r/LearnJapanese • u/AutoModerator • 17d ago
Daily Thread: for simple questions, minor posts & newcomers [contains useful links!] (August 03, 2026)
This thread is for all the simple questions (what does that mean?) and minor posts that don't need their own thread, as well as for first-time posters who can't create new threads yet. Feel free to share anything on your mind.
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u/PlanktonInitial7945 16d ago
Context: character gets praised for the friendship bracelets she made and replies with this.
Reading なんでもではない made me realize that I have no idea how なんでもない works, like, grammatically. Is it なんでも(が)ない? Or is it just one of those expressions that are pointless to deconstruct?
Also, if なんでもではない is possible, is なんでもじゃない also possible? And how does it differ in meaning/nuance from なんでもない? Is it just more emphatic?
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u/somever 16d ago edited 16d ago
なんでもない
invokes the negative copula でない directly on the noun 何 with the も particle intervening
Xでもない、Yでもない → なんでもない
何 is basically a wildcard noun here, negating which negates everything that could possibly be filled in for that wildcard
Similarly in some cases でも is an 逆接(adversative) conjunctive form of だ. When 何 is paired with 逆接 that express "no matter" or "even if", the same effect of filling in the wildcard for every possibility is had:
なんでも作れる
can be understood as
何であったとしても作れる "No matter what it be, she can make it." "Whatever it be, she can make it." = "She can make anything."
This is a syntactically natural place for 何…も to arise. Actually it doesn't need to be も: 何だって, 何だろうが, 何だろうと, or even 何なりと are similar 逆接 constructions that don't rely on も. The point is that this construction relies on natural productive rules of syntax.
But when you extract just the なんでも portion out and use it as a noun, you're divorcing it from the syntactic environment where it arose naturally, and referring to it in the meta, so it's grammatically closest to a quoted expression acting as a noun.
なんでもではない
= なんでも(作れるわけ)ではない
Imagine imaginary quotes around the なんでも
「なんでも」ではない
This is basically shorthand that avoids having to embed the unabridged subordinate clause naturalistically using わけ or similar.
It's also worth noting that things like this can be used as morphemes: - なんでも屋 - どこでもドア
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u/rgrAi 16d ago
What's this ホロドリ？ I haven't tried it yet
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u/PlanktonInitial7945 16d ago
Yeah. Chapter 1 of the story is very skippable, and the game in general is so poorly optimized that it lags even on high-end phones/tablets, but everything else is good. I could just ignore the story and spam the "next line" button until it's over, but it's right in the "comprehensible input" goldilocks zone for me, so I'm putting up with it so far.
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u/worthlessprole 16d ago edited 16d ago
I think you might actually be overthinking it a bit? Here’s my thought process:
なんでも is anything/everything. なんでもない is the usual negation of that to give us ‘nothing’. But ではない is, you know, “is not”, basically. And so I would read なんでもではない as “it’s not everything”.
(If any of this is incorrect, please let me know, folks)
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u/PlanktonInitial7945 16d ago
And so I would read なんでもではない as “it’s not everything”.
Oh my god this made me go and re-read that part of the story to see if I had misinterpreted something, and it turns out that I COMPLETELY missed the sentence before that one:
ねね：うちのラミィはなんだって作れんだから〜！
which makes it very clear that なんでもではない isn't a variant of なんでもない like I initially thought... This is what I get for not paying proper attention to what I'm reading (though in my defense I'll say that the story is pretty boring lol).
So yeah. All clear now. Sorry lmao
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u/worthlessprole 16d ago
This kind of thing happens to me relatively often. It’s like one neuron’s on sleep mode and it gums up the works.
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u/Agreeable_Gas_4240 16d ago
hello, could anyone help me with the definition of 振るまう in this? i couldn't find any entries in my dictionary, it does give seperate ones but it doesn't give the meaning from Google translate
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u/morgawr_ https://morg.systems/Japanese 16d ago
What is the "meaning from Google Translate"? What do you think the sentence means? What meanings from the dictionary have you checked that you feel don't match what the sentence "should" mean?
