Japanese Talk

Pink plum blossoms

White plum blossoms

Closeup of white plum blossoms

Closeup of pink plum blossoms

Plum 梅(うめ ume 木 tree plus 毎 every) blossoms in Kyoto

Plumtrees bloom earlier than cherry blossom trees, and the blossoms are simpler, representing the traditional Japanese lifestyle more accurately compared to the frilly sakura 桜 (tree 木 woman 女 katakana tsu ツ)

#japan #kanji #japaneselanguage

This rant was brought to you because of the number of Japanese learning apps and games I keep seeing popup made by slop bros who don't actually know Japanese or how to teach it. (They get slop to write their code too, which always ends well.)

Long story short, if you're serious about language learning, use human made app, games, textbooks, videos, teachers, etc. And avoid the random slop generators.

Also there's no way to know if the translation is good for language learning! A translation changes depending on if the word/sentence is for a language learner or entertainment, etc.

This is the same for using AI to practice a language. You don't know if the information you're getting is accurate.

Language learning apps built on AI to learn a language is like this but turned up to 11. Apps are designed in English and then use AI to directly translate content into other languages. So you're not actually learning how natives would use that language, and there's a high chance the info is wrong.

If you've studied language for any given time you'll know that languages don't directly translate.

Beginners learn that "watashi" means "I" and "anata" means "you", but an app built on directly translating English (like Duolingo) doesn't teach you that Japanese people almost never use either.

Why is generative AI slop bad for language learning?

Because it's a RANDOM word generator!

Putting aside the theft/world burning ethical issues, LLMs are designed to pick the likelihood of a word based on the words that came before it. They're not designed to BE accurate but to SOUND accurate.

I don't see anything on the Kickstarter that says they don't use AI... And I'm a little sus at how they plan to make sure the languages are accurate.

Duolingo is terrible for language learning because it uses AI and uses the same info for all languages, instead of accurate info for each languages.

Are you using generative AI on this? I don't see anything that says you don't which make me a little suspicious. I also can't see anywhere on the page that says how you'll guarantee the languages will be accurate. Teachers? Translators? Or do you plan to use AI to just translate words randomly?

I would say, try something new? Maybe pick up a textbook on collocations or JLPT drills or something. Just something that exposes you to the information in a way that's very different from what you normally use.

On Bringing the Novels of Mizuki Tsujimura to English Readers As a literary translator who was born in Tokyo, raised in Los Angeles, and now ping-pongs between the two cities, I often find myself describing books (that I neither wrote nor translated) to reade…

It seems that in the last ten years this novel finally got a translation into English under "Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon", translated by Yuki Tejima.
lithub.com/on-bringing-...

10 Japanese Books by Women We’d Love to See in English When my fellow translators and I first got together to chat about ideas for the latest installment in this series, 10 Japanese works of fiction by women we’d love to see in English, we all had the …

This is a book I've been meaning to read for a very, VERY long time.

I first heard about it ten years ago in this 2016 article on untranslated Japanese novels by women, and picked it up from a second hand Japanese bookstore in Bellevue soon after. Glad I finally read it.
lithub.com/10-japanese-...

Japanese novel "Tsunagu" by Mizuki Tsujimura

Finish ツナグ by Mizuki Tsujimura. A series of vignettes about different people who meet a boy that connects them with someone who's passed away, ending with a chapter from the boy's perspective.

Not ground breaking, but really good writing that's easy to read. Good for N2 Japanese.

★★★☆☆

Translated by Bruce Allen!
#namethetranslator

Yeah. That's true, but that's what I mean by getting the information into your active memory, so you can use Japanese without looking. A teacher and textbook can help with that.

Or maybe instead of a textbook like Genki the Try grammar books would be better for you?

Every localizer I know is very much anti-AI, but yeah, publishers and translation companies trying to shove AI into everything is very annoying. Hope your Japanese studying goes well!

YouTube video by ポケモン公式YouTubeチャンネル 【公式】TVCM『ぽこポケ』のうた篇 30秒｜『ぽこ あ ポケモン』

As someone who has just started learning Japanese again properly, this Pokémon advert is like catnip.

ぽこ　ぽけ　ぽこ　ぽけ　ぽこあぽけもわ!

youtu.be/hmpVg2PyMOA?...

It's a lot of fun! The real difficult part is the grammar 😂 (But that's also fun.)

I feel like a lot of people focus on kanji because it's a concrete number, whereas grammar and vocabulary are a little more vague in terms of 'how much' you need to learn.

You get used to it. But that's one reason particules and kanji are great to learn, they help break up the sentences and make them resist to read.

How to Learn Japanese: The Ultimate Beginners Guide A guide to what you should know when you start learning Japanese, how to learn it, and some resources you can use to learn them!

But otherwise, here are some suggestions for resources for the beginner level.
jtalkonline.com/how-to-learn...

That's great! You probably have a lot of passive knowledge of the language, you just need to train your active memory and study the grammar. Your background should make it a lot easier.

I suggest working through a textbook with a teacher and making sure you know grammar and vocab.

Doesn't matter how bad your Japanese is, you'll always get a "nihongo jouzu!" from someone.

ITS A LIE. THEY ARE JUST BEING NICE. YOUR NIHONGO IS NOT JOUZU.

He's going to discuss the damage it's doing to the industry, how audiences don't want it, and how it should be avoided at all costs, right? ...Right?

You also say the editor needs to develop relationships with artists to develop new comics, which means you're not editing translation but new works. And nothing about developing relationships with translators.

This sounds more like a full time job than freelance.

🤔

You're expecting freelancers to get the translation rights for you??? Also, you say the Japanese editor should be in Japan and fluent in Japanese, meaning they're supposed to find the translation for Japanese manga but then edit the Japanese not the English? This job posting isn't clear.

I don't play Steam, but does anyone have any recommendations for good kanji learning games that don't use AI?

whenever I've been feeling antsy or scrolling social media too much, I try to switch tabs to a Japanese learning app. highly recommend prying yourself away from doom scrolling and using that time, even if it's just five minutes, to learn a language 👍

AI does not "assist" translators, it just makes their work harder, brings down the quality, and impacts their pay. 😭

Recommended Podcasts for Japanese Learners - Japanese Talk Looking for a Japanese podcast to improve your listening? Check out my recommended podcasts for Japanese learners!

Sure do!
jtalkonline.com/recommended-...