How do you know... ON/KUN and beyond

Well, I've always wanted to write with my left hand. New language = fresh start, so I am doing this. I also do English to keep the speed and stuff up...not so great though, looks like a 6 year old being tazered.
 
thats actually a good idea >.> lol.

THANK YOU SO MUCH GLENN! I had lost the url of a website I had used when i first wanted to learn Japanese a few years back, but I clicked the "Teach yourself Japanese" link in your signature, and that was it! Thanks so much.
 
No problem! I love helping people without even knowing it! :D:p
 
I now have 205 memorized. Though I can't do it reverse...meaning I can identify the Kanji for, let's say, speak, but I can't write it if you asked me to. I should really work on that. The last 10 I have memorized (195-205) I have to go over because they're slipping in my head.

Oh Glenn, I just looked at the Kanji for "God" (something like a tree and speak in it or something like that). In RTK2 I remember that "Goddess" was clearly just a woman.
 
I believe you're looking at page 12, frame 3, right? "Goddess" is the gloss for 女神, not 女. You're supposed to know what the characters mean by the time you get to that book; they aren't in there again. The keywords for the characters aren't even in the indices. That's why I said you're not even supposed to open the second book until you've finished the first one.

By the way, 神 ("god") isn't "tree" and "speaketh/monkey" (I think that's what he used), it's "display/altar" (alright, don't remember exactly what that keyword was either) and "speaketh/monkey." Or しめすへんに「申す」. At any rate, 示+申.
 
Hm. Perhaps I'm just confused and/or retarded.

In any case, why is it that the more Kanji I learn, the harder it gets? Is it a memory thing, like a safe that holds too much so some things slip out? You'd think that it'd get easier as the more you learn the more you can infer.
 
I suppose it has to do with how well the ones you've studied are stuck in there. If you kind of know one character and it kind of looks like another character, you pretty much don't know either of them. You know? I does get easier, though, as you become more familiar with the components and what they mean and how they're read (that doesn't help at all with kun-yomi, though).
 
Yeah, I know what you mean: Before I look at what the words mean I try to infer. I actually came close with some and exact on others. For one iteration of faith, 信, I noticed that it was a man, and word. A man's word is all he has so therefore you have to take it on faith. I looked and indeed it was faith! Another one I almost got right was 働, I saw it as a man, heavy, strength, and thought move. It was work, and the one right before that was heavy strength, or move.
 
Yeah, I think those are pretty straightforward, so you can kind of guess what they mean. However, there are quite a few you won't be able to guess. There will be those that'll make you wonder "how on earth do those things come to mean that?!" I gave up on trying to guess meanings after a while.

By the way, I don't think you're retarded, especially because you can use "infer" correctly. 👍
 
I have only come across one of those, and I was hoping my book made an error. To buy is 買. Now from what I know, it is a net, and money. To net money is not really to buy, unless you use shell as goods. 脂 to me, is moon, seven/cut, and day. Midnight, I'd have to wager. It's fat. How the moon cutting the sun = fat I'll never know. 詐 = word make, and from "illness" i can infer this means to "make up words", or lie. Yep. Anyways, I have been neglecting grammar and I really should get back to it...it's going to kick my ***.
 
The 月 in 脂 is an abbreviation of 肉, actually (it's called 肉月 (にくづき)). That should help it make more sense for you. And 旨 means "tasty." If you keep eating tasty flesh (or meat, whatever) without abandon, you'll soon get fat. How's that?

Oh, it might help to point out that 旨 is 匕 ("spoon") plus 日. The kinds of foods you spend all day spooning in your mouth are the tasty ones, right? :-)
 
Hahaha oh, man, I thought that was seven or cut, like how seven+knife = cut in setsu or something. Your explanation really makes sense...if I may take the subject onto grammar, I think I posted my hardships in here. I'm still having a bunch of problems, I'm going to re-start them tomorrow. So if I wanted to say "see" it'd just be 見(masu)? I have no idea why I find this hard, I mean if someone just tells me then I can understand - kaerimasu, mimasu, ikimasu, I can do all of them, but I'm just not sure...why.
 