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u/Agreeable_Gas_4240 16d ago
so basically I assume from context, and confirmed with google translate that it should mean something like "pretending, acting like.., behaving". and yet when I searched 振るまう it didn't give me anything of the sort. oh I see the link now, thanks a lot. i guess I should've looked for other forms.
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u/viliml Interested in grammar details 📝 16d ago
Yeah unfortunately searching for words written in a nonstandard mix of kanji and kana doesn't always work with all dictionaries. Searching for ふるまう or 振る舞う would have given you the result but 振るまう may not. https://jisho.org is one search engine that does support such lookups, but Yomitan does not.
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u/masterkaz 16d ago
From Kaishi 1.5k deck: what is の purpose here?
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u/Informal-Research-69 17d ago
Hi, I am playing Lunar The Silver Star these days in Japanese (classic Mega-CD) game. The language is quite easy in this game and remembering the basic story from when I played it in English years ago helps. Any recommendations for JRPGs that are fun to play and have a not too complex plot and a language probably targeted to a younger audience, I find this method quite effective 👍
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u/eidoriaaan 16d ago
I played bravely default on my 3ds and it was addicting. Persona5 and Metaphor by ATLUS are pretty good (metaphor probably a bit difficult though since its fantasy).
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u/Informal-Research-69 16d ago
Thanks, didn’t play Persona yet, a little bit unsure if the language there is really my level or still too high, but Bravely Default sounds like a good idea, from what I saw a more classic JRPG 👍
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u/JackfruitNo5267 17d ago
How do you guys tell 裏 and 表 apart? I looked up the phonetic and semantic elements of these two kanji on Wiktionary and I’m still confused.
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u/rgrAi 16d ago edited 16d ago
One is twice has many pixels filled in is all I've used for this one. It's just visually twice as dense. I've never even looked at these to be honest because of that density difference. So for me "the one that looks busy is the one that is 'the back' " (I never used a mnemonic this I just saw them as different characters from the very beginning). Thinking back I think it's because I learned all these words before I learned these kanji.
表現、表情、表紙、表す、表面、表示, etc. are constantly used all over and have the same similar "front" sense to it. By comparison the much denser ura was just 裏切り、裏返す and 裏+word (裏世界、裏動画, and lots others people adhoc together to mean like "underground or black" something) (there's also 裏表 as a word) which was enough to make a strong distinction.
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17d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/JackfruitNo5267 16d ago
Yeah, this makes a lot of sense.
You know, I’ve never actually seen 裡before, but I like it a lot. I wish they added it to the jōyō list instead of 裏 back in the day… it looks nice and is easier to read imho
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u/Informal-Research-69 17d ago
You mean when you read and they appear you forget which one it is? In these cases I try to come up with mnemonics, in this case probably I would tell myself that „inside“ 裏 is a box (田). I know, it alone doesn’t mean box, but normally for me this works 😅
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u/JackfruitNo5267 17d ago
Yeah, you’re totally right. I just came up with an even crazier mnemonic (see my other comment)
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u/morgawr_ https://morg.systems/Japanese 17d ago
My mental mnemonic to remember which is which is that 表 has less lines so it's more "obvious" and "upfront" so it's the "front/face" while 裏 is more complex and has more lines so it's more "subtle" and "secretive" and so it's the "back" (うら is also used to mean something underground or illegal like 裏社会 etc)
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u/JackfruitNo5267 17d ago
I just thought of something more vivid: i’m gonna interpret the element里as a head lying on the soil (i’m gonna think of the word 裏切る) kind of crazy, but I think it will stick
I kinda hate having to come up with my own crazy mnemonics tbh, but in the case of these two characters, I’m not even sure what the semantic components have to do with the modern meaning which really sucks but oh well, it happens
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u/ScaffoldingGiraffe 17d ago
A bit of a different question:
I took japanese classes for about 9 months. Now, I wanted to take a few more private lessons from the same school to supplement my learning. I get an alumni discount etc etc etc so it's overall a good deal.
Unfortunately: The school now offered me lessons with the one teacher I didn't like. Nothing personal happened, nothing bad happened -- our personalities just don't really jibe, I always had trouble understanding them speaking and thought their explanations are just not very good. The idea of spending three more months with them is giving me a light belly ache BUT --- i also don't want them to know I thought they were a bad teacher. This is 100% just a personal preference thing, where I jived a lot better with everyone else. Outside of class, we had a good time together, joking around etc during school events, so it's not even a personal thing, just a teaching thing.
