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Parts of Nihongo I have most problems with


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Apart from generaly politeness levels and keigo and difficult stuff like that, I always have big problems with stupid little things that should be quite easy to master.

 

Like how to address people properly (san, anata, etc) and the words to use when talking about myself and own family (watashi, boku, etc) and things like that.

 

It really bugs me. mad.gif mad.gif

 

cool.gif

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O.K., this is a good topic and I would really appreciate some help in these areas:

4 is either yon or shi; 7 is either nana or shichi and 9 is either kyuu or ku.

However, 4 o'clock can only be yoji and 7 o'clock can only be shichi ji. So what about 9 o'clock can it be both kuji as well as kyuu ji?

How about for minutes? Are both variations acceptable for 4, 7, 9, 14, 17, 19 etc.?

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I always have problem when I make business lettrer. Of course we have to use Keigo and Kenjogo for that, but if we use too much, sounds very strange. So I always take time to make letter and wonder "Should I put 'O' here or threre or both??? What is the Kenjogo for this word??? Dictionaly isn't good enough for Keigo and Kenjogo.

 

None of Japanese are professional. Don't worry about Japanese everybody!!

 

Dozo okigaru ni otoiawase kudasai. \:\)

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Markie, as far as I know, "9 o'clock" can only be "kuji". I haven't heard people say "kyuuji" much at all.

 

As for the 4,7,9,14,17,19 question ... I think that "4 minutes" is "yonfun". The "shi" is not used for minutes. "7 minutes" is "nanafun" and "9 minutes" is "kyuufun".

 

As I said, this is what I "think" is right. Please feel free to correct me.

 

I find the counting system pretty tough in Japanese. Especially the "counters" that you must use when counting different things. Even the days of the month are no easy task.

 

Good luck!

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I hate getting business letters to translate. Nobody dares tell Il Presidente of the publicly listed company, "Look Governor, you can keigo your head off until you're blue in the face, O11 is going to translate the whole 4 lines of archaic formulaic elegance as 'Greetings'."

 

And the absence of singulars and plurals can be a problem. When Il Presidente receives a case of wine from some Mafioso in another country, and conveys his thanks via me, and I translate it as 'Thanks for the bottle of wine', it doesn't reflect well on Il Presidente's sexy little secretaries and communications infrastructure.

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Thanks woywoy.

O.K., now I understand that for minutes, pun is used instead of fun for 1,3,6,8 and 10. However, in the crappy book I am using (written in Chinese) for 4 mins. it uses yonpun on one page and then yonfun on another. So my next question is: are they both correct or else which one is?

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So you've been introduced to someone, forgot their name, but you need to refer to them in conversation. Is it that impolite to say, 'anatasan'.

 

A particular problem of mine, as I can never remember names, but here it appears to be unacceptable to forget ANYONE!

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My problem is, even after mastering the basics and approaching intermediate level, I often have no idea what anybody is talking about. It's a 2-part problem: 1 part insufficient vocabulary, and 1 part inability to comprehend their high-speed utterances.

 

Re the latter, I had the same problem in French and Italian. It could have been that I wasn't used to the voices/styles of different speakers, but really, I think this is a brain-ear wiring problem that I need to address somehow. Merely trying harder or getting more practice doesn't seem to help.

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bm- I have the same problem. I go through phases when I feel like I'm kicking-butt and can understand and communicate well, but there are still times where due to lack of vocabulary and inability to think fast enough to comprehend rapidfire conversation, I'll totally lose everything said...

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I have problems maintaining my level where it is and seem to forget things I had studied before. It all comes down to not being able to spend enough time on it and not being able to practice as much as I should, and unfortunately there's not much that I can really do about those things right now.

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