Monday, January 18, 2016

How to use the conjunctive words such as "うえに","しかも", "ですが" and "けれど"

Evaluation words can be classified into 2 types, positive and negative.
Examples are as follows:

Positive Evaluation

  • light
  • warm
  • tough
  • simple
  • easy
  • reasonable


Negative Evaluation

  • heavy
  • cold
  • fragile
  • complicated
  • difficult
  • expensive

(Positive/Negative classification can be inverted(interchanged) depends on specific situation. Classifications shown above are just one of the examples)

If we use two evaluation words at one time, we usually concatenate those words with conjunctions such as “and, but, or”.

In English, if someone says two evaluation words at one time, and both of them are positive or negative, he could use conjunctive word “and”.
Ex: This car is expensive and fragile.
Explanation of this book is easy to understand and useful.

In contrast, if someone says two evaluation words of opposite evaluation at one time, he could use conjunctive word “but”.
Ex: This car is expensive but tough.
Explanation of this book is difficult to understand but useful.

In Japanese, there are several words that represent the meaning of “and”, “but”.
Ex: “うえに”, ”しかも”, “かつ” for “and”
“ですが”, “けれど” for “but”

This car is expensive and fragile.
この車は、高価な うえに 壊れやすいのです。
Explanation of this book is easy to understand and useful.
この本の説明は、わかりやすくて しかも 役に立ちます。

This car is expensive but tough.
この車は、高価ですが、壊れにくいのです。
Explanation of this book is difficult to understand but useful.
この本の説明はわかりにくいけれど、役に立ちます。

I hope this helps .

Saturday, January 16, 2016

The meanings of "マジネタ" and "ガセネタ"

I wrote an article for Japanese learners, which explain the meaning of "マジネタ" and "ガセネタ".
Could you correct wrong or unnatural expression among following sentences?

Question: What are the meanings of "マジネタ", "ガセネタ"?

These words are a composition of three words:
マジ = truth, real, earnest, serious
ガセ = false, fake, lie, unreliable, inaccurate
ネタ = information, story, subject, topic, material, stuff

All of them have various meanings. "マジ" is a word opposite to "ガセ".

The basic meaning of "マジ" is truth, "ガセ" is false. So "マジネタ" and "ガセネタ" can be used as follows:

A: おい知ってるか? 明日ここに大統領が来るんだって!
    Do you know? I heard that president Obama will come here tomorrow!
B: まさか。そんなのガセネタだろ。
    No way. No kidding!
A: いやマジ、マジネタだってば!
    Believe me, I'm not kidding!

The Original meaning of "ネタ" is material, stuff.

"ネタ" means materials that should be prepared for some activity.
For example, a chef need to prepare the ingredients before he do cooking.
In this situation, ingredients are "ネタ" for dishes.
So Japanese sushi-chefs called fishes as "ネタ" in the old days, Edo period.

Later in the middle of the last century, comedians began to use the word "ネタ" for the meaning of "a topic of a joke". Comedians need to organize "a topic of a joke" before they perform it on their stage. So they considered "a topic of a joke" as fishes for sushi.

And later that, the word "ネタ" gained a new meaning of "a core topic of a story".

At present, the word "ガセネタ" is very popular in Japan. Used as a slang of "false story".
("ガセ" means false)

In comparison to the popularity of "ガセネタ", "マジネタ" is not widely used, but its meaning is clear to all Japanese. You can use the word as the meaning of "true story".
But be careful, "マジネタ" is a slang. Don't use it when you are making a ceremonial speech or like that.

The difference between "いる/います" and "ある/あります"

Question: I keep messing up "いる/います" and "ある/あります". Can someone help like the main meaning or example sentences?

"いる" is used to describe the existence of something.
"います" is a polite variation of "いる".

"ある" is used to describe the existence of something, same as "いる".
"あります" is a polite variation of "ある".

The meanings of these words are similar, but not identical.

Major difference is that:
"いる/います" is used to describe the existence of something living, which can move by itself.
If something is not a living creature, use "ある/あります" instead.

Example as follows:
    There is a dog.  そこに犬がいます。
    There is a book. そこに本があります。

However, there are some exceptions. Such as:
    There is a taxi.  そこにタクシーがいます。

A taxi is not a living creature, but in this case we Japanese use "いる/います".
I think that, a taxi is not living itself, but it can move like an animal can. So Japanese people consider it as living.
It is same as a train, ship, airplane or anything that can move.

And one more exception.
If someone lost something and he began to search for it. For example, when I lost my house key and began to search my house.
In this situation, when I found it, I can say "あったあった" or "いたいた" to mean "I found it".
A house key is not living, so ordinary usage of existence is "ある/あります". ("あった" is a past tense of "ある")
But in this case we can use "いた" (past tense of "いる") too.
I think that in this case we feel that something had gone away against our will, as if it were an animal which could move by itself. So we use "いた" when we find it.

FYI
"あったあった" or "いたいた" both are repeating expression of a simple word.
If I say just "あった", it means just "I found it".
If I say "あったあった", it means "Oh, I found it!".
Repeating expression indicates a little exclamation.

The difference between "習う", "学ぶ" and "勉強する"

Question: What is the difference between "習う", "学ぶ" and "勉強する"?

Some people answer this question such as:
学ぶ is Learn.
勉強 is Study.
But be careful, this answer is not correct.

At first, we should confirm the difference of "learn" and "study".