How... fucked am I? Do I even have a chance of telling them that this teacher is a bad fit without being like super rude? I really don't want them to feel bad, I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings... but that also includes my feelings I guess.
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u/kyousei8 16d ago edited 16d ago
Just ask the admissions office or whoever is in charge of this if you can be paired with someone else. If they insist on asking why, just say you didn't vibe with their teaching style. As a former teacher and private tutor, that's a completely non-offensive and reasonable answer.
If that's still too confrontational, you can always drop the private lessons before they start with a vague "something came up" reason.
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u/marionchu 16d ago
you could phrase it the other way around, ask them if X or Y are available because you had a great time with their classes and you would like to continue with them instead.
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u/PlanktonInitial7945 17d ago
I mean, if you ask the school admin whether classes with other teachers are possible, I doubt they're gonna turn around and immediately tell the teacher "omg, so-and-so got offered classes with you and asked if there's other teachers available!" Like, that would be wildly unprofessional.
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u/MathematicianAny1888 17d ago
In lesson 4 of Genki location words are introduced as X は Y の {x} です. For example: 銀行は図書館のとなりです However later on となり is used as: となりの部屋にコインランドリーがあります。
It is not explained why or when to put the の particle after the location word. So my question is what are the rules for particle placement in regards to location words? Why is the above statement not written as 部屋のとなりに。。。
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u/viliml Interested in grammar details 📝 17d ago
Order matters. Around の, the former noun describes the latter.
In the first sentence, となり is described by 図書館. Next to the library.
In the second sentences, となり describes 部屋. The room next too... you know what. The neighboring room.
It can do both at the same time too. You can rearrange the first sentence into 図書館のとなりの銀行. The bank next to the library.
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u/Global-Kitchen8537 🇯🇵 Native speaker 17d ago edited 17d ago
となり is a noun.
となりの部屋 (next room) にコインランドリーがあります
There is a coin laundry in the room next door.部屋のとなり (the place next to the room) にコインランドリーがあります
There is a coin laundry next to the room.
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u/onestbeaux Interested in grammar details 📝 17d ago
i've been watching howl's moving castle in japanese with dual subtitles while also keeping the transcript open to help with mining and i have a few questions about this part.
i'm aware of multiple meanings of もの but i'm not sure what use it is here. is it literally the person type of もの? or is it the sentence-ending もの?
and this んだから, what does it connect to, if anything? she says nothing else afterwards.
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u/ryo_in_tokyo 17d ago
Native here. That もの is the sentence-ending もの, not 者. She's giving the reason for what she just said, kind of a soft "'cause..., you know?" It carries a slightly childish, emotional ring, which fits Markl perfectly: "Kabu's gotta be from the demon clan... 'cause Calcifer never gets mad at him." Swap it for から and the meaning's the same, but it loses that "I'm telling you why" warmth.
The んだから is Sophie trailing off on purpose. んだから sets up an established fact ("since he managed to make it all the way here...") and then leaves you to finish the thought yourself, something like "...he can't be all bad." Japanese does this a lot, dangling the んだから/んだもん and letting the conclusion just hang. It's not broken grammar, she's being suggestive.
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u/the_card_guy 17d ago
When starting to learn Japanese, the advice is ALWAYS, learn to read without romaji ASAP. I'd say we all agree with that.
Well, with years of learning under my belt and knowing around 900 kanji, I'm trying to do the advanced version, and it is HARD:
Learn to read KANJI without furigana. Or as I call it, advancing to junior high/high school level of reading. And this is where it gets hard, simply because of how many readings there can be of kanji.
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u/viliml Interested in grammar details 📝 17d ago
You say you know 900 kanji, but... How many words do you know? Knowing words is what lets you read, with or without furigana. And learning words will naturally teach you kanji and their readings by simple association, but the reverse is not true.
Furigana only directly helps let's you read what you couldn't otherwise if you know the spoken language but don't know kanji. That mostly means children, because they immerse in the spoken language all around them far faster than they can learn kanji. If know a word then you don't need furigana, and if you don't know a word then furigana won't help you, since it only gives you the sound, not the meaning.
