Japanese Language

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ようこそJapaneseLanguageへ！日本語に興味を持てば、どうぞ登録して勉強しましょう！日本語に関係するどのテーマ、質問でも大歓迎します。 This is a community dedicated to the Japanese language. Feel free to come in and ask questions or post your thoughts and opinions about this beautiful language.

Feel free to check out the web archive of r/LearnJapanese's resources if you're looking for more learning material or tools to aid you in your Japanese language journey!

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~{漢字|かんじ}~ which comes out as:

{漢字|かんじ}

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DigitalAudio@sopuli.xyz

is this how you directly address the person in Japanese? (sopuli.xyz)

submitted 1 month ago by maniel@sopuli.xyz to c/japaneselanguage@sopuli.xyz

4 comments fedilink hide all child comments

maybe it's another Duolingo bullshit they push upon us or maybe a typical thing in Japanese? namely in phrases like けんさんは二年生ですか it could mean both "Is Ken a second year student?" and (according to duolingo) "are you a ~~second year student~~sophomore, Ken?" how do i know if it's directly addressing the person? which is which?

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[–] PonyOfWar@pawb.social 10 points 1 month ago

It's a pretty normal thing in Japanese, yes. You'd know from context which meaning it is based on who you're talking to.

[–] muhyb@programming.dev 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

If you are talking to someone asking about Ken, it's the first. If you are talking to Ken, it's the second.

[–] 1Fuji2Taka3Nasubi@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

If you are Ken, you have amnesia.

(Yes, it is possible to refer to oneself by name, but it would be quite awkward / weird if one do it in real life.)

[–] Binette@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I'm not a fluent speaker, but I'm pretty sure it depends on who is being talked to. Like if you're talking to someone else, it would mean the first one, and if you're talking to Ken, it would mean the second one.

In text though, it would give you context for you to guess who is talking to who. For example, someone could ask the question, and in the next line, Ken answers. Or maybe only this person and Ken are in the room.

Edit: autocorrect