobi ni ikimashita.) I did my homework and went to play with friends.

  2. んだ for explanation: 彼は遅刻したんだ。電車が遅れたからね。 (Kare wa chikoku shitanda. Densha ga okureta kara ne.) He was late, you see. It’s because the train was delayed.

  3. とも for strong affirmation: もちろん行きますとも！ (Mochiron ikimasu tomo!) Of course I’ll go!

I don’t have much more time to write these, so I’m putting the other sentences I analyzed on my website.

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Your analysis method is so fascinating, I’m already learning things from your log to incorporate into my learning routine! Welcome to the study log crew ^^

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Welcome to the study log crew! Your history with Japanese sounds so fascinating. Honestly I think my favourite stories on here are from people who started out learning for reasons other than being interested in Japanese culture but ended up enjoying it anyway.

I loved your reading analysis as well! I’m not quite at the reading stage yet but it’s really nice to see how you break everything down. Also, it’s so exciting that you’re reading Harry Potter! I love the series but I’ve heard mixed things about reading it in Japanese, particularly for learners. Apparently the translation is a bit stilted/odd, though I think I’ll hopefully attempt to read it anyway. I’d be curious to know what your thoughts are on it as you get further through the book.

Best of luck with your studies :smiling_face:

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Thank you for the welcome! It’s been very effective for me. I hope to share it with more learners in the future.

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Thank you for the welcome! I also find it more interesting when Japanese learners got into the language for reasons other than watching anime or engaging with Japanese culture.

As for reading Harry Potter to learn, I’ve read similar criticism. But I think it comes from mostly beginner learners who approach reading with the wrong technique.

If you just copy and paste the text into a translator (no matter how good it is) it won’t help you much.

What many forget is that the books were/are still very popular. So they were professionally translated by a native Japanese translator. That alone gives me the confidence to use it as study material.

Also, I chose to use it because the audio is easy to obtain. Audio + text is a powerful combination when it comes to learning a language. It helps you know how a native speaker sounds when reading which is incredibly important for developing proper pronunciation.

I’ve been reading the first book for the last 5 months. My writing and fluency have greatly improved. Plus, the Japanese narrator for the audiobook (the actual audiobook, not the crappy AI voice-gen one on YouTube) is hilarious. The way he does the voices really makes it stick.

I was hesitant to go all in with the series. But at the end of the day, it’s best to pick something you enjoy rather than what’s popular. The most effective resource is the one that keeps you coming back.

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Sep 10 - Woke up at 0330 to attend a Japanese Translation Group meeting online. It was based out of Tokyo so I got screwed on the time.

In a 90 min session, me and a mix of native Japanese and English speakers, team translated an article. We’d read one sentence, try and translate it, then confer with the group to work out the “best” one.

In the end it wasn’t for me.

Splitting hairs on whether ただいま means “come back” or “I’m back” in a given context wasn’t really appealing to me. We spent a good 10 minutes on that issue alone. In an hour, we only translated 5 or 6 sentences.

Maybe that was the point to go slow. But I’m a busy man. I can be more efficient with my study on my own. And I don’t have to get up so early in the morning.

Rest of Japanese for the morning

I spent a lot of time with Japanese this morning.

WaniKani reviews, three YouTube videos (news and various), then finished page 83 (finally!) of Harry Potter.

A quick note on how I do my reviews: I normally do them until I don’t have any left. But I kept getting interrupted during the session, which meant they kept reviving like zombies on the hour during every delay. Ugh.

Plus I’m at the point in my current level, when I’m finishing off certain characters, so more vocab kept getting added to the pile. 総合 I think it took me 2 hrs to complete all my reviews. Given the lack of sleep I got because of that early Zoom call, it was a long morning.

Everything else progressed well.

The most interesting grammar point I encountered today was ~げ

Here’s the explanation I got today:

Can you explain this grammar in more detail?

