Recently I found this site where you can type the Japanese lyrics for the songs. Key is to not stare at the romaji when typing, stare at either the Japanese (with Kanji) or the pure hiragana and type.
Level 1 is already pretty challenging for me:
I have another post talking about ほど, but here the usage is different.
Here is the sentence I encountered:
知れば知るほど胸が苦しくなる。
The more I know (about it/them), the more my heart aches.
Some more examples:
日本語は知れば知るほど面白いと思います。
I think the more I learn about Japanese, the more interesting it becomes.
食べれば食べるほど太る。
The more I eat, the more weight I gain.
Due to it being the 10th anniversary, right now we can watch ユーリ!!! on ICE for free for 30 days, and I’m my challenge is to understand everything without subtitles!
So probably recent posts will be around stuff I learnt in the anime.
Here is also a post in Japanese I want to read:
Made a mistake during class this week that I just want someone to be kind without a 対象 to be kind towards to, then I should use 優しくいる.
to act kindly toward someone
→ more concrete / action-focused
弟に優しくする。
I treat my younger brother kindly.
to remain/be kind as a state or attitude
→ more abstract / emotional / poetic / self-reflective
どんな時でも優しくいたい。
I want to stay kind no matter what.
ALTAnd another one that is related is 眼を覚ます, which means to wake up.
目を覚ましたけど、まだ目を開けたくなかった。
I woke up, but I didn’t want to open my eyes yet.
I noticed that in my lesson notes this has shown up three times and still yesterday when I encountered:
彼氏のふりしてくれるの本当にありがたい。
Thank you for pretending to be my boyfriend.
Felt like I’ve forgotten this enough times that I need to write it down here!
い-adj
知らないふりをする
pretend not to know
Verb plain form
寝ているふりをする
pretend to be sleeping
な-adj
大丈夫なふりをする
pretend to be okay
Noun
友達のふりをする
pretend to b a friend
本当は悲しいけど、大丈夫なふりをする。
I’m actually sad, but I pretend I’m okay.
Initially I was trying to form sentences like I was about to do something.
買おうとしていた。
Was about to make a purchase.
But then realize していた part is just a conjugation of する.
航空券を買おうと思ってたけど、多分明日にする。
I was thinking about buying a plane ticket but I’ll probably do it tomorrow.
Came across this sentence:
理由はシンプルで、運用していた個人サーバに手を入れられない状態が続いたためです。
Source: https://falog.net/blog/others/000_restart/
I remembered learning using に and not を when I learned this expression, so I looked into this a bit more.
So in this context, it’s to maintain the server.
The funny part: why am I “suspicious” of a native Japanese’s Japanese 🤔
While studying, t is mentioned that a subject 主語 is not required in Mandarin. This feels a lot like Japanese too.
下雨了。主語
雨が降る。Update: This sentence in Japanese actually has a subject, but see the reply below for examples. Thanks @pinklesbionade!
It is raining. (It is the subject)
In English it is required.
I find it quite interesting as I didn’t really notice this while using the language.
I find giving gifts a hard thing. It’s like if you don’t give anything, nothing happens. But if you send a bad gift, you might lose the friendship. I feel a bit more calmer after learning that someone else also feels the same.
Note: This podcast is for upper-intermediate level, but I think it’s generally good just for immersion and one of the few podcasts that provide Zhuyin transcripts.