Gábor's blog

i have been learning japanese for 2-3 years (with bigger/smaller breaks), and the mistery of when to use WA and when GA, and what’s the difference between them kept eluding me. i’ve read a lot of examples, and i had a vague feeling about what it should mean and how it should work, but never had a clear understanding of it.

until today, when i have read part 2 of darkmirage’s japanese lessons.

generally darkmirage’s japanese lessons are very unique, because he approaches the japanese language from an anime-centric point of view. his example sentences and explanations all use terms that are known to an anime fan. so it’s always interesting to read his lessons, even if you already know the topic the lesson is about.

now back to WA/GA.

these 2 dialogues from the mentioned blog post made it clear for me:

> Person A: “tama-nee wa kami ga akakute nagai desu” (Tama-nee has red long hair) > Person B: “ashi ga nagai desu” (Her legs are long) > Me: “mune ga ookii desu!” (Her……nevermind)

> Person A: “doraemon wa ashi ga hikui desu” (Doraemon’s legs are short) > Person B: “konomi-chan mo hikui desu” (Konomi-chan’s legs are short too) > Me: “tama-nee wa nagai desu” (Tama-nee’s legs are long)

make sure to read the whole article, and also the other lessons

EDIT: it seems this topic is a lot more complicated

this completely describes my opinion:

http://anime.miao.us/archives/2006/01/29/568/

my last promise :))

rightstuf had a christmas special price for the evangelion (the original, not the remastered) boxed set (around 40 dollars instead of the 150dollar standard price).

so i ordered 2 boxes (the second one for a friend of mine).
i ordered them in december 2004.

the invoice arrived in 2 months, but the package did not :(

i contacted righstuf and they sent me a new package.
this time the package arrived (it arrived a month before)

i got it, my friend got his part, everyone was happy ;)

but this week (!!!) i got also the original package.

now what?

i wrote back to rightstuf about what should i do…
they told me to send it back, and they will credit back the shipping cost.

that’s not cool for several reasons:

• to get the package, i had to pay the VAT for the value of the package + for the shipping. that means about 25dollars. compare that to the 80dollar price of the two christmas priced boxed sets.
• my friend told me that someone would like to buy that boxed set if possible.

so i wrote again to rightstuf, with the following:

i asked them if they credit me back also the VAT i had to pay.
or, alternatively, if i can buy the package (for the christmas price).

i did not get their reply yet (understandable, because it’s weekend).

let’s wait and see ;)

still workin on the promised stuff :)

i bought five volumes of xxxholic (image from amazon.com)

why this one?

i somehow found it, and i loved the drawing style :)

then i downloaded some scanlations (fan made japanese->english translated versions) from it, read volume1 from the scanlation, and decided that i want to read all of it.

and i’m also learning japanese, so i thought it’s a gread opportunity…

so i bought 5volumes from amazon.co.jp :)

even finding the right books was problematic ;)

so i went to sasugabooks, looked up “xxxholic”, and cut&pasted the ISBN codes from here into the search box at amazon.co.jp ;)) (it’s usually cheaper (here in europe) to order directly from japan)

for reading it i usually make a photocopy of it, and work with those. it’s better to work with copies, because:

• they’re bigger (A4, the manga is A5)
• i can write translations/comments/notes on the paper

there’s no furigana. i thought that it would be a big problem, but it is not.

looking up unknown kanji is not hard with good tools ( i use a canon g50 and an osx-dictionary based on jim breen’s edict).

the sentences are the problem :)

sometimes i can quickly translate a whole page, when the sentences are simple.

but sometimes i get to a complicated sentence and i wrestle for it with hours :)

to tell the truth, i am translatin/reading volume 2. and i have the scanlations for volume2 and volume3. so after i translate a page, i can compare my translation with the scanlated one. usually (always) the scanlated one is better :)

is someone asked me why i like anime so much, probably this picture would be a part of my answer.

episode 3 of Trinity Blood happens in Budapest (capitol of Hungary( a country in Europe)):

read more…

(they’re from tsukihime )

well, not a full manga… only the first…ehmmm..how is it called? window? picture? quarter-page?

anyway, here is the picture (click for the bigger version):

it’s from the melty blood anthology manga:
(again, click for the bigger version)

, which is a doujinshi happening in the tsukihime universe.

why this manga?

1. i love the tsukihime universe…
2. i’ve seen a FANTASTIC picture from this manga:

allright, let’s go back to the manga picture…

the text is:

ふう。。。なんとか死徒を倒すことができたな。。。

imho ふう means something like ‘phew’..

let’s look at the rest:

• なんとか: somehow; anyhow; one way or another;
• 死徒: this took me a loooong time to figure out:
  • the original word is 使徒 【しと】: apostle; disciple
  • but in tsukihime, these people are the followers of the vampires, so they are called ‘dead apostles’. for this reason, the first kanji of ‘apostle’ is changed to the kanji for dying: 死 . yes, it’s a pun
• 倒す 【たおす】 : to throw down; to beat; to bring down; to blow down; to fell; to knock down; to trip up; to defeat; to ruin; to overthrow; to kill; to leave unpaid; to cheat;
• こと が できた is the past form of こと が できる, which means to-be-able-to-do-something
  • to be precise, the word できる means: 出来る 【できる】 : (uk) to be able to; to be ready; to occur
  • and this VERB+こと が できる is a form used to express that one is able to do VERB
• な modifies the sentence to give it a ‘feel’ of seeking confirmation

(translations from the wonderful wwwjdic project)

so my translation:

ふう。。。なんとか死徒を倒すことができたな。。。

phew, we somehow managed to beat this dead apostle, didn’t we?

Which Generic Anime Character Are You?

i’m an extra :((

there HAS TO BE a problem with that questionnaire-program ;)

(something from rec.arts.anime.misc)