Adjectival noun + げ (ge) suffix: 気づかわしげ (kidukawashire) - “seeming concerned”

The ～げ (-ge) suffix is an interesting and useful grammar point in Japanese. It’s used to describe the appearance or impression of something, often related to emotions or states of mind. Let’s break it down:

  1. 基本的な意味 (Kihonteki na imi - Basic meaning): ～げ (-ge) means “appearing to be” or “giving the impression of”. It’s similar to saying “seems” or “-looking” in English.
  2. 使い方 (Tsukaikata - Usage):
    • It’s typically attached to the stem of な-adjectives or to nouns that describe feelings or states.
  • The resulting word is always a な-adjective.
  1. 例 (Rei - Examples):
    • 心配 (shinpai - worry) → 心配げ (shinpaige - worried-looking)
  • 嬉しい (ureshii - happy) → 嬉しげ (ureshige - happy-looking)
  • 寂しい (sabishii - lonely) → 寂しげ (sabishige - lonely-looking)
  1. 気づかわしげ (kidukawashire) の分析 (bunseki - analysis):
    • 気づかわしい (kidukawaishii) is the base word, meaning “worrying” or “concerning”
  • Remove the い (i) and add げ (ge) to get 気づかわしげ
  • The resulting word means “appearing worried” or “seeming concerned”
  1. 注意点 (Chuuiten - Points to note):
    • This suffix adds a nuance of the speaker’s subjective impression.
  • It’s often used in descriptive writing or when reporting observations.
  1. さらなる例文 (Saranaru reibun - More example sentences):
    • 彼は何か言いたげな表情をしていた。 Kare wa nanika iitagena hyoujou o shiteita. (He had an expression as if he wanted to say something.)
  • 子猫は怯えたげに隅っこに座っていた。 Koneko wa obietageni sumikko ni suwatteita. (The kitten was sitting in the corner, appearing frightened.)

I have 9 other sentence analyses I did this morning as well as the 3 videos I watched on my website. You can find them at the link below.

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I might be stupid or ignorant, but how does doing well during a french placement test lead to japanese? :thinking:

Because you were too good for additonal french courses or they realized you had a talent for languages or what? :thinking:

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The second one.

When I asked my counselor why I had Japanese instead of French, he said “We thought you could handle a tougher language.”

I remember being frustrated at the time, but it was the first time in my life someone recognized I had a talent for learning languages.

That small decision changed the course of my life.

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It’s the professionally translated copy of HP that Japanese native speakers find to be an awkward/unnatural translation. That doesn’t mean you can’t read it though! I’m reading it myself, but I do keep in mind that not everything is going to be very idiomatic to Japanese.

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The げ grammar point is really interesting indeed, thanks for the info!
I’ve recently seen a few words with that ending and didn’t even realize it was actually a “grammar point”, because the dictionary just has a separate definition for 悲し気, for example. I’ve also seen this one - 人気（ひとけ）and I guess it is related as well, because it means “sign of life/human presence”.

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Thanks for the explanation. I guess all in all it was a good decision, but from an outsiders point of view a weird decision by the counselor. Even if you have a talent for languages, if you don’t want to learn it, i bet not much would stick and if you are already quite good in french, wouldn’t it be beneficial to really master that. :woman_shrugging:

Especially if they put you in thoses courses to advance you in your military career (or to get the most out of your abilities, when you work for them). If i understood the type of school correctly…

Great that everything worked out for you though. :upside_down_face:

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Thank you for your insight! My reservations were less about the quality of the translation itself, but more so to do with this:

I think the way JK writes has a sort of unique flair to it, almost whimsical (particularly in the earlier books) and packed with figures of speech. As a result I’d interpreted the critique of the Japanese translation as a result of it not sounding quite right, not because the translation wasn’t well done or correct, but because the sort of language it’s trying to emulate is best read in English. Regardless, I’ll still definitely give it a go once I’ve reached a point where I can give it a good attempt! I’m glad to hear you’ve found success with it so far.

