Language learning!

Lucid Lounge
81

Lucid Dream in Swedish: Klardröm (clear dream)
…and in Japanese: Meisekimu (clear dream)
(Here’s the kanji: 明晰夢)

I’ve studied Japanese quite intensely for a couple of years now and also have lived there for 10 months. I wouldn’t consider myself fluid but I know some 2000+ characters and have a basic vocabulary that allows me to grasp the essentials, although I need to work on it in order to understand more advanced material. I’ve begun reading some Japanese novels and manga in the original lately and I hope that will help me cross that final border between ‘understanding’ and ‘sort of understanding’ Japanese.

I also have plans on learning Korean, since knowing Japanese is sure to aid in learning Korean, and vice versa. First and foremost, the vocabulary is in large measures the same, since in both languages it is based to a large extent on Chinese characters. But the grammar is also strikingly similar.

82

Does anyone know what this kanji means?

83

It seems that nobody knows. :sad:

Can someone explain me the difference between “these” and “those” in english? May they be equally used? Is it something like “ceux-ci” and “ceux-là” in french, that is “these” when they are near (in the sentence or in the landscape) and “those” when they are far?

84

You have the right idea. Examples: These things are close. Those mountains are big.

Another use that you did not mention is: These cherries are fresh, but those cherries are rotten.
It can be used to distinguish between two sets of things. Another example: Let’s use these shoes for act one. Those shoes are too shiny, and these will not distract the audience.

There are many cases where both are correct, but these is usually for something small and close, and those is usually for something not held or far away (with the exception of the previous example)

I hope that answers your question.

85

Thank you Night Muse. It was perfectly explained. :smile:

86

Not to undermine Night Muse’s good work, but to me a more succinct explanation would be that ‘these’ and ‘those’ correspond to the pronouns ‘us’ and ‘them’; the former is inclusive and the latter exclusive. You use ‘these’ when referring to something that is a part of your dominion or group, and ‘those’ for things that lie outside any realm of personal connection. And the more I type, the more pretentious I sound and the less succinct my explanation actually becomes, so it’s time to shut my trap.

87

Good call, it’s been years since I was in college. Don’t forget that they can be used together for things in the same ‘dominion’ to distinguish between the two sets. “These roses have more color than those roses.” You could own either set of roses, it wouldn’t matter in the context. That’s a great way to explain one use of the words, though.

88

Thank you very much everybody. :content:

89

Hallström: It means “a little”, “a few”, etc. It is pronounced sukoshi, sukunai and SHOU, the latter being a reading originating from Chinese and the other two native Japanese ones. The underlined parts are written in hiragana, which is the Japanese phonetic “alphabet”.

90

I can help with Norrwegian, sweedish, Danish and japanesse.

91

That’s the kanji for “Sukoshi” (“a little”, “a bit”). Shi is not part of it., only the “suko” :happy: If you need more info about it, just ask

92

I see… I read it on a cup that had 10 lines of text, each starting with the kanji for “one” “two” “three” etc, followed by that “suko” and some other characters, some kanji, some hiragana, but I could not make out any words.

93

Are you sure it wasn’t [size=150]秒[/size] (byou)? That’s the kanji for seconds :happy:

94

No, it’s

95

Does anybody know what “lilium inter spinas” means?

96

It means “lily among thorns”.
“Sicut lilium inter spinas sic amica mea inter filias”.
Like a lily among thorns, so is my friend (love/girlfriend) amongst daughters (girls).
Song of Solomon 2:2

97

Ooo thanks :happy: But what language is that o_o? Latin?

98

Yes, it’s latin.

99

So many cool language threads :smile:
(especially thanks for the language toolkit, in case the linkposter is reading here).

Anyways, I got two questions, one for the spanish speakers and one for the english speakers.

1… Can anyone explain the differences between:

alli
alla
aci
aca
aquella

And the other words that I´ve forgotten…
(basically they all mean stuff like “here” and “there”)

Can you refer to an animal with “he/she”, or is always “it” the form to use?
(“Oh, look at the green frog, he just ate a fly”).
Same question for objets, although there I am pretty sure that only “it” can be used. (Which is different from german. We would say a sentence like "Look at that table. He is very big!)

tapir

100

Okay, I don’t have the luxury of being able to type up accent marks, so each letter that’s supposed to have an accent will have an apostrophe (’) after it.

aqui’ - here
alli’ (I think can also be ahi’) - there
alla’ - there (further)

It seems that many languages other than English have a “there” and a “there (further away)” form. Alli’ usually meaning something within the vicinity of the person listening and alla’ meaning something further away (out of the vicinity of both the speaker and the listener).

este, -a, -os, -as - this (noun)
ese, -a, -os, -as - that (noun)
aquel, -la, -los-, las - that (further away noun)

The same concept is used as the aqui’/alli’/alla’ words in relation to distance from the speaker, but these are adjectives.

e’ste, -a, -os, -as - this
e’se, -a, -os, -as - that
aque’l, -a, -os, -as - that

Same as above, except these are nouns (i.e. Me gusta este libro. --> Me gusta e’ste.)

e’sto - this
e’so - that
aquello - that (don’t know when this is used…)

These are the neuter forms of the above. I’m not quite sure how to explain this, but I’ll give some sample sentences.

English: I don’t like this (situation).
Spanish: No me gusta e’sto.

English: I don’t want to think about that (idea/situation/etc.)
Spanish: No quiero pensar en e’so.

Think you got it? Hopefully, someone will come along and help you out better.

And I have no idea what that “aci/aca” you’re talking about is, so hopefully someone helps with that, too.

With animals, I think it is acceptable to use the he/she form. Some people do when the animal is dear to them (a pet, etc.). However, with inanimate objects, “it” should be used. It doesn’t seem important to me (though it will be grammatically incorrect and sound strange), as long as you get the point across…