Japanese language questions thread

[elmagicochrisg]

Come here with any questions you have about the Japanese language...

What = nan / nani

My Genki textbook says nani is used before a particle.

Can anyone give me an example of this?...

With English translation too if you don't mind...

EDIT Already found the answer here.

[Inazuma]

Cool topic!

How do you say gazelle in Japanese? I used to know but I forgot. Thanks.

[brunoafh]

That's a really random question...

[Inazuma]

I figured it out. I knew I learned it from watching Hajime no Ippo.


Skip to 0:50 and the coach mentions it.

Kamoshika = Gazelle

Yes, it's rather random, lol.

[hashiriya1]

Genki is a great book. The kids I tutored use that book. Stick to it. Most Beginners Japanese textbooks are garbage, but Genki is good.

If you have any questions answered quickly, PM me.

[elmagicochrisg]

There's this game on Dreamcast called グラウエンの鳥籠 Kapitel 1 「契約. Known as the Bird Cage Kapitel series in English. I know 鳥籠 means torikage or bird cage. But the グラウエン part does not have a translation. I wrote this on another forum:

It's not a native Japanese word since it's written in Katakana. So it could be a person's name. Or the name of a place. There is a place in Germany called Grauen. In that case it would be Grauen's Bird Cage, or Bird Cage of Grauen. Or it could be derived from the German word Grauen, which means dawning or horror amongst other things. And since it's a horror detective story, that last would be most likely. The Horrible Bird Cage. Dawn of the (horrible) Bird Cage. Or something of the like. But that's just speculation on my part...

Somebody care to elaborate?...

[brunoafh]

You'd probably have to play the game to get a definitive answer, but as is I would simply call it "Grauen's Bird Cage". Even if it is meant to be a german word, it's written Grauen (or something similar) so I would still call it that.

If they really wanted it to be Birdcage of Horror they could have just called it Torikage no Kyoufu or something.

[elmagicochrisg]

Found it...