Sudo's Journal (A writing practice!)

[SudoNymm]

In the spirit of the lovely Haruna’s super neat daily diary that she writes to give us reading practice, I decided I wanted to do a little writing practice in Japanese, and perhaps be a little more social while I’m at it. While this is more of a “when I feel like it” thing than a daily thing, I hope it will improve my writing skills over time!

Of course, feel free to correct me when things don’t look right or seem very unnatural! I’m an amateur at best so… well, I’m sure you all understand.

This journal might be about my day or random thoughts I am having, I suppose we’ll see! I guess I’ll start with a self introduction.

2024年1月9日 火曜日

こんにちは、私はスドです！ 実際にスドは苗字じゃありません、古いコンピューター洒落があるのハンドルネームだけですよ。しかし、日本の苗字の音がありますから時々日本人はちょっと混乱になりますよね。

今は大学で心理学を勉強していますけど、医学の医者になりたい。医大の入学を資格を有したいから、いつも大変勉強するね。めちゃくちゃ疲れたけど、私は事が出来るよ！私の大学の点は大丈夫でしょうけど、一番怖い事は医大入学試験。心理の試験ですから、勉強は簡単じゃなくて、所々無理だよ！

まあ、私の猫について、三匹があります！全部大好きですから、もし写真を見てとても嬉しいです！

ルーシオです。Sometimes known as “Lucio the Ladykiller” for being ridiculously photogenic.

チャイカーです。Tchaika is the clear matriarch of this cat family. 猫パンチするのが上手！！

ストラービーです (Stravi)。ストラービーは二つ脳の細胞がある猫ですので、全部はとても懸命に働いていますよ！

日記を読んでいて、ありがとうございます！

[Jose7822]

いいアイディアだと思う👍。また、猫は全部可愛いね!

In the interest of time, because I need to get other things done before I go to work, I’ll write the rest in English (I’m not very fast at typing in Japanese just yet). The most obvious mistakes I noticed are related to mixing politeness levels. For example:

Sometimes you’re too polite:

「しかし、日本の苗字の音がありますから」here you’re using ます form before から, which is not common and I believe would only be used if you’re trying to be extra polite in your usage of 敬語.

Other times, you’re very casual:

「心理の試験ですから、勉強は簡単じゃなくて、所々無理だよ！」like in this sentence where you end it with だよ (which is friendly/informal) after using ですから, which is a higher level of politeness.

Remember that in Japanese, the level of politeness is determined by the ending verb, so it is more common to have everything before it be written in Plain form 「あるから、だから、etc」before ending the phrase with the desired level. But also, you want to be consistent throughout your writing.

That was the most glaring thing I noticed. The others where minor, like using the verb ある on your cats, where you should have used いる instead. I was able to understand everything you wrote otherwise, so good job . This is how you improve, so keep at it!!

[SudoNymm]

Thank you so much for taking the time to explain this! I learned a lot of my base Japanese in an extremely haphazard manner (mainly by stumbling into Japan and attempting survival lol) so it’s not a surprise to hear that my politeness levels are all over the place. I didn’t know it was the ending verb specifically that determined it, but it’s very good to know! Unfortunately, when I ask my Japanese contacts if my politeness level is correct, I tend to get answers like “Oh don’t worry, you’re a foreigner, so people won’t worry!” Which is very sweet, but hasn’t quite helped me fix the problem.

For a public journal like this, is there a standard politeness level you would recommend?

ある and いる have struck again I see lol. Need to pay more attention. Glad everything was understandable though! I’ll think about your advice carefully when writing the next entry!

[Rukifellth]

Solid overall! Nice!
For and article like this, specifically referring to writing practice, why not try a theme with each post?
for example sometimes have a casual themed post, an informative themed post (using keigo), or a post talking about public speaking (Which would be what i refer to as super keigo, because i haven’t bothered to memorize the correct name)

頑張って！

[Jose7822]

@SudoNymm

For a public journal like this, is there a standard politeness level you would recommend?

Basically what you were using (丁寧語, which is your standard です and ます form) is fine. That said, I like the idea of having the flexibility to change it based on the topic. That way you practice the difference politeness levels in your writings. However, it probably won’t be practical outside of standard politeness and friendly speech.

[SudoNymm]

@Rukifellth

For and article like this, specifically referring to writing practice, why not try a theme with each post?
for example sometimes have a casual themed post, an informative themed post (using keigo), or a post talking about public speaking (Which would be what i refer to as super keigo, because i haven’t bothered to memorize the correct name)

Thank you!

That sounds like a great idea! Though, the keigo and super keigo might need to wait for a while, as I’ve no idea where to start on those (haven’t learnt them). I will try to vary between casual life posts and polite informative posts for now though!