In English, 
"learn" means "to gain knowledge or skill of a subject", 
"study" means "to spend time reading, going to classes etc in order to learn about a subject".

So the following sentence is logically correct.
"I have studied Mathematics for many years, but I couldn't learn it"

"I learned something" means "I could get knowledge or skill of something".
"I studied something" means "I had spent time to learn something". We can't tell clearly from the sentence whether or not "He could get knowledge or skill of something".

In Japanese, "学ぶ" and "勉強する" are very similar. There is no difference like that of "learn" and "study".

The difference between "学ぶ" and "勉強する" is on the aspect of learning method.

For example, if you learned something undocumented know-hows through your experience, you can use the word "学ぶ" such as:
 "これらのノウハウは私が自分の経験を通じて学んだものです". 

In this case, most Japanese feel "学ぶ" is more suitable than "勉強する".

In contrast, if you learned something from books, you can use the word "勉強する" such as:
"私はこの本で数学を勉強しました". 

In this case, you can use "学ぶ" too.

But if you learned from a person, "勉強する" is NG, "学ぶ" is OK. Example as below.

I learned mathematics from Mr. Harada.
"私は原田先生から数学を学びました" is OK.
"私は原田先生から数学を勉強しました" is NG.

So, "学ぶ" can be used more widely than "勉強する".


Original meaning of the word "習う" is "imitate someone".
So "習う" requires some example.

So if you learned something undocumented know-hows through your own experience, you can't use the word "習う".

"学ぶ" has no such meaning of imitating. "習う" is used mainly for childrens' (under 10 years old) learning activity.


Thursday, January 14, 2016

The difference between “たら” and “なら”

The Japanese language has many conjunctive words (called “接続助詞” in Japanese) which represent various meanings.
Among them, there are two words “たら” and “なら” which show assumption. Japanese use both words frequently. Their meaning are similar but not equal, so many foreigners have difficulty in recognizing and using them.
This article tries to make easily understandable explanation of some aspect of their difference.

日本語には、接続助詞と呼ばれる多くの言葉があり、さまざまな意味を表します。それらの中に、“たら” と “なら” という2つの言葉があって、仮定を表します。日本人はこの2語をよく使います。しかしこの2語の意味は似ていますがイコールではないため、多くの外国人が理解と使い分けに苦労しています。そこでこの記事では、その違いの一部をわかりやすく説明することを試みました。

At first, see following two sentences.
まずは下記の2文をご覧ください。

彼が行くなら、私も行きます
彼が行ったら、私も行きます

どちらも、現在の時点において、未来の「彼」の行動を仮定して、自分の「意志(W)」を語っています。
この意味では「なら」「たら」は共通ですが、微妙な違いがあります。図にすると下記のようになります。

Both of above 2 sentence tell one’s will “私も行きます” based on an assumption of his activity in the near future. Both “なら” and “たら” have same meaning on this aspect, but there is minor difference between them. It can be graphically shown as follows:

 

Horizontal axis means time. Left side is present, right side is future.
The boxes “発話” show the timing of speech.
The difference is about the timing of decision making.
The sentence “彼が行くなら、私も行く” implicitly indicates that time of decision is shortly after speech time, before he actually goes.

The sentence “彼が行ったら、私も行く” implicitly indicates that time of decision is after he actually goes.

「発話」はその言葉を口に出すタイミングのことで、ここが「現在」です。
「彼が行くなら、私も行く」は、行くことを決める意志決定のタイミングが現在の少し後、彼が実際に行くより前の場合に使われます。
「彼が行ったら、私も行く」は、「彼が行った」ことを確認してから「私も行く」という意志決定をするという印象を与えます。

Thursday, January 7, 2016

What is the difference between 「理解」and「分かる」

Both of "理解する" and "分かる"  have the basic meaning of "understanding". However, there are some difference.

Case1: When you are asked some question which you can answer without thinking.
          考えなくても答えられるものについて聞かれた場合

Q社長がいつ帰ってくるか分かりますか Do you know when the president will return?)
A分かりません (I don't know)
 →この場合、「理解」は使いません。

Case2: When you are asked some difficult question which you cannot answer without thinking.
          考えなければ答えられない、難しい問題について聞かれた場合

Qこのレポートの含意が分かりますか Do you understand the implication of this report?)
A分かります or  理解できます (I understand)
 →考える必要があるものには、「分かる」「理解できる」の両方を使えます
      On this case, you can use both of them.

Case3: 理解 can be used for expressing positive evaluation
          肯定的評価を示すための「理解」

Q:彼が仕事をやめた理由はわかりますか? (Do you know the reason why he quitted his job?)
Aわかりますが理解はできません (I know it, but I don't agree with his decision.)

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Self introduction

I'm Japanese, living near Tokyo.
I like photographing landscapes or wild birds and studying world history ( just as a hobby. I'm not a scholar).
If you are interested in the history, culture or current political situation of Japan, feel free to ask me.

Now I'm learning English. One of my purpose to write this blog is training.
(I would use many wrong expressions. Any correction is welcome. I will be grateful for any help you can provide.)

I will write about wild birds in Japan with photographs I took.

And ...
I'm using a social language learning service, Lang-8 and Hi-Native!. At there, I found a lot of questions such as "How can I say **** in Japanese?".
I'm Japanese native speaker, and be able to explain the meanings of various words. Actually, my specialty is writing (in Japanese).

So I will write about "How to say it in Japanese" too.
That is the reason of this blog's title.
Thank you.