Hm. Did you have a lot of trouble with conjugation and stuff in the beginning? As the topic title states once I knew how to use the Kanji I had no trouble with it, but for some reason this is quite a block.
 
Not that I can remember. But then again, my mind is pretty formula driven. You'll have to give specific examples of what you're having problems with, though.
 
Just, in general. Here's a Genki ex.

jverbsqn8-1.webp

First one is simple after reading the text. -ru + masu. Then it goes to the -u verbs which took me a few seconds but I got it, instead of -#u + masu, you instead have -#u + -#i, and then masu. No biggie.

This is where I am stuck.
jverbsar5-1.webp

So I get the first part and it's natural, of course I remember the whole thing as "iku" and then "ikimasu". The sentence that starts with "This is especially..." is like...wait what? "suru" = shimasu? I remember reading that somewhere that is "to do" and i always thought it was shiru (before just today where i learned it was to speak, I believe, or is that shi/ra). "kuru" I am not sure what it means, unless this is the symbol whose On is "Rai"? (come). I think it is, somethign in my head remembers Rai/Ku(ru). I understand the last sentence because Miru is a ru verb and not a -u verb, kaerimasu is a -u verb (kaeru).

I dunno, maybe I'm just packing **** in there too complicated, like a tetris puzzle, leaving a lot of gaps, not clearing the important information...

--e

Perhaps it's because of my location but I've been told I have an "abrasive" language, so please forgive, it's a hard habit to kick especially when frustrated :)
 
Well, first of all -- you have a scanner?! Sweet!

Second of all, I didn't find anything you wrote abrasive.

Finally getting on to your concerns: I wouldn't worry too much about things you haven't already learned. I'm guessing する and 来る (yes, it is the rai character) will come in the next lesson or so. Just for now know that they are irregular, and remember to learn verbs in different forms when you come across them for now so that you will know how to conjugate them. Other than that it seems you've got it.

P.S. Shiru (知る) means "get to know" (usually just glossed as "know," which inevitably leads to the question "why do you say shitteimasu to mean 'know?'").
 
I have a scanner, camera, and a Genki eBook :) Yes, I remember that that character is learn or interchangeably know, I fear that if I ask that question or look at it more than one time my head will explode...I'd do it as "shimasu" or "shirimasu" aaahhh!
 
知る・知った・知って・知れ・知らない・知ります
する・した・して・しろ(せよ)・しない・します

You can see why する is irregular. But anyway, forget all of that if it confuses you. You'll see them enough over time that you'll wonder why it was ever such a big deal in the first place.
 
Yeah, everyone says that when I progress I'll laugh at the mistakes I made and what I found "hard". As for what you wrote, everything flew straight over my head. I understood "shirimasu", so I guess it's a -u verb. Wait holy crap, is this what "kaimashita" means? I've known it was to buy, and I know kai/kau is buy, so kaimashita must mean "buy do", in a sentence, watashi wa hon o kaimashita, "I book buy do (bought)"!!
 
Eh, close. You got the meaning right, but the mechanics wrong. 買います becomes 買いました for past tense; する is nowhere in there. That's just how the polite verb suffix ます conjugates.

Yeah, now that you mention it, I guess all those forms are brand new to you. I was trying to be comprehensive, but I guess I should have just gone with 知ります and します.
 
Oh, whoops. See what happens when I infer wrongly, haha. Well, I'm sure I'll get them in a few days...I'm doing Japanese intensively. Now I'm doing Kanji 209-216 and calling it a night. Blargh.
 
Yeah, it is pretty late. Good luck!

そうですね。体(からだ)を壊(こわ)さないよう気(き)をつけたほうがいいですね。がんばってね!
 
Well, I've done about 232 Kanji as of today...like before, I can identify and define the Kanji, but if you ask me, for example, ask me to draw the Kanji for kyuu (rank), I couldn't do it. If it were in front of me and you asked me to define it I could definitely do it.

Hoping it'll be 250 by the end of the night.
 
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