Hi RPD, this is a story written from the perspective of a cat. It's one of Japan's most famous novels, written by Natsume Soseki. Most Japanese people read it in school, and I'd bet you would be hardpressed to find a person who grew up in Japan who doesn't know the first two sentences of this work: 吾輩は猫である。名前はまだない。
This is amazing. How you pulled this off, so soon after my request, is beyond me. Thank you so so much. Now I also understand the word 書生. I couldn't find it. In the book there is I think it is called ふりがな next to the word 家 (うち) and I wondered why, because this seems to be easy kanji to me. In a other post "Nr 31 Light and dark" you mentioned okurigana, what is the difference between furigana and okurigana? Because maybe うち after 家 is actually okurigana? Reading those little pieces is really really helpful, because I have noticed how frequently the same words, sentences structures and grammar come back. It also gets you more thinking in Japanese. Like in your very first post 1: "I was given the name Hajime" I now know how to say :"when I was born" and what name I was given. The sentences in literature are not like anything in my textbook (which is Genki I by the way) and though they are very useful to learn the grammar, vocabulary and so on, you often want to be able to say more. I think it's true about what you said to keep it simple, but doing this and still being able to express yourself fully is difficult, but your posts are little gems in helping me/ us achieve this. So again thank you so much.
Haha I simply pick a book from my shelf everyday to write my posts and I saw your comment right before that. I think 家 has the furigana うち because you can also read it as いえ. In this case, Soseki wrote うち next to the kanji to make sure the reader read it in this particular way. Furigana is the kana next to a kanji to indicate its reading; okurigana is the kana following the kanji of verbs, etc. For example, the okurigana for 食べる is べる.
Yes, I agree. Textbooks are helpful but limited. They're always comprised of artificial language. The idea behind this newsletter is that it is an accessible way to read 'real' literature in language that lives and breaths.
Hi! What is the context behind this text? Just this excerpt, it's quite mysterious. Thanks for your work BTW ^^
Hi RPD, this is a story written from the perspective of a cat. It's one of Japan's most famous novels, written by Natsume Soseki. Most Japanese people read it in school, and I'd bet you would be hardpressed to find a person who grew up in Japan who doesn't know the first two sentences of this work: 吾輩は猫である。名前はまだない。
This is amazing. How you pulled this off, so soon after my request, is beyond me. Thank you so so much. Now I also understand the word 書生. I couldn't find it. In the book there is I think it is called ふりがな next to the word 家 (うち) and I wondered why, because this seems to be easy kanji to me. In a other post "Nr 31 Light and dark" you mentioned okurigana, what is the difference between furigana and okurigana? Because maybe うち after 家 is actually okurigana? Reading those little pieces is really really helpful, because I have noticed how frequently the same words, sentences structures and grammar come back. It also gets you more thinking in Japanese. Like in your very first post 1: "I was given the name Hajime" I now know how to say :"when I was born" and what name I was given. The sentences in literature are not like anything in my textbook (which is Genki I by the way) and though they are very useful to learn the grammar, vocabulary and so on, you often want to be able to say more. I think it's true about what you said to keep it simple, but doing this and still being able to express yourself fully is difficult, but your posts are little gems in helping me/ us achieve this. So again thank you so much.
Haha I simply pick a book from my shelf everyday to write my posts and I saw your comment right before that. I think 家 has the furigana うち because you can also read it as いえ. In this case, Soseki wrote うち next to the kanji to make sure the reader read it in this particular way. Furigana is the kana next to a kanji to indicate its reading; okurigana is the kana following the kanji of verbs, etc. For example, the okurigana for 食べる is べる.
Yes, I agree. Textbooks are helpful but limited. They're always comprised of artificial language. The idea behind this newsletter is that it is an accessible way to read 'real' literature in language that lives and breaths.