The break for catch-up and review is over. Time to start studying again!
This is the thread for chapter 6 of Tobira. Our home thread for this study group is here .
As usual we’ll spend 2 weeks going through chapter 6.
Here is the link to the Tobira web site where you can find recordings of the main text and dialogues in each chapter plus kanji and grammar resources.
Who will study chapter 6 of Tobira the next 2 weeks?
0 voters
I tried to do some of the pre-reading exercises today. Please feel free to correct me and point out small or huge errors!
Page 128
２：あなたの国や地方には、どんな宗教的行事や習慣がありますか。二つ書きなさい。
３：あなたの国や地方には、どんな迷信がありますか。二つ書きなさい。
I just found out these threads, im on chapter 2 and it feels a big step-up from 1, i’ll try to catch up ASAP! 
I might add on to this later, but for now:
Oops that first one just slipped in! I see I have other date formatting errors/inconsistencies too 
Good point on that second error! Thank you 
Yesss, Break is finally over 
I’ll see how much I manage to do in the workweek, for the rest there’s the weekend, haha. Glad to be here again.
This chapter has 2 readings + 3 dialogs + culture note + vocab note… So a bit more reading this time! But I’m finding it interesting so far
And so, I’m back to add on to my earlier post. (I was a little tired that day, so I didn’t feel like pushing through a block of Japanese text. I have to admit though, it’ll probably get easier as I become more fluent, since reading through French isn’t as tiring as I sometimes fool myself into thinking when I want to procrastinate.)
First of all, 「家族と…あげて」makes it sound like you’re doing the giving in the company of your family or like your entire family goes out as a group to give gifts away to people, as opposed to exchanging gifts with your family members. (Of course, I’m just assuming the subject is ‘you’, but I know it could just be a general statement about what ‘one’ does for Christmas.) In any case, if you want to express ‘mutual giving’, I think the verb should be あげ合う, which would give you あげ合って for the て-form. I think 交換する might be a more natural verb though.
Secondly… perhaps I’m wrong (or didn’t read the grammar notes thoroughly enough), but I tend to think of ようにする as meaning ‘act in such a way that’ i.e. it conveys a certain manner of action, often with a purpose. That’s fine if you want to indicate what people make a special effort to do for Christmas. If, on the other hand, you wanted to simply list what people usually do for Christmas, then I suggest you use …たり、…たりする:
家族と…交換したり、…食事を食べたりします。(PS, I’m not 100% sure about this, but I think the sentence should end with します and not しています because you’re making a factual/generally true statement about Christmas, and you’re not describing a current ongoing state.)
大概=たいがい. No dakuten. (I had to look this one up because I don’t use the phrase in Japanese, only in Chinese.) Other words you could have used were ふつう、いっぱんてきに、ふだん. (Should I use the kanji instead? IDK.)
もう＝’already’ or ‘another/additional’, depending on the pitch accent. (High-Low for ‘already’, which is also why you hear annoyed anime characters saying 「もう…」in that tone. Low-High for ‘another’, as in 「もう一回」) The sentence you used makes it sound like you wanted to say ‘also originally a Christian festival’, in which case you could have used 「これも元々…」. The other way, if you wanted to say ‘another originally Christian festival’, was to say 「もう一つの元々…」. My thoughts on the rest of it are the same as for the description of Christmas. I think ようにする sounds too purposeful. You could replace that sentence with チョコレートの卵を食べるなどをします。You could also say チョコレートの卵を食べたりします。(Same sort of nuance as with multiple verbs: it’s just an example.)
墓地を出る時 (I presume you meant ‘when leaving a cemetery’, and not ‘when coming out into a cemetery’).
Same thing: there’s no の. Verbs get joined directly to the nouns they’re modifying in Japanese.
Thank you very much for all that detailed feedback! 
You’re right, speaking generally exchanging gifts would be better suited in this case! I wasn’t specifically talking about me, but that people usually make an effort to give presents and eat together at this time even when they’re not religious. But you’re right, たり sounds more natural.
Dakuten and particles and me aren’t friends, hopefully one day I’ll stop making these same mistakes 
Yes, me too! I’m really impressed with how Tobira manages to both teach Japanese and be interesting at the same time. I really feel that I learn a lot from the reading!
Are any of you working on chapter 6 now? I’m slowly going through Tobira now with my tutor, and we have just reached level 6. It’s so different working on the chapters with a teacher compared to trying to do it alone!
Not on 6, but I’ve been stalled on 8 for a while now so there’s a good chance you catch up with me soon. Hopefully I’ll be able to get moving again as life things settle down.
I’m still on chapter 3, but I’m curious to hear your insights. In what way is it different? Do you feel like you’ve missed something while studying by yourself?
Bump for 2021 study group:
Chapter 6: July 19 to August 1
On Ch.8 might as well slow down grammar to review everything! Thank you, these threads make stuff easier
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