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かばんから俺のカメラが盗まれた (ﾉ_-｡)
俺のソニーＷ１だったよ。My little baby... 痛いのがカメラだけじゃなくて、入ってた512MB Memory Stick Proだ。高かったな！確かそれだけ２万５千円だった。Ｗ１は４万円だった。
まぁーしょうがないな。新しいカメラ買いたかったし。でもMemory Stick買わなくていい状態がよかったな。日本の友達に買って、送ってもらうかな。ヨドバシのポイントカード最高！
でもやっぱり、ソニーフリークでCybershotを買うしかない！おすすめありますか？
質問とかは日本語でも英語でもされます。
これはぼくが書いた文章。残念ながらこの文章は英語っぽいと言われちゃった。「質問する」は受身の文章は存在しないって言われた。受身にならない？！質問されると言わないの？僕がかんちがいした？
質問などは日本語・英語どちらでもできます。
この文章のほうがいいみたい。
「Credit: Ayako」
「させる」って３級の文法だと思うんだが、日本語は英語と違って、まだまだ分からないときもある。「させる」を習ったのは英語の「make」と「let」と同じ意味だった。それで英語で話すとどちか自然に分かるんだけど日本語ならびみょうだな。例えば：
先生とおしゃべりしてて…
「先生、私の勉強をさせてください」
これがおれが言ったこと。でもその日本人の先生が「let」の意味だと思ったそうだ。おれの意味は「make」だった。つまり、勘違いするときがいっぱいありそうじゃない？
はっきり分かるように言い方とかがあるでしょうか？すごく気になるからだれか教えてください。
In English, we learn the Japanese 'saseru' to mean 'make' or 'let', but as there is only one word for these two English words this can lead to times when I am not sure if what I am trying to say is what is being understood by the listener. Are there any other ways to say this kind of sentence that cuts out the ambiguity, or do the Japanese simply see no real difference between the two concepts?
I've just come across a forum based site for the JLPT:
こうあるべき
My rough translation is 'X is just as it should be' or 'it couldn't be better for X' or 'X is ...' and apparently is similar to これこそ. So in referring to a buffet you can say:
Buffet とは こうあるべき。
These kind of sentences are hard to translate. Maybe something like 'Now this is what I call a buffet'.
しもねたって？ 「しも」, apparently being 「下」, 「ねた」 being...? This is supposed to be referring to 'down there', although I am not sure of it's exact meaning. Anyway, an interesting word to add to my vocabulary, I'm sure!
Having decided to bite the bullet and shell out £50, I've now completed and sent off my Level 1 2005 JLPT application! How exciting =) At least it shouldn't be as traumatic getting to the exam venue in London considering the candidate numbers.
がんばりましょうー！
また文句をいいますが…最近何もしてないのに毎日早く起きるんだ。イギリスに帰ったとき、「じゃあ、予定がなくても、目覚ましをかけて、毎日９時ぐらいに起きよう」と決めた。それで９時半くらいに起きてた。でも少しずつこの時間が早くなってきて、アラームがなる前に必ず起きる。今は毎日午前６時から７時まで起きる！ありえない。
なんでだろう？別にストレスしてない たまってないし。年とってるかな？
早く起きるのが好きだけど、今の状態はけっこう辛い。仕事してないのに毎日疲れてる。だれか助けて！
[Credit for correction: Miyo]
ごっつうまいやろ
This is the Osaka ben version of something like ちょううまいでしょう - very tasty, right?
ごつ is like the Osaka version of ちょう （とても） while やろ means the same as でしょう.
I find these kind of words and dialects really interesting. Hopefully I can pick up some more.
On a Japanese site I asked for the word meaning the same as 'addicted'. Here is some info that was kindly given to me.
A-さん：直訳すると「中毒（ちゅうどく）になる」とか「病み付き（やみつき）」だよね。 ”ハマる”とか”ハマってる”とかどうかしら？
B-さん：ハマってる、がいちばん自然かも。
C-さん：ぞっこん☆。。彼にぞっこん☆とかって言います。正しい日本語じゃなぃかもしれなぃけど。。f^_^; でも辞書に載ってました！
I wonder why for ハマってる we can use katakana? It's in the dictionary, even with kanji. The particle for these words appears to be 「に」. This is easily remembered if you know any of Utada Hikkaru's songs: 「君にaddictedかも」.
The application forms for the JLPT are officially out in the UK this week. This year's test in England costs a staggering £50! That's 一万円! This is quite shocking because I know from friends that last year it cost £25. That's quite a hefty price to pay if you are going to fail...
Has the price also gone up in Japan?
手足（てあし） を 伸ばす（のばす）
At first I thought this meant something like 'stretching your legs.' However, it seems more accurately translated as having a break.
羽（はね） を 伸ばす
Can anyone explain this one? I was told it's used when you are going on holiday - 羽を伸ばしてくる. But what exactly does it imply?
The JLPT application forms are available in England from today. どうしよう。
「そうかなくちゃ！」
I've heard this phrase quite a few times (mostly in anime) but couldn't quite catch the meaning. I'm not sure if it can be translated directly into English, but someone gave me a good example of when to use it:
When, for example, you sugest something like 飲みに行こうよ! but the person you are talking to constantly refuses. When that person eventually agrees, you can use そうこなくちゃ in delight. It seems to be used when there is some opposition to what you want to happen at first before you get your own way.
One of the things I like about Japanese is the different language men and women use. It can highlight gender differences and make women appear more feminine and men more masculine.
For example, women might say いいかしら while men wouldn't. Men might say これ、ほしいか？ while women probably wouldn't (my friend found this out the hard way when people laughed at her).
Some of these differences are a little old and often unused in real life. E.g. young girls these days tend not to use いいわよ、そうね and so on.
It's interesting how Japanese drama, anime, manga still use this type of language to the extreme - much more than I've ever seen in real life in Japan.
アイホール? Eye Hole...? As in eye socket? No, eye lid! I guess I shouldn't be surprised by this kind of thing anymore.
[Credit: Mai]
引っ張る（ひっぱる） - to drag, pull, stretch...
I've heard this quite a lot recently, especially when used with regards to sport. I am guessing it can mean 'to hold people back', as in the following example - which interestingly uses 足.
皆さんの足を引っ張ってしまってごめんなさい。
Thanks to a great guy, Mr Jun, I've got this new manga to study from. I don't suppose studying Japanese from manga is a new idea to most readers but in case you hadn't thought of it...
I find manga interesting because it uses plenty of everyday Japanese complete with plenty of slang and various types of speech depending on the characters/roles. Also, often there is furigana which can help you to learn to recognise difficult kanji. I find that I frequently see words written in kanji for the first time, when I am only used to the hiragana form of the words.
However, I must admit that I have bought manga on many occasions only to briefly look at them for 5 minutes before confining them to a life on the shelf.
