I’ve had a hard time getting updates through the store for the past 4 weeks, as the testers were saying that the app wouldn’t launch on their devices, though it was fine on mine. Well, the fix is finally out!
Now, here’s for the official blog post, which I wrote 4 weeks ago! XD
Update
Hey guys! I’m here with another update, though I’d like to announce that I’m going to try to include a little Japanese lesson with each post that I make. Hopefully this will add a little something to your learning beyond what is in the lessons. I’ve been wanting to add more lessons to the app, but haven’t yet implemented a way to push the updates to current users. The app updates are at the bottom of the page.
Today, we’ll discuss some adjectives, particularly those you may hear while eating, and the changes in this round of updates.
Adjectives
You’ve learned a lot of adjectives in your lessons, words like ‘very,’ ‘big,’ ‘small,’ etc. Probably the most used word that Japanese learners use is the word totemo とても. It means ‘very’ and is similar to its English counterpart. The problem is that it tends to be used a little too much.
While thinking about this mini-lesson, I was a bit hungry, so I was thinking about things that you’d hear about food, such as when eating a meal with your host family. Rather than saying,
晩御飯はとても美味しいです。
ばん ごはん は とても おいしい です。
Ban gohan wa totemo oishii desu.
Dinner is very delicious
You may try to use a word like かなり kanari. Kanari is pretty much the same as totemo, except it can also be coupled to a noun using の。 Kanari is not very formal and isn’t typically used in writing. First, the normal version.
晩御飯はかなり美味しいです。
ばん ごはん は かなり おいしい です。
Ban gohan wa kanari oishii desu.
Dinner is quite delicious.
You can substitute totemo with kanari and make your Japanese sound a whole lot better!
kanari + no + noun
彼はかなりの勉強家です。
かれ は かなり の べんきょうか です
Kare wa kanari no benkyou ka desu
He’s quite the studier (e.g. He studies a lot). (Ka after an action makes one the doer of the action. Benkyou ka is a study-doer. A studier!)
The opposite of very
How to say, “not very” or “not much” あまり amari
あまり, “not much / very / very much” is typically used with the negative form of an adjective or verb.
Example
納豆はあまり美味しくないです
なっとう は あまり おいしくない です。
Natto wa amari oishikunai desu.
Natto (fermented soy beans) aren’t very delicious.
Dangerously Good
When somebody eats something that’s really good, they may use the word やばい yabai, which means “dangerous.”
チーズケーキはやばい美味しいですよ！
チーズケーキ は やばい おいしい です よ！
Chīzukēki wa yabai oishii desu yo!
Cheesecake is really (dangerously) delicious!
Super
There is a really informal word that you can use in place of totemo: chou. It means “super.”
新幹線はちょう早いですよね。
しんかんせん は ちょう はやい です よ ね。
Shinkansen wa chou hayai desu yo ne.
Bullet trains are super fast, aren’t they?
App Updates
I’ve made a couple of additions to the app. First, for both WP7 and WP8 users, the stressed syllables in the vocabulary section are now highlighted. I’m sure that those were pretty confusing, so this should make understanding what those numbers mean a lot easier.
The crash on the Kanji page has been fixed, along with a few other issues.
For WP8 users, the app can now use the phone’s built in Speech Synthesis engine for speaking Japanese, which means that an internet connection is no longer required. Also, you can choose a male of female voice.
To take advantage of this, you need to install the Japanese speech pack. Go to your phone’s Settings App -> Speech -> Speech language and choose 日本語, which is Japanese. Once this is installed, the app will automatically start using the phone’s Text to Speech functions, which is both louder and a little easier to understand than Bing’s speech audio.
In App Purchasing
This one is the biggie for WP8 users (sorry WP7 guys. It’s not that I don’t love you, too!). Some people have indicated that $10 is a bit pricey, which I can understand. So, what I’ve done is allow each of the various sections to be unlocked. Now, if you want to try out another group of lessons, you can do so!
Just bear in mind, that you’re better off purchasing the full version outright than unlocking each section, as it’d cost you about $3 more.
Japanese Hub 