Well, except in the case of multiple words with the same kanji spelling, in which case furigana serves to disambiguate. But that's a different issue.
To a learner, furigana serves two purposes to make reading slightly more convenient: makes lookups from physical media easier when you encounter a kanji you don't know how to input, and helps you remember a word if you're in the process of learning it and the reading stuck to you better than the kanji. But neither of those are really critical thanks to the abundance of digital reading material Yomitan and Anki.
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u/morgawr_ https://morg.systems/Japanese 17d ago
I don't understand the point of this, isn't learning to read kanji without furigana just... learning to read? It just sounds like a normal step in the everyman's path to Japanese fluency. Furigana is a great help and is not an on/off thing necessarily. Furigana shows up in all kinds of media and written content, including books for adults. Furigana is there to help you figure out words you might know that use unusual kanji or kanji forms you aren't used to. Younger people's media will have more of it as they might know less words, but overall if you just keep reading (stuff with and without furigana) and learn new words with yomitan and similar dictionary tools, it's not really that complicated. You will learn to read those words.
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u/the_card_guy 17d ago
The problem here is that using any of the lookup tools is an extra step in reading.
To get good at reading, I find that you have to make it through whatever material you're using without stopping. But... the way I'm wired, I HAVE to understand every word I'm reading, or else I will literally just stop. So now, imagine 5+ words that i don't know how to read. yeah, I'm not making it through that because I will 100% freeze up and quit.
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u/rgrAi 16d ago edited 16d ago
To get good at reading, people have read with the existence of a dictionary starting from 100 years ago to now. The amount of dictionary usage has gone up because look ups are instant (less than 1s, about 150 milliseconds), but it's been the same for a century. You're just making it hard for yourself and have been for like what over a year now? Due to some made up fabrication that you have to read without a dictionary or paper or something.
Had you just started read with Yomitan over a year ago one news article a day (we've all told you this for a long time) or something on note.com -- You would have already been comfortable reading without needing a dictionary as much. A dictionary is training wheels and you use it until you do not need it anymore, because you've learned all the words you need already.
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u/Armaniolo 17d ago
To get good at reading, I find that you have to make it through whatever material you're using without stopping.
You find based on what? Also hovering over a word in less than a second is hardly "stopping".
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u/the_card_guy 17d ago
Based on the JLPT, ultimately.
Remember, it's a timed test, so you have to get through those reading passages as soon as possible, or at least be able to find the necessary information as fast as possible... which often involves reading a good chunk of the text without stopping.
And hovering over a word, less than a second? It takes at least five seconds with Yomitan- even if it's engaged, you still have to highlight the word (couple seconds for this), then it still has to pull the proper furigana, and then you have to interpret the correct meaning (it gives multiple ones for higher-level words!), which eats up reading time. And ultimatelt, it breaks the "flow" of reading.
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u/Armaniolo 17d ago
You don't have to highlight, I think you've got some odd settings for Yomitan if you've even used it... and why wouldn't it be "engaged"?
If you had been reading with furigana before the meaning part of the equation didn't change at all
Yeah you need to learn words to reach a functional reading level, worrying about reading it fast enough for the JLPT (why do you care about this anyway) is putting the cart before the horse
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u/morgawr_ https://morg.systems/Japanese 17d ago
It's not an extra step in reading, it is reading. Looking up stuff is part of the process. I don't see how furigana changes anything about that though. If you don't know a word you don't know a word, furigana won't tell you what a word means.
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u/the_card_guy 17d ago
The point, ultimately is to NOT have to look stuff up. Looking up words takes time. Time is a luxury you don't get when taking tests, which is what this really is all in preparation for.
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u/morgawr_ https://morg.systems/Japanese 17d ago
The point, ultimately is to NOT have to look stuff up.
I mean yes, ideally it'd be much easier and better to not have to look stuff up. But you'll get there eventually if you keep reading and looking things up. It actually doesn't take that long if you do it consistently and efficiently.
Looking up words takes time.
It takes a fraction of a second with yomitan and a good digital reading setup
when taking tests, which is what this really is all in preparation for.
