Wow that’s really interesting. Unfortunately none of that seems to exist in my version the app. I don’t use the desktop version, so I don’t have access to any of those stats or streaks.
Also, are you saying there is a new Japanese 2 course?
I see. There is a new Japanese 2 course. It would have been better to change my existing Japanese 2 course. Now I have to either start over and do a bunch of content that I’ve already done, or miss out on the new content added to Japanese 2. I assume that Japanese 3 and up have also been changed?
For the Japanese course, Memrise added course 0 (zero), and changed course 1 & 2. For British English speakers, this was around November, but for American English speakers, I think it was this year. From course 3, at the moment, there was no change. But there is a post from KanaTsumoto saying that in the future they will be changed too.
EDIT: If you have an old course in your list, and add a new course that has the same name, you will see the 2 courses on your list, and do not miss the progress because they have different links. The 2 courses have the same figure, but the old course has a lighter color.
1 Like
In Japanese 2, Section 1, the decision to refer to 浴衣 as “summer kimono” seems odd to me. Every time I’ve seen someone discuss a yukata, it’s as a yukata, not as a “summer kimono.” While that might technically be what it is, as far as I’m aware yukata are referred to as yukata in English. Even the places you go in Japan to rent them will say “Yukata Rental.” I think it may be best to just have it say “yukata” instead of “summer kimono,” since this is more commonly what it is called, and returns more immediate results of what exactly the garment is when googled compared to “summer kimono.”
Same section, the decision to translate “昼ごはん” as “a lunch” and “晩ごはん” as “a dinner” is odd to me, similar to the translations of “a ~something~” in Japanese 1 I mentioned in an earlier post. Frankly, when I saw “a lunch” I started looking for 弁当. Again, much like when I brought these up in Japanese 1, I think the “a” in front of these should be dropped.
2 Likes
@KanaTsumoto
I think the Japanese 0 hiragana cards should be adjusted slightly. The two things that are a bit confusing are that some of them look like words (so, do, to, a). It’s not immediately clearly that the English is a pronunciation and not a translation. For this exact same reason, some of the cards are trivial (i.e. the audio says あ and I choose ‘a’, so I’m basically being asked to choose the pronunciation of what I heard). Because these exercises are matching kana and pronunciation as opposed to word and meaning, I think the structure if the lesson needs to change correspondingly.
Also, it would be wonderful if the incoming lesson had about a second of buffer time before it let you select an input. I frequently double tap questions and sometimes I will incorrectly select an answer for the next lesson by accident.
1 Like
Hi @KanaTsumoto,
There is a question about Japanese for Spanish speakers that has been posted elsewhere.
@Ivan_Lohr38 reported that:
I searched the website and found the problem.
Japanese for Spanish (Spain) speakers: Learn Japanese on Memrise - Japonés 5 - Memrise
Japanese 5 - level 8:
1 Like
Thank you very much.
I can never find the appropriate forum, it’s very clunky on cellphone. And if I email memrise I’m asked to reinstall and let them know if it worked.
I hope I could just report issues directly from the app.
2 Likes
@KanaTsumoto
Can the katakana ハ be pronounced as WA just like the hiragana? The translation in the new Japanese 0 for American English speakers is ha; wa, but I thought that was only for the hiragana particle.
1 Like
@KanaTsumoto
In Level 15 of Japanese 1 - Personalities (US English), the word Tall (背が高い) is not presented in the same manner as short (height) (背が低い) and causes me to mostly answer it as 高い because of the other community Japanese courses I am learning. Can you please also add to “Tall” the word (height) to eliminate any confusions.
Thank you.
1 Like
@KanaTsumoto
I am missing 1 Official Memrise Japanese course that disappeared a couple of days ago form my list of Courses. It was Japanese 1, an older course. Did Memrise remove the old courses?
Can not see the old course in the app or web version? I have the old and new version, and in the web version I continue to see the two versions of the course. I see on the home page, but on the profile page, I can only see the new version. So if someone looks at my profile, they will only be able to see the new version.
