試す vs. 試してみる

Context: I was trying to say a friend suggested an app, and I tried it out and liked it.

• このアプリを試して、すごく便利です。
• このアプリを試してみて、すごく便利です。

I was curious about the nuance in the two sentences.

試して – try

• try something without the additional nuance

試してみて – try out

• みて adds a sense of “giving it a try” or “testing it out” with less commitment
• sounds softer and more conversational
• implies experimentation or evaluation

So, probably for my case, I wanted to be more conversational and more like testing it out, so 試してみて might sound better.

Reference: https://ja.hinative.com/questions/24016276

後：あと or ご？

In my recent diary, I wrote 一週間後, and I noticed Google’s Speech to Text was pronouncing it as ご instead of what I was thinking: あと

After searching around, here’s a quick summary.

あと

Used alone or in casual phrases

• 後で電話します。I’ll call you in a bit.
• 後は任せるよ。I’ll leave the rest to you.
• 仕事の後で after work

ご

Used in compound words or formal expressions

• 一週間後 after a week
• 放課（ほうか）後 after school

So if I want to use あと, it would be 一週間の後, now あと is considered used alone instead of part of the compound word.

kirbyfanneox:

niuniente:

jadethest0ne:

twinicegiantorbiters:

i don’t know why but i’m really amused by the winner of some ‘new kanji’ contest:

compare with the real kanji

座 (seat/gathering), but the two 人 (person) radicals have been moved from next to each other within the 土 (earth) radical to diagonally from each other, making this “social distance(d seating/gathering)”

This is hilarious, but to further the hilarity, I’d like to point to the fact that half of the “A rank” (runners up) for this contest also are related to 2020 epidemic jokes

First up we have:

Compare with
太

The original kanji means “to gain weight”. But it adds the
コ “ko” and ロ  “ro” katakana symbols at the top to represent the weight you gain while staying home due to the corona virus.

Then we have:

Compare with
会 

The original kanjij means “meeting”, but the lower radical is changed to look more like a “Z” to represent Zoom meetings. Thus, the new kanji means “web meetings” or “zoom calls”

And of course another social distancing one:

Compare with
話 

This means “to talk” or “chat”, but it’s changed simply to show the two radicals social distancing from one another as we should also while holding conversations nowadays.

At least we can have some fun language humor despite all of this!

@goromonkjima

That’s really neat! 

Anyway, here’s Loss kanji again.

Love this one from 2024!

ゼット世代：gen Z

2025年日本語の勉強ゴール

Looking back at 2024, I’m around N3 for reading and listening. And because I know Chinese, I can guess the meaning of a lot of 漢字 (although I don’t know how to pronounce them).

But I’m still very weak with outputting (writing and speaking), maybe around N5-N4 level.

As I rarely study outside of my lessons (1 hour lesson per week), I’m not going to go with a plan that changes what I’m currently doing drastically. With aggressive plans, it’ll probably fail within a month.

So my 新年の抱負 (ほうふ) is:

Write one diary per week and no more than 3 entries if I’m really into it to not burn myself out.

週に一回日記を投稿するようにします。やる気があるときは最大 (さいだい) 3回までにして、燃え尽きない (もえつきない) ように気をつけます。

たまごっち

Transcript

最近たまごっちをしています。それは20年前のゲームです。私のクラスでは、みんなたまごっちで遊びました。そして、最近お兄さんは日本でたまごっちを買ってくれました。昔のたまごっちを持っていることを思い出して、探しました。今、私はふたつ持っています。一つは自分で遊んで、他のは彼氏にあげます。

私のバージョンはもっと機能があります。結婚することができて、赤ちゃんを産むこともできます。そして、わたしが育てたたまごっちは、赤ちゃんを産んだ後二日間は赤ちゃんの世話をしますが、そのあといなくなって、でも一週間ほどは時々戻ってきて、プレゼントをくれます。一週間後は、完全にいなくなります。かわりに、わたしがいま、赤ちゃんを育てています。

よく考えると、この仕組みは今の社会と同じです。もし両親がお金持ちだったら、子供もリッチです。最初の世代だけはバイトしなければなりません。もしバイトしないと、食べ物を買えないです。でも第2世代からは、両親がリッチなので、バイトしなくても大丈夫です。

Vocabulary

• 産（う）む give birth to
• 育（そだ）てる to bring up
• 〜の世話（せわ）をする take care of someone
• 仕組み（しくみ）structure
• 世代（せだい）generation

Study tip

Copy the YouTube link to Miraa to practice shadowing.

Why との in 彼との会話

The original sentence that got me confused was:

すてきな作品やクリエイターとの出会いを楽しんでください。
(Saw it on note.com, I also recommend checking out the site)

I was like, is との some kind of grammar?

So, I segmented the words incorrectly. It should be:

すてきな作品やクリエイターとの出会いを楽しんでください。

Focusing on this part:

クリエイターとの出会い
Meeting with creator

の is just the linking word to connect the two; same function as 的 in Chinese

Back to the title of this post:

• 彼との会話 – conversation with him
• 彼の会話 – his conversation

Reference

What does との mean in this sentence?

〜と思います and when と isn’t needed

とis used when quoting or expressing thoughts, feelings, or opinions.

It marks the content of what you’re thinking.

Examples:

• 私は明日行こうと思います。I think I will go tomorrow.
• 彼は忙しいと思います。I think he is busy.
• 正しいと思います。I think it’s correct.
• 学校に行きたくないと思います。I think I don’t want to go to school.

思います can stand alone when no specific thought or content is quoted.

• そう思います。I think so.
• 思っています。I’m thinking about it.
• 何も思いませんでした。I didn’t think about anything.

音(おん)読み and 訓(くん)読み

Quick memo for myself:

• 音読み may sound like Mandarin, and I might be able to guess.
• 訓読み is the one I have to learn from scratch as it will read very differently.

For example 山:

• 音読み: さん
• 訓読み: やま

何 – なに or なん

I seem to always know when to use なん and when to use なに without learning the rules and find it interesting.

Means that I have enough training data on this. www

Ways to ask for a word’s meaning

Ordered by formality:

1. 「大晦日」とはどういう意味ですか。
2. 「大晦日」はどういう意味ですか。
3. 「大晦日」の意味は何ですか。(every day)
4. 「大晦日」ってどういう意味ですか。(って is casual, friends)

Asking what this is in general:

1. 「大晦日」とは何ですか？
2. 「大晦日」って何ですか？

I’ve been using this the most:

「大晦日」は何ですか？

This is more of asking what 大晦日 is in general.

If I specifically want to ask what is the word in English, adding 意味 would make it more clear.