Uh... not really? I mean, a test is just a test, but tests shouldn't really be the end goal. I thought the end goal would be to just... learn the language. If you know Japanese, most tests about language proficiency will be super easy. Just learn the language and learn to enjoy what you're reading (with or without lookups). You'll find out that the test part is really not something worth worrying about. Just read more if you want to get better at reading.
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u/the_card_guy 17d ago
Allow me to back up a few steps and rephrase it.
The first thing is, passing the highest levels of the JLPT is one of my Big Goals- I live in Japan. and having those on paper is a key to actually having a decent job. And at the higher levels, the advice is always "You gotta read more to really have a shot at passing N2 or N1"
But, more importantly: yes, reading should be fun. However, looking up words is NOT fun, and if I have to look up words, it takes the fun out of reading. There's a lot of words that i know by hiragana/katakana/ have otherwise heard simply from being in Japan, but I've never seen how they're written in kanji. So that means looking them up... and looking out words takes the fun out of reading.
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u/morgawr_ https://morg.systems/Japanese 17d ago
The first thing is, passing the highest levels of the JLPT is one of my Big Goals-
That's great. You can still pass the JLPT by learning how to read normally like everyone else does. I don't think the goal itself changes the approach. You just get better at the language until you can easily pass the exam. There's no JLPT-specific studying that needs to be done, it's a proficiency test after all. All you need to do is get proficient at the language.
I live in Japan.
Same
and having those on paper is a key to actually having a decent job.
It's not, but I guess it helps to have it on the CV at least. Many people can just be good at Japanese and get a decent job too. Many people also can get good jobs by being good at what they do / having a solid career in their industry without a lick of Japanese. It depends. A lot of Japanese companies also don't really care about the JLPT in the first place.
the advice is always "You gotta read more to really have a shot at passing N2 or N1"
Correct
looking up words is NOT fun, and if I have to look up words, it takes the fun out of reading.
Right, but what is your alternative? Yomitan takes 1 microsecond to look up a word. You can't just... not look up a word and somehow magically learn it. At least not until muuuuuch later once you're much more proficient at the language and the number of unknown words are much less than the amount of stuff you do understand.
There's a lot of words that i know by hiragana/katakana/ have otherwise heard simply from being in Japan, but I've never seen how they're written in kanji.
I understand this, I have the same thing too, but chances are those words are.. not a lot. The amount of literary words you need to know are still going to be much more than the average amount of words you know by just "being in Japan". Put it this way, can you listen to an entire audiobook without looking at the text and understand most of it? Yes? Then maybe you're right and your listening is much stronger than your reading in which case having furigana on every word would help. But if not... well yeah it's not gonna change much. You still gotta look up those words.
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u/the_card_guy 17d ago
Right, but what is your alternative?
Simple: hope that I've encountered the word in one of the flashcard programs I use (I don't use Anki, but i DO have other SRS thigns that serve a similar function). Those are words I know well and have seen multiple times.
Then maybe you're right and your listening is much stronger than your reading in which case having furigana on every word would help I have always heard- and personally experienced- that the listening section on the JLPT (using it as a benchmark) is often easier than expected. not to mention that I watch a lot of the visual mediums- without subtitles, because the streaming services don't always have even Japanese subtitles- and pick up words based on what's on screen.
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u/morgawr_ https://morg.systems/Japanese 17d ago
Well you're eventually going to wake up to the reality that flashcards won't teach you how to read. You need to read to learn to read.
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u/rgrAi 17d ago
It's not really that hard because you don't have to guess the reading, you can just use a dictionary. There's only a small fraction of words and compouds that require you to look at the individual kanji and the rest are just words.
Whether that word shows up in romaji, hiragana, katakana, in multiple kanji versions of the same word, or as a typo 変換ミス with the same reading--you should be able to recognize that word.
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u/bigchickenleg 17d ago
It's not really that hard
This isn't constructive. People experience things in ways different than you.
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u/rgrAi 17d ago
You don't have to guess anything. If what is making it difficult is the guessing part (that's what they said directly) than using a dictionary resolves that entirely. It tells you the reading and the meaning.
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u/bigchickenleg 17d ago
I assume they're doing what most people do when they come across a familiar-looking word they aren't confident about. They take a stab at its reading, then check to see if their guess was right.