I did check it out on the Memrise website but can also only see the new Japanese courses. The old ones are now gone, at least for me.
Hi @kristoferjanke,
Apologies for my late reply!
I have made changes to the course based on your suggestion for yukata. Thank you for the suggestion.
I’m discussing the bit about the article with our English Language Specialist. The articles were put there so that word class is clearer. ‘to lunch’ would be a verb and ‘a lunch’ would be a noun. I’ll get back to you on this later though.
3 Likes
Thank you for your question!
Yes, ハ can be read as ‘wa’ as well ‘ha’ since it is merely another way of writing は.
If you go back to some old literature in Japanese, you will find that everything is written in Katakana and ハ is used for は particle as well.
In today’s literature as well, there is no rule that Katakana sounds different from Hiragana and there are artist who prefer the Katakana to write so that they can bring more focus to the sound rather than the meaning. If I’m drawing a manga of robots or aliens, I would probably write the text in their speech bubbles in Katakana because I want to highlight that theysound different.
Hi @Milamy,
Sorry, I had to use the same reply window, I have a limit of replies I am allowed to send at once.
Thank you for flagging the error in the Spanish translation. My Spanish colleague will be correcting that for us later today. Thank you always!
11 Likes
I’ve made the changes suggested for 背が高い, you should be able to see the changes once you log out and log in again.
Also, about your issue of not being able to see the old courses; that is a new and rare bug that we have been struggling to get information from!! Your user case is super valuable, do you mind messaging me privately your user ID so that we can look at what’s happening to your account?
I could send you the course link now, but once you open that link, the bug of that course not being in your account will be resolved and we won’t be able to track the bug… so I’m definitely being selfish here by not giving you the link. If you rather have the access back than us, just let me know and I’ll send you the link immediately.
9 Likes
The thing with “lunch” versus “a lunch” is with “a lunch” I would think of you referring to some kind of food you will be eating for lunch, even in an abstract sense, whereas “lunch” would be the meal that is eaten during midday. Consider the following, “For lunch today, I brought a lunch instead of buying one,” which can kind of be broken down to the meaning of “For midday meal today, I have brought food to eat rather than buying food.” The vibe I get from 昼ごはん is of “midday meal” rather than “food for midday meal,” hence “lunch,” rather than “a lunch.” As I mentioned, “a lunch” made me think of 弁当 (though I suppose this could also be lunchbox, kind of…) And the same kind of thing with 晩ごはん and dinner/a dinner.
For the phrase “あなたは命の恩人です” in Japanese 2 Level 6, wouldn’t it make more sense for the English translation to be “You’re a lifesaver” instead of “You have saved my life?” “You’re a lifesaver” is much closer to the literal translation anyway and it makes more sense in the concept of the level. Everything leading up to that is stuff about trains and asking how to get places and stuff like that, so saying someone is a lifesaver is like saying they were very helpful, which seems to fit in with everything else while saying “You have saved my life” sounds like they literally pulled your unconscious body from a burning building. It just sounds much too serious in English and I think making the switch would sound much better.
@KanaTsumoto In Japanese 2, level 12: The phrase 人を助けろ仕事です uses the wrong sound byte. When it reads it out to you, it just says 助ける。
Hi @Tom_is_Wise
Yes, you are wise (and true to your handle name!).
I’ve updated the course based on your suggestions. If you are on your app, you will have to log out and log in again to see the changes. Thanks for flagging these!
9 Likes
So in Japanese 3, Level 4, “Can I pay by card?” is translated as “カードで払えますか？” whereas in the new Japanese 2, level 4, “Can I pay by card?” is translated as “カードは使えますか” As far as I understand it, the one from Japanese 3 is more literally “Can I pay by card?” whereas the one in Japanese 2 is more literally “Can I use my card?” I think there should be come kind of rectification between these or a change of the Japanese 2’s translation, since they both amount to the same thing when asked, but are technically not exactly the same thing, and this could confuse people taking the one course after the other.