頑張ります！

@Jose7822

Basically what you were using (丁寧語, which is your standard です and ます form) is fine. That said, I like the idea of having the flexibility to change it based on the topic. That way you practice the difference politeness levels in your writings. However, it probably won’t be practical outside of standard politeness and friendly speech.

It might end up being practical in future oddly enough, as if I manage to become a medical doctor here (or a neuropsych if med school falls through), practicing in Japan might be on the cards (though it depends on many factors).

[Jose7822]

@SudoNymm

It might end up being practical in future oddly enough, as if I manage to become a medical doctor here (or a neuropsych if med school falls through), practicing in Japan might be on the cards (though it depends on many factors).

That would be great . Hopefully that’s something you can do (practice medicine in Japan).

As for 敬語 (けいご), you probably don’t realize that you’re already using it. In fact, 敬語 (more specifically, 丁寧語 = ていねいご) is what everyone learns in the beginning of their Japanese journey with the です and ます forms. This is the standard polite speech. The familiar speech, typically used with friends and family, is called タメ口 (ためぐち).

What makes 敬語 confusing is that there are 3 types:

丁寧語 (ていねいご) = Polite speech.
尊敬語 (そんけいご) = Honorific speech.
謙譲語 (けんじょうご) = Humble speech.

These different forms of 敬語 are based on who you are talking to/about.

As you know, Polite speech is the default when you’re addressing people who are older than you and are not part of your inner circle. That’s the general rule, but as always there are exceptions (at least outside of a professional environment, which is what I’m referring to here).

Honorific speech is the default in a work environment when addressing your equals and your superiors. And Humble speech is the default in a work environment when talking about yourself. That’s why these two wouldn’t fit in the context of an article, because it’s not a work environment. At least I think it would sound weird in this context, with the exception of quotations, where you might include what you told your boss or something like that.

In short, this is basically why earlier in this thread I said that it would only be practical to use 丁寧語 or タメ口 in the context of a diary/article like this. Because of the people you’re addressing here.

Apologies for the long answer. You probably already knew all of this, but I wanted to be clear that we were on the same page, just in case.

Take care!

[SudoNymm]

I actually did not know this (or at least a lot of it) and I appreciate the long answer a lot. I understood “casual” and “polite”, but my ex always complained about having to use 敬語 with his immigration lawyer when texting her and about how hard it was (he’s a native JP speaker, but not much of a talker), so I assumed it was a totally different thing than です/ます rather than those themselves being in a category of 敬語.

The context in which I learned a lot of my Japanese was from fractured nihonglish spoken at home for years, and then my desperate attempts to communicate with my ex’s 関西弁 family, many of whom had hyperactive type ADHD. Fun as all hell, but the exercise was something like trying to catch bullets. As such, there are just… weird gaps in my ability. I’ll spit out words like 解剖学 one moment but then be unable to comprehend some basic grammar. That’s why I appreciate that you went to the effort to spell it out!

Thanks heaps~

[SudoNymm]

2024年1月12日 金曜日

今回は日記にタメ口で書きたいよー

今日は面白くなかったから、沢山初歩の日本語文法を勉強した。私の初歩文法は頻りにグラグラので、いつも話の時に間違い活用形を作っているよ。友達は変な言葉使いを大抵分かって来た。しかし、私は話し方のが上手になりたい。

今は、日本語で話より書き込みの方がまだ楽。恐らく、ゆっくり考えることが出来るから。

[Jose7822]

Nice! Now you wrote in a consistent manner .

Here are a few corrections:

• グラグラ is a Na-adjective, so な is needed after it: グラグラなので.

• Even though 間違い is a Noun, it’s better to use the verb version in order to describe the Noun that follows: 間違った活用形.

• In this sentence: 「友達は変な言葉使いを大抵分かって来た」use the が particle for the verb 分かる.

• Also concerning the previous sentence, normally you don’t use Kanji in grammar points like てくる. There’s one exception to this rule where using the Kanji or not makes a difference in meaning, but I can’t recall which grammar it is right now. It’s just a matter of ひらがな being more common in this case. Nothing major.

• In this sentence: 「しかし、私は話し方のが上手になりたい。」the particle の is not needed. I also would’ve used でも over しかし, but that might be a preference thing. I feel like しかし might be a tad polite for the feel you’re going for, but I could be wrong.

• And in this sentence: 「今は、日本語で話より書き込みの方がまだ楽」it should be 話すより since you’re comparing speaking (the verb) to writing, and also I personally would’ve ended it with 楽だ, but that’s me.

Anyway, those are my observations. Keep up the good work!!

[SudoNymm]

Man, you’ve got a really good eye for this stuff, thank you for taking the time to help out! After I have a sleep, I’ll meditate a bit on the corrections.

Gotta catch those pesky な形容詞 who keep running off without their な.