@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.
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@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.
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@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.
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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!
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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.
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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!
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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.
Good day.
Can @KanaTsumoto or anyone else please answer whether there is any chance of grammar courses being realeased on the website within, say, 1 month? It is especially important since now there is a significant discount on yearly subscription, so there is every reason to subscribe even if I will not use it much in the next month or two, but not so much if grammar review is not even on the horizon.
Thank you in advance.
In a similar trend to my last post, in the old Japanese 2, level 17, we learn that “coat” is “コート” and “jacket” is “ジャケット,” but in the new Japanese 2, level 4, we learn that “jacket” is “上着.” Is 上着 more of a generic term for “outerwear” in general? It kind of seems like it would be.
Hi @shinatama1,
Thank you for considering to subscribe 
To your question; whether Grammar mode will be available on Web in the next 1 month, the answer is no I’m afraid.
Grammar mode is a subscription feature on the app for the moment and we don’t have immediate plans to make it available on web.
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Hi, is there a timeline for the release of the new version of Japanese 3-7 so they would be similar to Japanese 0-2?
In Japanese 2, level 8, we have “快速電車” translated as “a fast train” and “各駅停車” translated as “a slow train that stops at every stop.” I think a better description for these would be “An express/rapid service train,” and “A local/commuter service train” since these seem to have little to do with the actual speeds the trains are capable of going at, and more to do with how frequently they stop. People generally know that express/rapid service trains make fewer stops in order to complete the line faster compared to local/commuter service trains that stop at every stop.
Another one is “地下鉄” as “an underground train.” This one might just be the fact that I’m not British, but I’ve seen that translated as “subway” before. I know that in Europe it’s sometimes called the metro, the underground, or the Tube, but “an underground train” to me just seems like a weird way to describe the subway. It seems so literal that it might be misinterpreted.
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Hi, in the iOS version of Japanese 1, Lesson 16, “Sites to See!” the word “souvenir” in the sentence “I want to buy souvenirs” is misspelled “souvernirs”.
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Thx. The iOS Official Memrise Japanese Course is completely different than the official web version, and it is to the iOS version I was addressing.
I had some trouble even finding the iOS Official Memrise Japanese course forum. I still don’t know what’s going on, but thanks for helping.