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Allow Gaps in your Japanese Knowledge — 14 Comments

  1. Yep, I can definitely relate to this, except I DO know a fair amount of basic high school math/physics terms in Japanese by now, e.g.,
    公理- axiom
    重力- gravity
    交差点- intersection point
    万有引力の規則- law of universal gravitation (lit. attraction)
    集合- set (in mathematics)
    電位- electric potential

    In fact, I’ve known all of these for a while now.
    On the other hand, just the other day I was reading a somewhat 日常 manga and found
    補欠- substitute (in a sport’s team)
    and had no idea what it meant :p.

    P.S.: In fact, trying to learn how to read math terms in Japanese without learning them in school is such a pain… It took me forever, for instance, to be sure that 値 is read あたい, since you can’t exactly expect math discussions to come with furigana…

    • Well you just taught me some new words.

      There are surprisingly a number of math-themed J-dramas, anime, and manga out there. You might want to check them out.

      • Wow. There really are dramas about everything. I really want to watch that first one. I don’t have any maths vocab though

        • That’s the great thing about Japanese TV. Everyone can find something that meets whatever wild tastes they have. These shows will help you pick up that math vocabulary.

  2. The one that got me really recently, and that felt particularly inexcusable, was when a Japanese tourist to Seattle asked what I did for a job.

    As it turns out, I’d never needed to say what I do (Software Engineer in Test) in Japanese prior to that point, and it’s not like I was ordering my professional literature in Japanese (rethinking that now!).

    The next random encounter, I called myself a ソフト技師契約者. Imprecise, since there’s no “In Test”, but close enough until the boss fight: interviewing for a Technology role in Japan… which needs keigo more than arcane Tech terms.

  3. At least I’ll know so many legal terms thanks to 逆転裁判…

    Incidentally, for me it was also a source of courtroom-related terms in English. And they say video games don’t teach you anything!

  4. Not exactly a gap, but I struggle a lot with Numbers and Japanese Dates. I have to stare at the page for some time adding X years to 1988 for 平成. Any suggestions? Should I start doing maths and writing dates in Japanese? XD

    • Personally, I’d say if you don’t have a pressing need for it, you can just let it sink in naturally. How often do you run into 平成 dates in the wild? For me it’s pretty much never, but if you’re seeing them a lot, then it might be worth dedicating a bit of time to =)

    • My way of doing it is establishing and remembering one important date for the time period. For example, my birthday is on 昭和60年 which is 1985 so since it is easy to remember my birthday, I can just calculate dates around that date.

      For 平成 I know that this year, 2015 is 平成27. Easy to remember as 2015 sticks to the multiple of 5 I’ve got going with my birthday.

      So basically, that’s my advice.

    • Thanks Matt and Kure
      So for this century I’ll choose 平成25 (something happened…). For last century I’ll go with 昭和25 (1950 mid-century) since I don’t think 昭和 system is used to refer to present dates .
      I also think I should try to stop “translating” dates and numbers to Arabic Numerals. Its like translating Japanese to English.

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