My Journey To Nihongo Mastry

professional sushi chef knife master

[megustajapan]

Beastars!! A japanese netflix show i just found, i highly recommend :)))

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

which country was it whose population was so intermarried they had to make an app to help people prevent from accidentally hooking up with their cousins 

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

Iceland

[kavesinisukka]

To be fair, they have like 360,000 people and don’t use surnames

[maybelia]

What do you mean they don’t use surnames???! How the fuck does that even work??

[kavesinisukka]

Their names are patronyms and matronym, meaning formed from their parents names. Like so: Luke Anakinsson and Leia Padmesdottir (Padme’s daughter). Phone books and other directories are organised by first name. I think it was only recently they allowed foreign immigrants to keep their last names once they got the nationality

[anarkissa]

You left out the best bit: while the convention is that males use patronyms and females matronyms, you can choose which parent you want to honour with the -nym; you could also be Luke Padmesson or Leia Anakinsdottir if you want.

Also just to point out that for many places, surnames are a relatively recent thing for most social strata. Patro/matronymics predate them in almost every part of Europe, and in many places surnames started out as patronymics. This is why you have all the surnames ending in -son/-sen in the UK and Scandinavia, -ex in Spanish, -vich (or a variation thereof) in Slavic languages, Mac- in Gaelic, O’- in Irish etc. All these are patronymics that predate the use of surnames.

Plus, the arrival of the surname is a very recent thing in many parts of Europe. In the Nordics, only people belonging to the estates (so nobility, clergy, bourgeoisie and land-owning peasantry, a small minority of the total population) had surnames before the 19th century. The vast majority of people would only have a first name, using either patro/matronymic (or in Finland the name of the house or village where they worked and lived) to distinguish themselves from those with the same name if needed. In Finland, people have been required by law to have a surname for only a century (exactly: the first law on surnames came into effect in 1920). Iceland never did that.

And ultimately, why should they? A surname is just a convention that people have at some point decided on – and one that emphasises your patrilinear family over you as an individual and the rest of your relatives.

[anarkissa]

Also, since I only now noticed one of the previous rebloggers observing in tags that the Icelandic system must be hard on non-binary people, I give you this further gem:

In 2019, changes were announced to the laws governing names. Given names will no longer be restricted by gender. Moreover, Icelanders who are officially registered with non-binary gender will be permitted to use the patro/matronymic suffix -bur (“child of”) instead of -son or -dóttir.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_name

[strangewomanwithanefariousagenda]

love the addition!

[classypolygot]

yea so what if you speak your target language with an heavy accent?? so what if you screw up grammar??? so what if you stutter and have to ask them to repeat themselves 20 times?? at least you’re speaking and guess what??? you’re doing better than the 40% of the world that only speaks one language so ig you’re pretty badass

[megustajapan]

Some useful words and a few practice conversations :)

(I’m still at the stage of writing in hiragana/ katakana with just a few kanji)

[megustajapan]

a japanese crossword !! haven’t come across these before this book (kanji from zero, i HIGHLY recommend)

[megustajapan]

starting to practice writing kanji not just reading it :)

any tips for learning stroke orders ?? 😬

[megustajapan]

just got this gorgeous ドラゴンボール comic and would really love some help translating it! i’m just starting out with my japanese so if anyone can comment a translation of even a few words i would be very grateful!

[megustajapan]

Just brushing up on my Japanese family structure :)

Any tips or helpful criticisms are fully welcome!

[megustajapan]

For any wanikani users out there I just discovered the wanikani accompanying app Tsurukame and its the best one I’ve come across so far!

As you can see it’s basically identical to the website and works perfectly with no ads or bugs, HIGHLY recommended :)

[megustajapan]

Just doing some quick translations :)

How’s my handwriting by the way? Any tips are welcome 😂

[megustajapan]

Using wanikani to learn kanji, love it so much its amazingggg, highly recommended :)

[megustajapan]

I changed my username :)

Ye so littlemissnihongo has become senseicassia so I hope this doesn’t confuse my 1 follower lol

[megustajapan]

Watching terrace house!! Such a great show, it’s really improved my japanese accent and pronounciatuon but also is just a fun show to watch :)

[megustajapan]

Just practicing my い adjective forms, I’m still just writing in hiragana but any tips on my handwriting or any corrections are fully welcome! As always I’m open to chatting with you guys about your japanese learning experiences and tips :)