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.

Apps/sites for learning Japanese

Can’t believe how high quality these free resources are!

Last updated: 2025-01-05

コース

Minato

Free high-quality interactive self-guided courses.
It also has live courses (I haven’t tried it yet).

Preview

TUFS Language Modules

From Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.

The English version currently only has the pronunciation and dialog modules, so I’m studying the Traditional Chinese version.

Features

• Vocabulary list by topics (Chinese)
• Dialog
• Pronunciation guide

辞書

Kakimashou

Features

• Stroke order
• Tone

Preview

Jisho

Super clean interface

Features

• Tone
• Has JLPT tags
• Lots of sentence examples

アプリ

Miraa

The Miraa app makes it easy to listen and repeat (the shadowing/echoing technique).

It has a paid version, but I find the free version to be good enough

Features

• Can directly paste links from YouTube
• Can ask AI for an explanation of words/sentences you don’t understand
• Has search built in to search for podcasts in Japanese

renshuu

Also available as a web app

その他(た)のツール

Google – Text-to-Speech AI

Useful for reading out my transcripts. It already sounds much more natural than I do, so I can import it to Miraa and shadow my writings.

10ten Japanese Reader (Rikaichamp)

This is a Chrome extension that I use. I used to use Yomichan and then Yomitan after Yomichan sunsetted. But I personally like 10ten’s UI.

Preview

meowbrown:

Ways to describe a lot of people

Today in class we talked about New Year’s Eve, and I noticed I’ve always been using たくさんの人

Time to add some other versions to my vocabulary!

多 (おお) くの人

like たくさんの人

多くの人が電車を待っています。
Many people are waiting for the train.

すごい人数 (にんずう)

overwhelming number of people

駅にすごい人数が集まっていた。
There was an overwhelming number of people gathered at the station.

大勢 (おおぜい) の人

refers to crowds or large gatherings of people

• Can only be used for people
• Often used for events, concerts, or public spaces

コンサートには大勢の人が集まっていた。
A large crowd gathered at the concert.

人混 (ご) み

crowded places or areas, situations where you need to navigate through crowds, like the New Year’s Eve countdown event

駅の人混みを通りました。
I went through the station crowd.

—

One fun fact I learned was the New Year’s Eve countdown is called 大晦日 (おおみそか) のカウントダウン

Always fun to realize when I cannot find a word for that in Japanese, all I need to do is just Katakana-ize the English word 🤣

Transcript:

昨日、さやさんの授業で、おおみそかのカウントダウンについて話した。
「大勢の人」や「人混み」と言いたかったけど、いつも「たくさんの人」ばかり使っていた。
他の言葉を考えたけど、思い浮かばなかった。
だから、覚えるために、新しいTumblrの投稿を書いた。

Vocabulary:

思い浮(う)かぶ – to recall

Funny story of 草 (くさ)

The other day, my boyfriend’s sister sent this sticker to his dad on LINE.

Because 草 sounds like 操 in Mandarin, which is a curse word. His dad was very confused why he got cursed.

The more I look at it, it seems to be ridiculing me for some reason.

嘲笑 (ちょうしょう) – ridicule

Anyways 草 means rofl, since www means lol, and how it became:

1. 笑う (warau) → (笑) → w
2. Multiple “w"s (wwwww) began being used to show stronger laughter
3. The repeated "w"s visually resembled grass, leading to the use of 草 (kusa)

Two ways to write そ

How do you write your そ？

Ways to describe a lot of people

Today in class we talked about New Year’s Eve, and I noticed I’ve always been using たくさんの人

Time to add some other versions to my vocabulary!

多 (おお) くの人

like たくさんの人

多くの人が電車を待っています。
Many people are waiting for the train.

すごい人数 (にんずう)

overwhelming number of people

駅にすごい人数が集まっていた。
There was an overwhelming number of people gathered at the station.

大勢 (おおぜい) の人

refers to crowds or large gatherings of people

• Can only be used for people
• Often used for events, concerts, or public spaces

コンサートには大勢の人が集まっていた。
A large crowd gathered at the concert.

人混 (ご) み

crowded places or areas, situations where you need to navigate through crowds, like the New Year’s Eve countdown event

駅の人混みを通りました。
I went through the station crowd.

—

One fun fact I learned was the New Year’s Eve countdown is called 大晦日 (おおみそか) のカウントダウン

Always fun to realize when I cannot find a word for that in Japanese, all I need to do is just Katakana-ize the English word 🤣