Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

So here in Japan it's kind of a marketing trend to slap random bits of English on stuff. Not dissimilar to having random Kanji on things in the US, but far more common. The problem often arises when they don't get a native speaker to check that English - or even a Japanese person with real fluency. You end up with really silly bits of "JapEnglish" like "Rule of Kawaii 45 degrees!" or comically simple brand names like "Good Eraser: Excellent Removal". It often amuses me.

@StephanDLW Removing oneself from social media is something I very much understand. I consider abandoning Facebook and never making a Twitter two of the best decisions of my entire life.

@Heavyarms55
Question.
How do you determine Kanji letters should be spoken in Kunyomi or Onyomi from a whole Japanese text ?

@StephanDLW Don't think we've met, but welcome back and glad you're feeling better. I can relate, I closed out my Facebook account completely years ago.

@Tyranexx I second the forums. Compared to past gaming forums I've been to, this place is friendly.

@bimmy-lee great games today. Actually got to watch most of both. I only caught the 1st half of the packer/niner game tho. Doesn't look like i missed much though.

@NintendoByNature - Yeah, I’m excited for the Super Bowl, really hoping for a good game. Both teams looked dominant in their wins. SF comes charging right out of the gate offensively, while KC takes a little while to wind up, but I think they have more in the top end. I haven’t checked if there’s a line yet, but I already guessed KC -3.5 before the SF game. I think I’d lower it to -3 after. It sets up nicely in two weeks.

I'm more excited for the food than the game itself.

The world has changed a lot from how it used to be. I was born in 1977 and grew up in the 80s and lived through the 90s and 2000’s. Things we have today are quite amazing compared to back then.

@Anti-Matter There's no 100% of the time rule, it's generally memorization. Onyomi is often used for nouns and is closer to the original Chinese (Kanji comes from China and was adopted by Japan). Kunyomi is the more often used for verbs and is the more traditional Japanese pronunciation.

In my experience it's just best to memorize the "hard" way, than to rely on that guideline.

@Link-Hero Not all, but many of those are actually deliberate. One thing about curse words is that Japanese doesn't really have any. Not in the same sense that English does. Most of what is translated as curse words into English are insulting words but don't have the same kind of taboo that the English does. A lot of them are actually just various rude ways of saying "you". The closest they have in Japanese to English curse words are actually more like English racial slurs. They have a word for Koreans that is roughly the same idea as the "N word" is for black people in America. My Japanese instructor did tell me what it was - but she was right that I'd forget it. It's so taboo that it's almost never actually used. But it was the only word outright banned from Japanese TV in a similar manner to how curse words are/were treated on US TV.

@Heavyarms55 So, are you close to where the 2020 Olympics will be held?

@Sunsy Barring the occasional bot or troll, the forums here are among the most laid-back I've been to. I think part of it is because this facet of the NL community is smaller. Comment sections on the main site used to be similar until it became more popular. One of the few negatives of the Switch being hot stuff.

@Woomy_NNYes Not really. I mean I could take a bullet train and get there in a few hours but if I wanted to watch in person I'd have to get a hotel or be commuting 6 hours each day... 3 each way.

Also unless I want to sell a kidney, it's way to late to get a decent hotel room.

@Tyranexx do you thing the NL forums are relaxed because, there more older users than younger? I don't ever know if that's the case, but I've suspected that's the make up.

@Woomy_NNYes My unsolicited 2 cents is that age isn't the issue as much as NL's smaller community in the forums and the rather useful admins who do a pretty good job of filtering out the worst of the internet's toxicity.

@StephanDLW I’m late to the party, but welcome back dood.

@bimmy-lee "They prefer to dunk everything they eat in water first if possible. I don’t really know why, but they’ll always do it given the opportunity."

Here 'ya go, pal:
https://www.andersonwildlifecontrolllc.com/why-do-raccoons-we...

And even though, as you'll be able to read, they don't really wash their food, the Dutch still call them "wash bears", so that's two designations (washing, bears) that don't make any sense whatsoever, but there you go. That's the Dutch for you...

Then again: I had no idea how English speaking folk came up with such a weird, almost alien word as "raccoon" either, until I looked it up. Didn't take much effort, since I was already browsing the web to find the answer for you, and now, with this bit of trivia added, the picture of the little scoundrel is complete:
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/527175/10-clever-facts-ab...
Also verified on a more reputable/appropriate dictionary site, to assure etymological accuracy:
https://www.etymonline.com/word/raccoon
(looking at that description, the Dutch may not be that weird with their naming after all. Well either that, or the Scandinavians are equally weird... )

And for good measure, this is also a good site to find origins of words, while making it entertaining to read at the same time:
https://uselessetymology.com/2019/03/06/the-etymology-of-racc...

