JREF Lessons

[Damicci]

Would be hard or unthinkable for us to post lessons we are studying to help other people?
EX

Use the Correct Particles for the following sentences:

1.) Mark san wa Tanaka san ____ kore ___agemashita.

2.) Watakushi ____ ocha ____ kudasai.

3.) Mary san wa keikan ____ michi ____ kikimasu.

Then peolpe can post what they think the correct particles should be.
Has this been done before? :?

[Damicci]

Answers:

1.) ni, (wo)o
2.) ni, o
3.) ni, o

[GaijinPunch]

The only problem I find with this is I absolutely HATE fill in the blank questions in japanese...any language for that matter, but especially this one. The idea in general is good... I just always protest when it comes to these types of questions.

Other ideas:
-short paragraph + short answer questions
-short paragraph with errors... reader has to fix the errors.

[Damicci]

Ah I have some of those in my Lesson books we could do that. Type up the short story and then put in the question like true or false or add the missing grammar from the story.I like those better as it kinda helps with reading and comprehension. I am up for posting one of those a week.

[Damicci]

ＥＩＧＡ　＝　Ｍｏｖｉｅｓ
Ｐｌｅａｓｅ　ｒｅａｄ　ｔｈｅ　ｄｉａｏｇｕｅ．
Ｍａｒy： Donna eiga o mitai desu ka.
Mark: Moshi Nihon no eiga o mitara, wakarimasen.
Mary: Soredewa, onsei ga orijinaru no Amerika eiga o mita hou ga ii deshou.
Mark: Hoteru no chikaku de, Amerika eiga o yatte imasu.
Mary: Sore wa(ha) subarashii. Ikimashou.
(AT THE MOVIE THEATER.)
Mary: Mae no hou ni, suwarimashou.
Mark: Tama ni eigo o kiku no mo, ii desu ne.
Mary: Tashika ni. Kite yokatta desu.
Mark: Keredomo, ken wa monosugoku takai deshita.
Mary: A, sore wa daremo ga iu you ni, koko ga Nihon dakara desu yo.

True or False
1.) Mark san wa Nihon no eiga o mitai deshita.
2.) Mark san to Mary san wa mae no hou ni suwarimashita.
3.) Hoteru no chikaku de Amerika eiga ga arimasen deshita.
4.) Ken wa monosugoku takai dewa arimasen deshita.
5.) Mark san wa Nihon no eiga o wakarimasen.

Ganbatte.

[McCrutch67]

I enjoyed that a lot. It was fun to slowly get some parts that I couldn't get at first. The only things I couldn't figure out were what exactly does "kite yokatta" mean and what is "mae no hou"? I've heard yokatta and seen it translated as "thank goodness" which makes sense but what is the "kite". "mae no hou" must be a set phrase I haven't heard enough or something like that. "hou" can be used strangely and "mae" can be a little vague too so I'm not sure what to think about it. I understand how "hou" is used in "x hou ga ii" and things like that so it can't be that hard.

[Damicci]

I tried researching it and I came up with "Further out front" which makes more sense when used in this context. Hope this helps.

P.S. I mad eup the True or false questions so let me know if you guys see any mistakes.

[GaijinPunch]

"mae no hou" is that "hou" which... uh... kind of marks a place in this context. Basicallymeans in front/front of.

te form of a verb + yokatta is usually translated as. "I'm glad [verb] happened". The subject is usually implied. So it could be "Glad you/he/I came". FYI -- yokatta is past tense of yoi which means "good".

[Damicci]

In the dialouge it is supposed to be translated to "It certainly is good to hear" So I am guessing they made a mistake on the romaji for 来て　instead of 聞いて。 I o'course didn't pick that up.

I will the post the answers this friday, and if no one else wants to try to add a new lesson then i'll be happy to do another one.

[orochi]

Is that passage actually from a textbook/workbook? It's pretty unnatural-sounding Japanese.

[Damicci]

Yes it is from a text book. But the speakers are supposed to be people visiting Japan. So maybe they were trying to make it sounds that way.

[Elizabeth]

"mae no hou" is that "hou" which... uh... kind of marks a place in this context. Basicallymeans in front/front of.
You could also use 前部 for "in/towards the front." I really don't know any other way to put it. :relief:

[GaijinPunch]

In the dialouge it is supposed to be translated to "It certainly is good to hear"

I definitely should've read more of it then. :) For listen/hear, the "i" is long though.

[Elizabeth]

I definitely should've read more of it then. :) For listen/hear, the "i" is long though.
The yokatta would be "It certainly was good to hear" which makes the English even more bizarre than unnatural Japanese. Plus all that part of the dialogue after would have to come after the film had ended. I vote it sounds better as the copy editor's 誤訳. :-)

[Damicci]

Answers:
True or False
1.) Mark san wa Nihon no eiga o mitai deshita. False
2.) Mark san to Mary san wa mae no hou ni suwarimashita. True
3.) Hoteru no chikaku de Amerika eiga ga arimasen deshita. False
4.) Ken wa monosugoku takai dewa arimasen deshita. False
5.) Mark san wa Nihon no eiga o wakarimasen. True

Would anyone else like to post up a lesson?

[Damicci]

I just wanted to add that you guys were definately right about the dialogue, My friend said it doesn't sound standard either. She is not sure why the book would use such strange japanese.

So I asked her to find me a better book. :p

[Damicci]

New Lesson:
Whats wrong with these sentences.
1.) Jon san wa, Tokyo wo ikimasu.
2.) Watashi ni ima tsukimashita.
3.) Jim san wa daigakusei da. demo, watashi mo daigakuseijanai.
4.) Kore no Yamanote Sen desuka.
5.) karera wa go ji goro ni deta to omoimasu. (This is still a difficult for me)

[Damicci]

Some one may also want to correct me on these.

My answers: Corrections in red errors underlined
Whats wrong with these sentences.
1.) Jon san wa, Tokyo wo ni ikimasu.
2.) Watashi ni wa ima tsukimashita.
3.) Jim san wa daigakusei da. demo, watashi mo wa daigakuseijanai.
4.) Kore no wa Yamanote Sen desuka.
5.) karera wa ga go ji goro ni de deta to omoimasu. (This is still a difficult for me)

[McCrutch67]

I was thinking "daigakusei desu" but then the "demo" wouldn't make sense. Besides that, the only thing I forgot was the "de". I guess you use "de" for "at" when talking about time?

[Damicci]

Yeah I still have a difficult time with ni and de when referring to time.

I think of it as
de specifies a specific period of time
[They left around 5 o clock]

ni specifies a quantity of time an action is performed
[they are leaving in about 15 minutes]