下手 と 苦手

They both means not good at something. My teacher mentioned the easy way to use it is 苦手 sounds more polite to use it when you talk about other people.

ために can be used in two ways

I mostly see present tense used with ために and got interested what if I put other tenses?

日本語の先生になるために、毎日日本語を勉強します。
I study Japanese every day in order to become a Japanese teacher.

日本語の先生になれなかったために、とてもがっかりしました。
Because I could not become a Japanese teacher, I was very disappointed.

And then I kinda realized that there are two usages of ために

• In order to
• Because (stating the cause)

ついでに

I don’t remember learning this for N3.

The scenario I wanted to use this was, I went back to my university and while at it, I also met up with a senpai from my lab.

先週、大学のパソコンを試すために、大学に帰った。ついでに、同じラボの先輩と会った。

Reference

JLPT N3 Grammar: ついでに (tsuide ni) – Learn Japanese | JLPT Sensei

meowbrown:

てもらう and てほしい timeline

While talking about てもらう, my teacher asked me what’s the difference between てほしい 🤔

I was mentioning that てほしい sounds demanding if you’re asking someone to do something for you. If it’s asking someone for a favor and I’d use てもらう. This feels more like てほしい vs. てもらいたい instead.

We talked more on the aspect of “timeline of events happening”.

Basics

• てほしい – Expresses my wish/desire
• てもらう – Focuses on me “receiving” the favor

Timeline of events

1. Nothing has happened yet, it’s only me hoping in my head
   お母さんに今日の夕ご飯を作ってほしい。
2. Asking mom for the favor
   お母さん、今日の夕ご飯を作ってもらえますか？
3. After mom agrees, I tell my brother that mom will be making dinner
   お母さんに今日の夕ご飯を作ってもらいます。

Notes

If still would like someone to do something with てほしい, usually people will add んですが to make it softer

レポートを確認してほしいんですが…

Today during class I made the mistake of saying:

We want to go home and used 帰って欲しい

But this actually will mean “I want someone else to go home,” so looking back at my notes て欲しい is used to express a desire for someone other than the speaker to perform an action.

Remembering things is harrrd 😭

Japanese Anki Shared Decks

https://ankiweb.net/shared/decks?search=japanese

Felt like I might be searching for this link in the future although I’m not using it right now…

meowbrown:

ほど to the degree of

Another sentence structure that I often get the order wrong.

母ほど綺麗じゃない。

Notes to help me remember:

1. First look at the second part of the sentence: 綺麗じゃない Not pretty. Then ask myself: to what degree am I not pretty?
2. Answer with the first part: I’m not pretty to the degree of my mom.

Another example:

バカな私にもわかるほどこの宿題は易しいです。

1. The homework is easy. To what degree is it easy?
2. Even as stupid as me I can understand.

The second part is the part I want to convey, and the first part is for adding details of to what degree.

Another example sentence I used to struggle with but can understand well now!

彼の話は想像できないほど面白い。
His story is unimaginably interesting.

1. His story is interesting.
2. (to the degree that) You can’t imagine.

meowbrown:

〜ようになった

Context (skip this part if you’re here for the Japanese)

I haven’t shared it on here but I’ve been laid off this April. And a couple of people reached out to me to help them with their websites. And I finally finished my first project this week!

能力 (verb potential form) + ようになった

to become able to

so here it’s always used as an affirmative case as mean to gain the ability, therefore using the potential form of the verb

やっとフリーランサーって言えるようになったが気がする！
I feel like I can (be able to) finally say I’m a freelancer.

What about an ability affected negatively?

According to the reference post below, it’s to stick with なくなる, so for example:

食べられる -> 食べられなくなる

Reference

Potential verbs with and without ようになる

Coincidently, today in my journal, I was writing about freelancing and used ようになった in a slightly different way than the above. But ultimately it comes down to what verb was used:

〜よになった in general: change in habit/state

嫌なプロジェクトにはイライラするようになった。
I started to get annoyed by the projects that I don’t like.

The state changed from
not annoyed by projects -> annoyed by projects.

So for 言えるようになった
I can’t say -> I can say

ほど to the degree of

Another sentence structure that I often get the order wrong.

母ほど綺麗じゃない。

Notes to help me remember:

1. First look at the second part of the sentence: 綺麗じゃない Not pretty. Then ask myself: to what degree am I not pretty?
2. Answer with the first part: I’m not pretty to the degree of my mom.

Another example:

バカな私にもわかるほどこの宿題は易しいです。

1. The homework is easy. To what degree is it easy?
2. Even as stupid as me I can understand.

The second part is the part I want to convey, and the first part is for adding details of to what degree.

に会う vs. と会う

I revisited this today and I just couldn’t remember the difference, so writing it down.

• と会う both parties make an effort to meet
• に会う only one party moves

So for example:
叔母に会う。This implies that I’m going to go to my aunt’s place or somewhere that I’m the person moving.

叔母と会う。We are meeting up somewhere, where both of us needs to take action.

To expand a bit more:

✅ 車が壁にぶつかる💥。

❌ 車が壁とぶつかる。

The car crashing into the wall means only the car is taking action, so using に is more natural in this case.

I like how when I type ぶつかる it let’s me select the emoji, so I know exactly what it means 🤣

名詞 + すら

Going through the list of shows on Netflix but can’t even pick one!!!! I can relate to that from the podcast.

自分はやることもないし、見たいものすらないのか！！？？？
I have nothing to do, and I don’t even have anything I want to watch?!

Usually used in a negative way.

〜子供ですら知ってる。
Even a child knows that.

Reference

With the timecode from the podcast