Even Henya is Confused by the Japanese language

[@wraithwrecker_]

I could listen to Henya talk about language forever. She's so fucking funny.

[@dead-claudia]

I could listen to talk about language forever.

[@lerneanlion]

Henya has such loving parents.

[@bjkrz]

One animal not is not ichi-hiki. It's ippiki : ). Poor Henya getting gaslit by chat, though. Rabbits are indeed "wa" 羽 ("feathers"). "to" is an archaic counter for rabbits that Japanese people would rarely use. 一兎 "itto", one rabbit. "二兎" "ni-to" two rabbits. 二兎を追う者は一兎をも得ず "if you run after two hares you will catch neither​". If you count rabbits with hiki 匹 though, you'll be just fine. Japanese people do this too. In some cases they might also be counted as "tou" (rhymes with "go", but with a long "o"), 頭 "head". 3 heads of rabbits. (Like a "head of cattle" in English).

[@TakoChicane]

Speaking of numbers, there’s one weird thing, which I, a Japanese speaker, didn’t even realize until my professor once told me. When you count from 1 to 10 in Japanese, it’s like this: ichi, ni, san, shi, go, roku, shichi, hachi, kyū, jyū. But when you count down, it becomes: jyū, kyū, hachi, “nana”, roku, go, “yon”, san, ni, ichi. While it’s fine to use “yon” and “nana” when you count up, you just can’t use “shi” and “shichi” when counting down. Reason? To mess around with learners of course (NO)

[@nightlydata2181]

idk bout "shichi" but "shi" has the kanji for death in jp. That same kanji is a loan kanji from china & "yo"/"yon" R more native to jp so it might have somethin to do wit that but I'm not a jp speaker yet so grain of salt

[@bloodgodalucard4769]

She's right about it being confusing. I didn't know any of that stuff about the Japanese dates being different numbers than counting. Sadly I probably won't retain that information. My brain has more holes than swiss cheese as I age. :(

[@Leonlion0305]

1. iirc wa(羽, meaning feather) is the counter for rabbit is because Buddhists could eat bird animal at the time, but rabbits were too good so monks were like "yes, rabbits are birds too" and count them like so. 2. For calendar days, I think it originate from Japanese's native way of saying numbers (as opposed to Chinese influence). The original way was: hi-, fu-, mi-, yo-, itsu-, muu-, nana-, ya-, koko-, tou-. Now it is used as counters, e.g. hitori (1 person), futari (2 people/a couple of people); hitotsu (1 thing), futatsu (2 things), mittsu (3 things), etc. 2a. It is in the second and third day of Calendar " *fu* tsuka" and " *mi* kka" and so on. -ka is noting we are talking about day here. 2b. The first day apparently originate from abbreviating "beginning of a month("moon")" (月(tsuki)が立(ta)ちます) to "Tsukitachi", eliminate the k from ki because it is hard to say. 2c. For the 20th day (Hatsuka) and 20 y/o(Hatachi) is actually related in origin. Hata- is a way to mean 20, as in Hatachi, and Hatsu- is an accent change that happened over time. 2d. There is also Misoka/Tsugomori/Kaijitsu (30th day of a month/last day of the month) and Oomisoka (end of a year). They are related to lunar calendar and lunar phase names, which seems like another deep dive so I'll stop here.

[@johnmartinez-valentin5427]

Its free refill when it comes to soda fountain when you buy the cup 🥤 and would you like another cup of coffee ☕️ when it comes to places like Starbucks

[@litigioussociety4249]

Japanese also doesn't increase orders of magnitude by thousands. In English it's three, six, nine, etc. zeros for each order, but it goes up by fours in Japanese. This often causes confusion; especially, with exchanging money.

[@Pikminiman]

I agree. Back when I studied Japanese, it was always counting that frustrated me most.

[@lostinthemeta9266]

You want real fun? Look at kanji. Multiple readings, depending on where they are. Usually only two readings, but sometimes more. And then when you think you've got a handle on the rules and whatnot.....throw all that away when dealing with names. Kanji used in names don't follow any rules at all. My personal favorite is "Takanashi". 3 kanji, that are read in that way only in that name. But the meaning of the three kanji is "little birds playing"; "takanashi" means "no hawks".

[@Mikazuki_Augus]

As a newbie on nihonggo ill say help me im going crazy learning it 😅😅

[@gree4776]

What if you're turning 20 on the 20th. And you need to order 20 rabbits, and 20 cakes?

[@SeventhSwell]

It is hand holding because you hold it with your hand, you know, just like when you do jobs with your hand.

[@DamonDakota]

7:44 I became a 'hatachi', literally (born 2k3)

[@rankoprose]

Langauge is hard dayo

[@adamlakeman7240]

French deciding that 17, 18 and 19 can't be said like all the other teens because of regiments that sided with the king during the revolution: confusing people who want to learn French for two centuries now.

[@kokuutou92]

Thank you I never knew, and I took french 7th to 9th grade

[@LAM1895]

To be fair I feel like 11 to 16 are weirder considering we could have used compound words instead of creating a new word for them: 11 -> onze 12 -> douze 13 -> treize (English begins using compound words here with "thirteen" or 3 + 10) 14 -> quatorze 15 -> quinze 16 -> seize (Spanish begins using compound words here with "dieciséis" or 10 + 6) 17 -> dix-sept (10 + 7) 18 -> dix-huit (10 + 8) 19 -> dix-neuf (10 +9) Other numbers that are weird: 70 -> soixante-et-dix (60 + 10) 71 -> soixante-et-onze (60 + 11) 72 -> soixante-douze (60 + 12) 80 -> quatre-vingts (4 x 20) 81 -> quatre-vingt-un (4 x 20 + 1) 90 -> quatre-vingt-dix (4 x 20 + 10) 91 -> quatre-vingt-onze (4 x 20 + 11)

[@authenticautistic2151]

French throwing all of their vowels together and deciding it means "bird".

[@Piohm]

Source?

[@authenticautistic2151]

"oiseau"@@Piohm

[@EkisEkis2]

Hand holding 😳

[@nobafan7515]

Wait, i heard it's number + sai for age. Why do they use a different reading?

[@SkyeVTJP]

It is... except for 20 for some reason lol.

[@intiblade]

Because Japanese is hard dayo.

[@indosatunlimitit4887]

jp are so confusing dayo

[@Shihir0]

oh its same for other countries as well.. its just, English is the easiest language to learn

[@iamlalala1995]

would you like another cup of coffee sounds more like british

[@StarstormVGN]

Counting is one of the most intimidating things about Japanese for me. Why they gotta do it like that?

[@jubiiiiiiiiiii]

First?

[@johnmartinez-valentin5427]

Just don't use the word hiki in the u.s it means something completely different

[@nobafan7515]

Yes lmao, especially when counting how many you got XD

[@johnmartinez-valentin5427]

@@nobafan7515 lol

[@AO968]

I think you mean hickey, not hiki.

[@nobafan7515]

@@AO968 yes, but they phonetically sound the same.

[@johnmartinez-valentin5427]

@AO968 I know I mean if she where to say the word a person might get the wrong idea