Japanese Help Questions/Translations

[Nisseki]

okay i took your advice...
(yes if you thought that was quick i have too much free time)
there was this really great verbs dictionary for 30$
and a kanji dictionary for 60$
i dunno about asking for all of that but i think they might be extremely useful if not nessary for my learning abilites.

Does anyone agree with me?
Would you get the verb or kanji dictionary?(I already have a regular one and these are extremely detailed about what theyre talking about.)
And rosetta stone whaddya think of that program?


Sry for all these questions

ありがとうございます.

[SSJup81]

In my opinion, Rosetta Stone isn't helpful. I don't care for memorizing phrases, which that seems to do. It's not very thorough or anything like that.

[Rogozhin]

I remember speaking to my friend a couple of days ago (he's a native Japanese) and he said something like "it's a bit rude to directly refer to yourself". Is this true? It might explain why Japanese often refer to themselves indirectly.

p.s. hmm, strange...some of my posts have disappeared from this thread.

[SSJup81]

Originally Posted by Rogozhin

I remember speaking to my friend a couple of days ago (he's a native Japanese) and he said something like "it's a bit rude to directly refer to yourself". Is this true? It might explain why Japanese often refer to themselves indirectly.

p.s. hmm, strange...some of my posts have disappeared from this thread.

I'm not the one to answer this, as I'm not certain, but maybe your friend meant that it's rude to refer to yourself in certain ways. Like for instance, for a guy, "ore" isn't very polite and "boku" can be considered casual (and also used by younger boys).

[Rogozhin]

Originally Posted by SSJup81

I'm not the one to answer this, as I'm not certain, but maybe your friend meant that it's rude to refer to yourself in certain ways. Like for instance, for a guy, "ore" isn't very polite and "boku" can be considered casual (and also used by younger boys).

Thanks for your reply. I think he was meaning referring to yourself directly using any word for "I", whether that be watashi/ore/boku etc.

[MMM]

Originally Posted by Rogozhin

Thanks for your reply. I think he was meaning referring to yourself directly using any word for "I", whether that be watashi/ore/boku etc.

Ask him what he meant, as that doesn't make any sense. Using "ore" is inappropriate in certain situations, but in general you must be allowed to refer to yourself to allow your meaning to be clear.

[Rogozhin]

Okay, I asked him and it turns out I didn't hear him properly. He said refering to yourself too much makes you sound like an egomaniac, which is pretty straight forward.

k thanks.

[SSJup81]

Originally Posted by Rogozhin

Okay, I asked him and it turns out I didn't hear him properly. He said refering to yourself too much makes you sound like an egomaniac, which is pretty straight forward.

k thanks.

In a way, that can apply to probably any language.

Where Japanese is concerned, I guess the forming of long sentences helps in this regard where you don't constantly say "I".

[Rogozhin]

Okay I have another question. Which would be more correct? グズを直したい　OR　グズを治したい？

The reason I ask is that I'm reading a novel titled グズをなおせば、人生はうまくいく and despite it having a lot of difficult kanji, it doesn't give a kanji for なおす. So I'm wondering which of the above would be more correct? I said 直す because 治す seems to apply more to medical conditions (eg.　病気を治す)

[Nagoyankee]

Originally Posted by Rogozhin

Okay I have another question. Which would be more correct? グズを直したい　OR　グズを治したい？

The reason I ask is that I'm reading a novel titled グズをなおせば、人生はうまくいく and despite it having a lot of difficult kanji, it doesn't give a kanji for なおす. So I'm wondering which of the above would be more correct? I said 直す because 治す seems to apply more to medical conditions (eg.　病気を治す)

I would choose the other kanji 治す for the same reason that you didn't choose it. Admittedly, I haven't read this book. But I feel from its title that the book discusses tardiness as a kind of a desease that can be cured if you do the things the book tells you to. Am I too far off in my conjecture so far? If not, 治す seems to fit better to me.

The other kanji 直す is mostly used to mean 'to correct mistakes' as in writing　and to repair what has gone wrong as in machines.

But then again, I'm open to other opinions on this one.