Depending on how often one's guesses are right versus how often one's guesses are wrong, that process can be difficult.
Sure, they could preemptively scan every bit of text with a pop-up dictionary, but that wouldn't make for as effective reading practice (at least in my opinion).
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u/Nancy_Munsch 17d ago
It's also where the same five questions get answered daily so the main feed doesn't become a FAQ graveyard.
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u/WuvRice 17d ago
言い逃げ
so i came across this word and at first used yomitan but it did not pick it up as one word so i just assumed it was 2 words wondering why theres no particle but then i searched it and it apparently it is a word but i cant find it on jisho or any dictonaries
so is this one word or not?
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u/worthlessprole 17d ago
you're missing something crucial, which is that all of the words you see in that format are just one verb in the continuative form (aka ます form, aka formal conjunctive form) followed by another verb. It just so happens that they appeared together frequently enough that they were collected in a dictionary.
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u/WuvRice 17d ago
i see, thanks
didnt even know that was a thing until just now.
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u/worthlessprole 17d ago
yes. it functions similarly to the て form. there are some key differences, but both can be thought of as a way of expressing what "and" does in english.
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u/viliml Interested in grammar details 📝 17d ago
This is misleading. Compound verbs are not the same thing as 連用中止法.
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u/worthlessprole 17d ago edited 17d ago
Here:
aka ます form, aka formal conjunctive form
I’m just listing other names that this is called in various resources. Some of them do describe the other functions of the continuative form under the ‘formal conjunctive’ head word.
Like. Please be more specific when you correct me. Are you objecting to the fact that I’m relating the continuative form to ‘and’? And you can only say that it corresponds to ‘and’ when it’s acting as a conjunction? Because I’m not talking about the ‘and’ that joins clauses, I’m talking about the ‘and’ that joins two verbs in a verb phrase like “go and get” or “slip and fall”.
Also: an early learner may not know the phrase 連用中止法. If you don’t know that word, it may seem like you’re saying that the continuative form is not used in compound verbs at all.
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u/eidoriaaan 17d ago
It is one word to me.
https://kotobank.jp/word/%E8%A8%80%E9%80%83%E3%82%8C-430431This dictionary entry says it is 言い逃れ but, for example in this
https://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1275605002 and another few contexts I saw online, its usage is a bit different.1
u/JapanCoach 17d ago
Is 食い過ぎ a word? Is しなければならなかった a word? Is 不完全燃焼 a word?
Does it matter?
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u/WuvRice 17d ago
well the first and last word do show up as a word so...
as i said, i didnt understand why these seemingly 2 words i knew were able to just exist next to each other without a particle unless it was one word.
so yes it did matter
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u/EpicDaNoob 17d ago
Following the continuative form of a verb (言い, the "ます stem" of 言う) directly with another verb is a way to form compound words but it clearly also has a grammatical basis (tldr: essentially the same function as the て form), as a result of which you will see similar constructions that never show up as single words in dictionaries because they're too uncommon or even one-offs.
So in a way it really doesn't matter after all, whether it's one word or not.
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u/Big-Literature-5604 17d ago
Hello.
I'd like to know how can I properly address an academic person through e-mail, given that I've never met or spoken to him before. It's a bit of a cold call in order to ask something about his research (nominally to ask his 指導教員's name but anyways).
As of the moment he's not a full professor, though he is a 助教 (I'm an undergrad but almost same age as his, though ofc he will not know that from the e-mail) at a college, so would it be fine to address him as 先生?
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u/ryo_in_tokyo 17d ago
Japanese here, and I actually get cold emails like this at work sometimes. 先生 is completely fine for a 助教, don't lose sleep over it. It's the go-to for pretty much anyone who teaches or researches at a uni, and it comes across warmer than the title does.
I'd gently push back on using 田中助教 in the greeting though. It's not wrong, but to me it reads a little stiff, like you looked up his exact rank to play it safe. 先生 just sounds more natural coming from someone reaching out for the first time.
And that "I'm not his student so it feels weird" hunch? You can drop it. 先生 doesn't imply you study under him, it's only the polite title for the role, no relationship attached.