Either way, mysteries solved!

@Woomy_NNYes Ah... I'm sorry to say that it wasn't a particularly entertaining video. On the one hand, I find praying mantises fascinating to look at, but I like humming birds far better, so I don't like seeing them get caught by a giant insect. And the end result is a bit unsure as well, because all I see, is them both falling to the ground, in which case the bird is still at a disadvantage.

On a side note: I don't think Cesar can read cats very well, but for that we've got Jackson Galaxy from "My Cat From Hell"...

@Heavyarms55 JapEnglish? I think most of us would simply call that "Engrish"...
But it absolutely can be pretty amusing. Back in my office days, one of the most popular sites to get our daily portion of laughs from was www.engrish.com, and to this day, new stuff is added regularly. Today's post is quite funny as well.

@HobbitGamer Yeah, fashionably late one from me too...

@StephanDLW Well, I do remember you by name, but other than that, I'm a bit at a loss, I'm afraid, so either you didn't frequent this thread a whole lot, or you've been gone for a REALLY long time. I did see you've completely restarted your profile, so it must have been something pretty heavy that made you decide to completely remove your profile on here and on other sites, but considering the online toxicity, I can definitely understand it to some extent.

Either way: welcome back, and always good to see/hear someone put their own experiences, no matter how bad, into something good to help others, so good on you.

@StephanDLW Well, all it really takes is to treat others how you yourself would like to be treated, which is also what I've found in the Chit-Chat thread: good, decent people, with whom you can have a laugh and a cry, and without all the toxicity that you might find in certain article threads, even on this site, so this forum thread right here is the best place to hang out, relax and be yourself.

No specific need to do anything special other than that, to become respected. I don't even feel the need to become respected at all, personally. It all just has a kind of natural flow in this thread, so that mutual respect comes all on its own, without me or anyone else having to do anything extra for it.

So, as long as you don't fly off the handle or do anything to incite discord or aggression, consider yourself fully accepted far as I'm concerned. And I think I can safely speak for the others as well, since all of them are good people.

@ThanosReXXX since the racoon & cats video was behavior you dont see everyday, my inner biologist forgot about fun and, focused on surprising behavior. You're right, it didn't fit the tone of the two videos that preceeded. Sorry about that.

Hello. 😀
Do you play Animal Crossing New Leaf 3DS ?
I have been playing it for 6 years since 22 December 2013 and now i have 3 copies of ACNL (2 ACNL & 1 ACNL Welcome Amiibo) with 3 different towns and native fruits.
I rarely play ACNL since year 2018 due to my hype on other games but i still want to check my towns after long hiatus.

@StephanDLW
I have multiple towns because 1 Save data with just only 10 Animal villagers is not enough.
By having multiple towns, i can experience with different Animals by specific theme.
For example, i can build a town with just 10 Bunnies only / Wolves only / etc or i can make 10 Animals based on 12 Chinese Zodiacs (without Dragon and Snake) or i can make Feline villagers (Cat, Tiger, Lion only) / Canine villagers (Dog and Wolf only) / Rodent villagers (Mouse, Squirrel, Hamster only) or Boys / Girls only. So many possibilities.
My first town is Neptune, consist 10 Male villagers only (mixture of Jock, Smug & Cranky), second town also 10 Male villagers only (with Lazy villagers added) & third town Xepher has 8 boys and 2 girls.
Well, i have spent more than 1500 hours for playing ACNL by more than 7500 times clicking the app. 😅

@ThanosReXXX - That’s really interesting, they gather 2/3 of their sensory information from touch! The comparison at the end tied it together nicely, light is to our eyes what water is to a raccoon’s paws. My guess would have been some sort of insufficient salivary situation, which apparently was the working hypothesis until the mid 80s when we realized raccoons basically have brains for hands. Incredible. Animal super powers.

I did know “raccoon” was a version of the original Native American word, but didn’t know it was Algonquin, though that would have been a guess. Seems like most of the town and city names in the Midwest, as well the rivers and other natural landmarks, are all versions of the original names given by tribes in the area. Algonquin were prolific in the Western Midwest. I’m eastern Midwest and live in old Miami territory.

@StephanDLW - Welcome back, glad things are better for you.