Also, you make a very good point about the audio. While I know some resources like Satori Reader include it, it wasn’t something I’ve really thought about when looking for reading material as I’ve mostly been focusing on getting to a point where I can read. But you’re right, hearing the words being said is so important. I’m curious to hear the Japanese voice actor for Harry Potter eventually, he sounds fun!

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Sites like this which go over outright translation errors are fun reads. Highly recommend to get an idea of the types of criticisms Japanese people have about the translation, and also because they’re a hoot.

I’ve also read Harry Potter in Japanese and think it won’t irreparably harm your learning or anything like that, but it’s probably not the ideal source to compare direct with the source material if learning translation best practices is the goal :sweat_smile:

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I fear you’ve given me an excellent new tool to hopefully one day have a cackle over. Also, these pictures of Snape are giving me life.

Mood

snape


Thank you, I’ll keep that warning in mind :smile:

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Great points. For me it’s less about reading a pure translation. It’s more about having easily accessible material that will boost my vocab and doesn’t force me to figure out the story.

Had no idea Harry Potter was such a divisive topic!

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Sep 11 -

Did something new today. Decided to livestream my WaniKani review session. I just put on some music and went for 45 mins.

Check it out if your own reviews weren’t enough for today.

Livestream review

Other than that it was a standard study day. Only read a little Harry Potter because the livestream took so long.

Here was the most interesting grammar point I came across:

「こんなことになろうとは」ハロルドの声は低く、物憂げだった。

Translation: “To think it would come to this,” Harold’s voice was low and melancholy.

Grammar concept: The main grammar point here is the use of the volitional form 「～よう」 with 「とは」 to express surprise or disbelief about an unexpected situation.

「～ようとは」 (you to wa) is a structure used to express surprise or disbelief about an unexpected situation or outcome. It’s often translated as “To think that…” or “Who would have thought that…”

Breakdown:

  • 「こんなこと」 (konna koto) - “this kind of thing”
  • 「になる」 (ni naru) - “to become”
  • 「なろう」 (narou) - volitional form of なる
  • 「とは」 (to wa) - particle combination indicating surprise or emphasis

Examples:

  1. 彼が優勝しようとは。 (Kare ga yuushou shiyou to wa.) To think that he would win the championship.

  2. こんなに早く終わろうとは思わなかった。 (Konna ni hayaku owarou to wa omowanakatta.) I never thought it would end this quickly.

  3. そんなに上手に話せようとは驚いた。 (Sonna ni jouzu ni hanaseyou to wa odoroita.) I’m surprised that you can speak so well.

I put the rest of my notes from today on my website.

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Sep 12 -

Today was a light day.

Did my reviews and read a little for 10 mins.

Found the kanji for “spelling” today (綴) - had never seen it before.

Here’s an explanation from my notes:

「うんにゃ、名前の綴りがわからん。言うぞ、それっ! バッドマン!」

Translation: “Nah, I dunno how to spell the name. I’ll say it, here goes! Badman!”

Grammar explanation: This sentence contains several colloquial and casual Japanese grammar points:

  1. うんにゃ (unnya): A very casual way of saying “no” or disagreeing.
  2. わからん (wakaran): A contracted, colloquial form of わからない (wakaranai), meaning “don’t know/understand”.
  3. 言うぞ (iu zo): The use of ぞ (zo) as a sentence-ending particle to express emphasis or determination.
  4. それっ (sore’): The use of っ (small tsu) at the end for emphasis, similar to an exclamation point.

Now, let’s look at three examples using these grammar points:

  1. うんにゃ、今日は忙しいんだ。 Unnya, kyou wa isogashiin da. (Nah, I’m busy today.)
  2. この漢字の読み方がわからん。 Kono kanji no yomikata ga wakaran. (I dunno how to read this kanji.)
  3. よし、行くぞ、それっ! Yoshi, iku zo, sore’! (Alright, let’s go, here we go!)
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Curious which copy of HP you’re reading? Is it the official version? Because Hagrid definitely doesn’t call Voldemort ‘Badman’ in the kindle version I have.

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I read from the hardcover book (official copy).

I change the names to avoid copyright trouble.

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