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Japanese

Anime Subtitles Should be Outlawed.

Okay, I don’t mean that.  Well, not really.  Well, I mean it a little.  Let me explain what I mean. I decided over the past few days to start watching some anime without subtitles and without dubs.  I mean, the native Japanese, no filter. My Japanese isn’t good enough to say I understand everything.  Depending on the episode/anime/context, I’d say I understand between twenty and fifty percent of the conversation. But I didn’t realize just how much translations are a crutch.  There’s so much cultural subtletly, so much voice acting… Read More »Anime Subtitles Should be Outlawed.

Why Translations Suck – Part 2

I’ve been thinking a lot about why translations suck. I think it’s sometimes the fault of the translator, for sure.  Sometimes they just don’t pick up on a nuance or choose the incorrect word.  These mistakes happen.  I think that translators should be careful, be teachable (ego is the enemy of almost everything), and accept that sometimes mistakes happen. But errors in translation aren’t always due to mistakes. English and Japanese are fundamentally different in one huge way.  I don’t mean grammatically, syntactically, anything like that.  Yes, it’s different in… Read More »Why Translations Suck – Part 2

Chinchin: Why translations suck

There is a pun in Japanese that doesn’t exist in English, and it’s related to the word “chinchin”. This word has two meanings.  The first is related to the action of a dog begging (“his chinchin is very cute”).  The second is a rather childish word for a male reproductive part (probably an abbreviation of “chinpo”). This is a pun that doesn’t translate well. It’s because there aren’t very good word choices that fit both meanings. There are two anime which use this pun that I know of.  The first… Read More »Chinchin: Why translations suck

The Biggest Hang-Up in Learning Japanese (In My Opinion)

I’ve been studying Japanese for years now.  Yes, I probably could get farther if I started studying much more seriously, and honestly, I really should.  But I’ve been studying long enough to become familiar with the language in the way beginners aren’t – even though my grammar and vocabulary are still fairly substandard.  There are some things you just pick up by exposure.  In this way, even though I’m only N5 level, I think I do have some advantages over beginners. One of the biggest advantages is that I have come… Read More »The Biggest Hang-Up in Learning Japanese (In My Opinion)

I don’t trust translators.

I haven’t posted here in a while.  That will probably continue.  The fact of the matter is, this particular blog was me overstepping myself.  I like to write about things, particularly things that interest me, and Japanese interests me.  But, I was talking about a lot of stuff I really didn’t know much about, and I guess it showed.  Maybe that’s how things work, but it’s embarrassing. I mentioned in the past, in posts that may or may not still be on this particular blog, that I didn’t know why… Read More »I don’t trust translators.

Why Japanese is So Frustrating

Japanese is very frustrating – but not for the reasons you’d think. You might think it’s because there are so many kanji with so many different readings. This isn’t the reason it’s frustrating.  Learning those is a time-consuming slog, but it’s straightforward.  Tools like wanikani can help with that. You might think it’s because the grammar is so backwards from English.  That isn’t really the reason it’s frustrating.  It’s fairly easy to adapt to, once you get into the right mindset. You might think it’s because there are so many… Read More »Why Japanese is So Frustrating

The Japanese Resources I Currently Use

My journey of learning Japanese has been finding new apps/resources/etc., using them, tossing them aside, and finding others…  ad nauseum.  So the ones I’ve found now are the ones that have stood the test of time (for the most part).  Each one is a “part of this complete breakfast”, but none of them is a silver bullet, and none of them will get you towards the goal of N1 or C3 or fluency or whatever. Also, these are the resources that work for me.  Don’t get mad if they don’t work for you. Wanikani… Read More »The Japanese Resources I Currently Use

What I Would Do Different in my Japanese Journey

What would I do differently in my Japanese journey? Maybe not try at all?  Well, maybe, but there’s more to it than that. When I first started Japanese, I didn’t really know why I was doing it.  I still am not entirely sure, but I think it kind of came down to being my way of dealing with some issues that I was going through at the time.  I think I learned Japanese for much the same reason I started the Lily project.  There was something about that world that attracted… Read More »What I Would Do Different in my Japanese Journey

I had a Dream about Japan

Last night, I had a dream about Japan.  It wasn’t a nightmare.  It also wasn’t nice. This part of my dream started being in a van or something that someone else was driving, and being stopped by Japanese police.  It turned out the van had some kind of illicit substance in it, but none of us knew what was going on.  The police detained all of us.  I thought I could use my knowledge of Japanese to communicate with them.  I tried.  They kept responding in English.  They pretty much… Read More »I had a Dream about Japan

Are Japanese Comfortable with English?

I won’t bury the lede:  no, but that’s changing. I’ve been watching a lot of anime lately.  An interesting thing about anime is that it is written by Japanese people for Japanese people, and the western audience is an afterthought and, I think, seen as unimportant.  That’s changing because there are a lot of potential fans in the west (the Crunchyroll awards seemed pretty well attended in Tokyo) but for the most part, that’s true.  So, by watching anime, you get a pretty good idea of not only Japanese culture (obligatory fireworks… Read More »Are Japanese Comfortable with English?