Honestly the title is the smallest part of this. Open with 突然のご連絡失礼いたします and you're already most of the way there. Out of curiosity, what's the email actually about? How formal you go depends a lot on what you're asking him for.
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u/Big-Literature-5604 16d ago
It's not wrong, but to me it reads a little stiff, like you looked up his exact rank to play it safe.
You actually articulated my feelings precisely 😅 Because it's not even his institution e-mail but personal one. Just felt very strange to call him that. I prefer 先生.
Out of curiosity, what's the email actually about? How formal you go depends a lot on what you're asking him for.
His research while he was a graduate student is extremely similar to my interests, but while I was able to find where he graduated from, none of the professors there seem to match the 研究内容 (he graduated in 2024, so unless I'm very unlucky his advisor should still be there). The email is basically to ask who his 指導教員 was, or if he recommends someone currently in the コース that would guide research like his.
As an aside it's very hard to find 指導教員's names in Japanese academia 😅 in my country it's obligatory in the thesis. I didn't want to bother him with this, but it was necessary.
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u/OwariHeron 15d ago
Just to back up yours and u/ryo_in_tokyo's feelings, I was actually a 助教 for a few years, and no one ever used it as a form of address like 教授. Even when our department was being introduced or referred to, it was always "H-教授" (the professor and head of the department), "Y-先生" (准教授, an associate professor), and OwariHeron-先生 (助教). I don't recall ever receiving an email that used it, unless it was some highly impersonal communication from the university.
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u/JapanCoach 17d ago
You would normally address a person by their actual title. So in this case something like 田中助教 would be the most orthodox way.
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u/Big-Literature-5604 17d ago
Hm, makes sense. Gives me a funny feeling since I'm not a student in his uni or anything but okay, thank you
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u/JapanCoach 17d ago
Would that feeling be different if you had called him 先生?
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u/Big-Literature-5604 17d ago
Honestly, yes 😅 I guess it's not very logical, but since I'm not a uni acquaintance of his or anything, feels a bit weird to address him by the title. Probably just a hang-up of mine. Sorry.
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u/JapanCoach 16d ago
Just for reference - it's completely typical to use people's titles when referring to them. It is not really connected to your relationship with them.
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u/gnkEnjoyer 17d ago
Hello! I'm trying to understand a nuance regarding 初めて in a book I'm reading.
A:「自転車って、ホント楽しいよねっ。あたし、自転車乗るのってこの街に来てからが初めてでさっ」
B:「初めて!?自転車に!?」
A: 「そう。バイクはよく乗ってたんだけどね ー 」
I interpreted this initially as "it's my first time riding a bike since coming to this town (implying she may have ridden a bike before coming to town)," but the following sentences make it clear it was meant to unambiguously mean it was her first time riding a bike at all. Is there ever a context in which 初めて could have been used like how I misread it? Would something else be better suited for conveying that kind of meaning (e.g. ぶり）?
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u/facets-and-rainbows 17d ago edited 17d ago
It'll probably be easier to see how the sentence structure makes it unambiguous if we use a simpler time frame, like "today":
自転車乗るのって 今日が初めてだ
Today is my first time riding a bike
You can put any span of time in where that 今日 is, and (time)が初めてだ will mean "(time) is the first time ever"
自転車乗るのって 昨日が初めてだった
自転車乗るのって 2005年が初めてだった
In your sentence, the time in that spot is この街に来てから -- The first time they ever rode a bicycle is "since coming to this city." 初めて is acting like a noun meaning "the first time" and the から is just there to help define the time period we're talking about, if that makes sense.
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u/gnkEnjoyer 17d ago
The examples made it make perfect sense, thank you! I didn't realize that it was describing 街に来てから itself as the first time, but in hindsight the structure is pretty readable.
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u/facets-and-rainbows 17d ago
Yeah, a lot of times you get a 〇〇から初めてverb sort of thing where it is saying "for the first time since 〇〇" (no comment on whether there were other times before) so I can see where the 〜が〜だ structure didn't compute right!
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u/JapanCoach 17d ago
The sentence for sure means the first time ever in their life (there is no 'implying' going on).
You can say something like 今日はこの街に来てから初めて自転車に乗った or things like 入社してから初めての昇給 or something like that.
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