Nobody even attains perfection or flawlessness in their own language, let alone a secondary one. The best that most can hope for is reaching the level of "native speaker," and that in itself is extremely difficult and takes many years of copious effort. My, what a journey I have before me.Elizabeth said:
A point well taken. I understood GCL's sense of 'perfect' as an approximation of 'native level' or 'upper advanced,' as demonstrated by passing JLPT 1 for instance. On the whole native speakers of Japanese compared with English are far more concerned with 'naturalness' and what sounds OK than technical accuracy or strict usage. Which means a lot of conflicting feedback, the best way of handling is by bringing those problems here or taking them to someone with an unusually strong interest in Japanese grammar.J44xm said:
Elizabeth said:A point well taken. I understood GCL's sense of 'perfect' as an approximation of 'native level' or 'upper advanced,' as demonstrated by passing JLPT 1 for instance. On the whole native speakers of Japanese compared with English are far more concerned with 'naturalness' and what sounds OK than technical accuracy or strict usage. Which means a lot of conflicting feedback, the best way of handling is by bringing those problems here or taking them to someone with an unusually strong interest in Japanese grammar.
いいえ、まだまだです。でも、今やその終わりがようやく見えてきた。。。。と思います。GoldCoinLover said:
Most people I know like that, which aren't many, don't have a lot of problems dealing with the language on a daily level. The difference is they aren't always able to do things requiring a very specialized vocabulary (ie apply for a complicated bank loan, hire a lawyer etc). And they aren't studying hours a day anymore....same with Japanese that have lived in the US even longer although where it is much easier to speak Japanese than English in Japan. ☺
Hi, Kevin !GoldCoinLover said:
I have heard for X amount of time left "ato X jikan ka"Apple Bomb said:Hey, sorry to break up this conversation, 'cause I like it, but here is a quick question. A lot of the time when I try to think in Japanese I get knocked down right away by really simple English expressions that I realize I don't know the equivalent of. This is one of many of those instances. How would you say "5 years left" or "only 2 hours to go!" or express that? Is something like まだ十分があります grammatically correct? Such a little thing, yet a huge road block in my path to understanding
5 years left "Mada 5 nen kan ga arimasu (or wa ? nokotte iru - remaining)"Apple Bomb said:Hey, sorry to break up this conversation, 'cause I like it, but here is a quick question. A lot of the time when I try to think in Japanese I get knocked down right away by really simple English expressions that I realize I don't know the equivalent of. This is one of many of those instances. How would you say "5 years left" or "only 2 hours to go!" or express that? Is something like まだ十分があります grammatically correct? Such a little thing, yet a huge road block in my path to understanding
Finding equivalents between English and Japanese is quite easy at the start, but it begins to malfunction as you move attention to the "small things." So, it's not a stumbling block only to you. It is, in fact, a hurdle for everyone to be overcome when learning another language.Apple Bomb said:Hey, sorry to break up this conversation, 'cause I like it, but here is a quick question. A lot of the time when I try to think in Japanese I get knocked down right away by really simple English expressions that I realize I don't know the equivalent of. This is one of many of those instances. How would you say "5 years left" or "only 2 hours to go!" or express that? Is something like まだ十分があります grammatically correct? Such a little thing, yet a huge road block in my path to understanding
epigene said:Finding equivalents between English and Japanese is quite easy at the start, but it begins to malfunction as you move attention to the "small things." So, it's not a stumbling block only to you. It is, in fact, a hurdle for everyone to be overcome when learning another language.
In this case, "5 years left" or "only 2 hours to go" can be expressed with the use of "mada" and "ato":
まだ５年ある（あります）。あと５年ある。
まだ２時間ある。あと２時間ある。
The difference between the two lies in the shade of meaning.
"Mada" suggests that the speaker thinks there is still enough time, meaning "I have 5 years and that's good enough for me."
"Ato" is commonly used just as a marker for the remaining period of time but also as suggestion of time running out:
あと5年しかない。(There's only 5 years left to go.)
Therefore, まだ５年しかない is incorrect.
HTH!
I like Dictionary.com's definition of "fluent". It includes "Able to express oneself readily and effortlessly" and "Flowing effortlessly; polished." That sounds about right to me. When you can speak fairly effortlessly and can say almost everything you need to say, that's a pretty good gauge. But it's a fuzzy thing anyway. All I know is, pretty who grew up speaking both English and Japanese are lucky.Buntaro said:
I suppose then that "Ato nijikan mo aru" would imply two hours was too long, but that's just from what I remember. Mada may work just as well.epigene said:Finding equivalents between English and Japanese is quite easy at the start, but it begins to malfunction as you move attention to the "small things." So, it's not a stumbling block only to you. It is, in fact, a hurdle for everyone to be overcome when learning another language.
In this case, "5 years left" or "only 2 hours to go" can be expressed with the use of "mada" and "ato":
まだ５年ある（あります）。あと５年ある。
まだ２時間ある。あと２時間ある。
The difference between the two lies in the shade of meaning.
"Mada" suggests that the speaker thinks there is still enough time, meaning "I have 5 years and that's good enough for me."
"Ato" is commonly used just as a marker for the remaining period of time but also as suggestion of time running out:
HTH!
J44xm said:
J44xm said:
