I’ve been studying Japanese for almost six years now and I would say YES kanji is difficult, but it’s not insurmountable. It’s also one of the most interesting and fulfilling parts of learning the language.
There’s a certain level of “you have to know the rules before you know how to break the rules” but kanji can often be used in interesting nonstandard ways in literature & manga and just in general carry so much meaning and depth.
There’s always something new to learn. Did you know that there’s another version of 探す (to search) that has a slightly different connotation? 探す is usually used to search for something you want, but 捜す is used to search for something that’s missing.

By the way, do we have a Japanese learning community on Lemmy?

Depends on what you mean by “similar”. If you’re looking for the right thing, there are often a lot of phonetic hints in kanji.

For example, 矢 and 夫 sound completely different, totally unrelated. These are pretty basic kanji though; I think it’s analogous to how O and Q are totally different, or i and j.

If there’s more complex similarities though, then yeah there can be an implied phonetic relationship. Look at: 同胴洞銅恫桐粡. These can all be pronounced the same: どう (dou). Though, many of them have kunyomi readings that are totally unrelated.

I really got into anime in 2018 with Little Witch Academia but as a kid my first anime ever was probably Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind or another early Ghibli movie. Also as a kid I watched the Cardcaptor Sakura movies.

My first impressions were very positive. I was kinda primed to expect all anime to be trash and cringe so I was surprised when Little Witch Academia was actually just a great show. I’ve been watching non-stop since then, learned the language, translated some manga, etc.

My favorite series since I first watched it in 2020 has always been The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Every arc is amazing, the characters are so interesting, and the presentation is so creative. Though I just recently started PaniPoni Dash! and it’s the first thing that’s ever challenged Haruhi for me; it might be my new #1. It’s 2005 Shaft and it’s kinda the peak of Shaft’s style and quirkiness and it’s also really funny.

I also just recently watched absolutely the worst anime I’ve ever seen: Kennel Tokorozawa. It is funny, which is a positive, but not enough to outweigh how overwhelmingly awful it is as a whole.
The worst things I’ve seen that (somehow) have an actual level of popularity and acclaim: Shinsekai yori, 86, The Boy and the Heron. All bad for different reasons, but each one irredeemably terrible.

You didn’t ask, but I’ll also mention what I think is the most underrated anime ever: Christmas in January. Amazing short movie. Not very popular or well-regarded, but very subtle and emotional and whimsical. Definitely the most “hidden gem” thing I’ve ever found.

I’m a MAL user but I love how quirky Kitsu is, like their broad definition of anime including My Little Pony and the top ranking being like 90% Demon Slayer recap movies (it’s an exaggeration now but a few years ago it would not be)

The idea that July and August were added and shifted the months to be wrong is actually a misconception afaik. The months they replaced were already basically “fiveuary” and “sixuary”.
The numbering got shifted off when they decided January should be the first month; it used to be March. February was the last month, which explains why leap days are added to February.

I found out a few of my friends have never eaten a bunch of classic fruits. Things like mango, pomegranate, kiwi, and even tangerine.

I’m planning a fruit party for everybody to try and then judge different fruits.

What’s your reasoning for pro-piracy?

If I could find something like AltSnap on Linux I would move like, this week.
I know some of the features may already be part of Linux but I use this program pretty extensively and I don’t know much about Linux desktops and how they control.

But anyway I’m gonna move to Linux anyway, I have a date in my calendar later this year and my friend is gonna help me switch to it.

Aggregate polling is around 40% support. The lowest I found was 38% from economist.com, but ~41% is pretty common across any aggregate you can look up yourself. NYT for example says 41% support.

You do not invent your own name sign. Name signs may only be given by a person in the Deaf community. Some hearing people (like interpreters and teachers) mistakenly give name signs without realizing they are in violation of Deaf culture traditions. However, a name sign cannot be assigned by a hearing person.

American Sign Language has deep cultural and linguistic significance. Typically, it is not until you are involved in the community that you are given a name sign. In fact, not everyone within the Deaf community has a name sign.

From article
It’s like a cultural thing. This still doesn’t really answer why it’s like that in the first place, but I think in general the reason it feels inappropriate to name yourself in another language is that it feels “cringe” for lack of a better word. Somebody picks a name that has all kinds of cultural and colloquial associations without understanding them at all.
That’s kinda my theory of cultural appropriation; it’s not wrong because of some deep ethical reason, but rather it’s just often uncool. People sending signals that they don’t understand themselves.

Settings>Tabs>Tab View>List

It’s not what you’re looking for, but you could try it out

Spanish: pick your own name
Japanese: must use the Japanese-ified version of your name, eg Smith -> Sumisu, and people will usually refer to you by last name.

In retrospect, it was kinda strange to pick names in Spanish. It would be really strange / unacceptable to just pick a random Japanese name for yourself, and I’ve heard that it’s really rude to pick a name for yourself in American Sign Language. I wonder why it’s so widely accepted to do so for Spanish.

Wow! I had no idea.
Wikipedia:

“Mizu no Hoshi e Ai o Komete” (水の星へ愛をこめて; lit. ‘To the Aqueous Star with Love’) is the debut single by Japanese singer Hiroko Moriguchi, released on August 7, 1985 under Starchild Records. The song was written by Neil Sedaka and Masao Urino, based on Sedaka’s unreleased song “For Us to Decide”.

I occasionally have really detailed dreams with plots and allegory and everything. Sometimes someone will tell a joke in my dream, and I don’t get the joke until I wake up and think about it. My subconscious is sometimes more clever than I am.

Anyway, the best dream I ever had was one of those really detailed ones with a complex plot. I don’t remember any of those details, but it was some kind of mystery story where two children are on the run from a detective. It was full of plot twists and complex lies. As the plot unfolded, it seemed like there were some contractions in the narrative. One character says it happened like this, but another character claims the opposite. Typical mystery story stuff.
But as the dream went on, these little inconsistencies built up and up until I concluded that a key event in the plot must have happened two different ways at the same time. Irreconcilably, both ways must have been true, but they absolutely contradicted each other. It’s not that somebody is lying, there must actually be something wrong in the timeline itself.
This is when the dream drops its biggest plot twist: why is it inconsistent? Because it’s not real; it’s all a dream. And then I woke up.

I know the “it’s all a dream” plot twist is usually cheap and stupid, but like, it WAS all a dream. I sat in bed for like 15 minutes just being impressed with how incredible the twist was, and how it was quite impossible for anybody else to experience the same story.

I used to think about this a lot too. I think it’s just because it’s a given that people would wear pants. They only need to clarify shirt & shoes because that’s what they expect people are coming in without; they don’t need to define their whole dress code because pants are implied.

I think it’s in part because the song is slightly too mature for her that it appeals to Kiki, and maybe to the younger audience who relates to her.

The lyrics of Rouge no Dengon are really good. It’s about a woman who’s on a train, leaving town to get away from her cheating husband. She left a “message in rouge” for him to find in the bathroom, that she won’t be back until he changes his ways. She’s actually going to his mother’s house, and she’ll have his mother call him to scold him in the morning.

If you’re familiar with the song as the opening theme to Kiki’s Delivery Service, it really really fits Kiki’s character as she listens to the song while leaving home for the first time. You might get the feeling that the themes of the song are things relates to herself: independence, anxiety, maturity, and female solidarity. And of course, if you watch the movie, those are all things she experiences in her new town.

Basically it’s a REALLY REALLY good song and absolutely perfect choice for the movie it’s in. I also love the singer’s other Ghibli movie song you mention, Contrails/Hikoukigumo.

Very obscure 45-minute 1991 anime movie: Christmas in January. Rated extremely low (5.46 / 10) on MAL, it’s absolutely one of my favorite movies. It’s whimsical and melancholic and so so interesting. Reminds me a lot of the Ghibli movie Ocean Waves, which is also an underrated gem (and, while I’m at it, the Kimagure Orange Road masterpiece sequel movie from the same director as Ocean Waves).

I really love stories that are just miraculous/odd/interesting excerpts of people’s lives that are otherwise inconsequential. There was nothing grand or life-changing about the events in the story, but I will never forget the delicate social interplay in the shoe store, or the only scene that actually takes place in January at the very end: just a moment of reflection.

I had assumed they were allophones and always wondered if there was a minimal pair to prove otherwise. It turns out though there is one: tooth (n) vs tooth (v), or tooþ vs tooð.

I remember seeing this clip several months ago. In context, it was clearly in reference to Biden’s cancer diagnosis, which was still popular/relevant news at the time.

“When you start feeling sorry for him, remember he’s a bad guy” -Trump