What made you want to study Japanese?
Hey all, Ty here.
This week’s prompt
It’s your first day at your new job. Your Senpai [more experienced coworker] asks you about what made you want to study Japanese.
新しい仕事の初日。先輩に日本語の勉強のきっかけは何?って聞かれて、答える。
あたらしい しごと の しょにち。 せんぱい に にほんご の べんきょう の きっかけ は なに? って きかれて、 こたえる。
* You can submit a response in Japanese here. *
Please try to submit your response within 48 hours of receiving this email. Please only write one response per form submission.
Corrections will arrive in your inbox next week.
Last week’s corrections
You're out shopping with your kid. They start begging you for a switch, but you tell them why you won't/can't buy them one right now.
This one was definitely an interesting one because it highlights how adults will often talk differently with children as we can see in some corrections below.
There’s other stuff like お目々(おめめ)[eye] or お手々(おてて)[hand] for even younger kids, but that’s a lesson in an of itself.
Anyway, thanks to this prompt I realized I’m going to be a broke dad because I realized I’m not going to be very good at turning my kid down. I could barely think of something to say in English, let alone Japanese.
In the end, I realized I would totally use mom as a scapegoat:
ごめんね、お母さんが怒ると思うけんとりあえずもう家にある3DSいっぱいやってね。
ごめんね、 おかあさん が おこる と おもう けん とりあえず もう いえ に ある すりーでぃーえす いっぱい やって ね。
Sorry, mommy will probably get mad at me so play on your 3DS at home a bunch in the meantime, yeah?
A quick note: けん here means から in Itoshima dialect and many other dialects in Kyushu.
She said that was good, but apparently using とりあえず gives the vibe that I'm planning on buying it very soon, just not at this moment.
ごめんね、お母さんが怒ると思うけん今は買えない...しばらくの間は家にある3DSいっぱいやってくれない?
ごめんね、 おかあさん が おこる と おもう けん、 いま は かえない... しばらく の あいだ は いえ に ある すりーでぃーえす いっぱい やって くれない?
Sorry, mommy will probably get mad so I can't right now. Could you play on your 3DS at home for now?
That main difference is she uses しばらくの間(しばらくのあいだ)[for the time being] instead of my とりあえず[for the time being]. Which is great because they both mean the same things when I look them up in the dictionary.
Oof.
Thankfully she explained the difference to me.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Fix My Japanese to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.