Step 1 of 「伝える力」 が伸びる! 12歳までに知っておきたい語彙力図鑑 focuses on teaching you synonyms for words you would typically use to describe your emotions. There are synonyms for words like やばい, エモい, and the like. This particular post will focus on the information that they've given about やばい。
The book also ranks the words' difficulty level, with 1 star being an "of course you know this" to 5 stars being "even adults probably don't know this and you're about to blow them away with your vocabulary and make them pull out their dictionary." Because of this, you may see words that you encountered quickly as a Japanese learner (that a native speaker 12 year old may not have encountered yet) and vice versa on the list below.
やばい
Because やばい is a word that can be used to express nearly any emotion (much like how OMG can be used in many contexts in American English), the book did also make sure to put the contexts in which the alternative word would be appropriate.
危うい (あやうい)- dangerous; in danger; facing imminent danger ❖This is to be used when dangerous situations are imminent. The way they described it was "危険が迫っている状態"
▶︎Their example: 危うい所でピンチを脱出した。
危険 (きけん)- dangerous; risky; uncertain; precarious; in danger
❖This is to be used when a situation may lead to not-so-good/dangerous outcomes.
▶︎Their example: そんなに高い所からジャンプしたら、危険だよ。
驚異的 (きょういてき)- wonderful; astounding; marvelous
❖This is to be used when something passes a level of surprise that you can express.
▶︎Their example: 大谷選手の達成した記録は驚異的だ。
最高 (さいこう)- best; supreme; wonderful; highest; maximum; supreme
❖This is to be used when describing something of the highest status/dignity/ranking. (This is relative in comparison to other things.)
▶︎Their example: 夏休みに友達と見に行った映画が、最高に面白かった。
素晴らしい (すばらしい)- wonderful; splendid; magnificent
❖ This is used to describe something that's elegant/praiseworthy/splendid, things that are desirable, and things that admirable.
▶︎Their example: 富士山の山頂から眺める景色は、息をのむほどに素晴らしい。
Yojijukugo (四字熟語)
This section also includes four-character compound idioms (yojijukugo) that can be associated with the word we're focusing on expanding our vocabulary from.
絶体絶命 (ぜったいぜつめい)- desperate situation with no escape; being driven into a corner; being cornered; last extremity
❖ You would use this when you find yourself in a situation that there's no conceivable way you could think of making it out in the way that you truly desire.
▶︎Apparently you can use it in phrases like this 「絶体絶命のピンチ」
BONUS: I found an example online that also uses it to mean "stalemate" and the example is a cop and a suspect both pointing a gun at each other.
最上無二 (さいじょうむに)- there is nothing else like it in this world; it's an unparalleled marvel
❖They listed this one at 5 stars (aka, the adults are gonna be surprised that you know this and also go look it up) and I can certainly see why--I couldn't find any official English translations of it. Here's the definition the book gave: この世に二つとなく、最もすばらしいこと。「最上」は最もすぐれていること、「無二」は同じ物がないことを意味するよ。
SOMEONE PLEASE CORRECT ME IF MY UNDERSTANDING OF THIS LAST YOJIJUKUGO IS INCORRECT SO THAT I CAN LEARN IT PROPERLY!! I BESEECH THEE!! I IMPLORE YOU!!
Anyways, the next post will be alternatives words for かわいい and エグい
a fellow japanese learning friend told me there's 2 major "weed-out" learning curves to japanese, and that's 1) learning hiragana and katakana and the 2) learning kanji.
but I propose that there's a 3rd difficult learning curve and that's when you're in what I've called The Intermediate Soup where you don't have any specific thing to work on anymore but you know that you aren't There Yet
How To Read and Understand Japanese Sentences (Part 2)
To catch who is doing what; who is the main subject and who is being affected by the action; you have to pay attention to the particles.
When a person is followed by the particle は such as (田中さんは…), the speaker is trying to tell you about Mr. Tanaka.
In other situations where the speaker wants to emphasize that IT IS Mr. Tanaka who did something, the particle が would be used instead (田中さんが…)
When an object is followed by the particle を, you know the subject is doing something to this object. If I say ご飯を…, you know the subject is going to do something to the meal. Whether he is eating a meal or cooking a meal, that... you have to read the verb at the end of the sentence.
In Japanese sentences, you will never know what happened to the object or what the subject did to the object until you read the verb at the end. For instance, if I say ドレスを…, the subject could wear a dress, buy a dress, draw a picture of a dress, sew a dress, or even steal a dress, etc. There are many possibilities to what the subject could do to a dress in that sentence. As a reader, you would never know until you see the verb at the end.
And to make a simple sentence longer, Japanese people would add extra details to describe about the subject or/and the object. Let's take a look at this simple sentence below.
女の子はドレスを着ています。
The little girl wears a dress.
This is the most basic sentence structure of Subject+Object+Verb.
You have no idea where this girl comes from, what kind of dress she is wearing, what colour is the dress, etc. Now, let's make it longer.
隣に住んでいる女の子は、先週の誕生日に私からもらったかわいいピンクのドレスを着ています。
The little girl who lives next door wears a cute pink dress which she received from me as a present on her birthday last week.
Now, you have a better image in your head about the little girl and the dress she is wearing. It enhances your imagination about the character and the storyline.
Let's take another sentence.
姉はチーズケーキを食べました。
My elder sister ate a cheesecake.
Again, there is very little to feel and imagine from this short sentence. Let's make it longer by adding some details about the cake.
姉は父が仕事の後、家に帰る途中で私のために買ってきたチーズケーキをうっかり食べてしまいました。
My elder sister accidentally ate the cheesecake that my father bought for me on his way home after work.
Now, you could feel the sadness and disappointment of the speaker towards the elder sister of what she did. And you also know where that cheesecake came from.
Pictophonetic: 敬 represents the sound (pinyin jìng | jing4), 馬 (horse) represents the meaning
Also Ideographic: Awe 敬 (awe, respect), but in a spooked way 馬 (horse)
This kanji originally only meant to frighten/to startle - horses are notoriously skittish and easily startled, hence the choice of 馬 as the meaning component.
Small wins are being able to work out prefectures names in articles because I recognise half of the kanji and also know the kanji for 県(けん = prefecture)
i'm taking the jlpt this sunday and had a stress dream last night abt it bc it sort of snuck up on me and now it's kind of a question of how much my actual japanese abilities will carry me (versus if i should've been cramming on flashcards this past month) but the listening portion is far simpler conversation than my coworkers and i have so. i think that maybe instead of "damn i should've been studying japanese" my perspective should just be "i speak japanese"
It's literally fine. I've been through this soooo many times and I never died because of attending classes, even if I didn't bring shit. And I will bring something to that class! And I'll ask for more writing tips because I think they're pretty useful!
And if anything, I have a pocketful of excuses. And just, legitimately freaking out and making the prof feel bad is also on the table
And he'll probably be late and let me out early. And it's literally fine.
Considering taking plushie Axciss with me and placing him in my lap for moral support but also he'll very much see him if I do that, which idk if I want to happen