almost forgot!

もう一度言ってください[もういちどいってください] "please say that again, one more time"

this is ok to say in a classroom (if you were in a Japanese class), or to a person you're talking to

you can also say

もう一度ゆっくりと言ってください[もういちどゆっくりといってください] "please say that again, one more time, slowly"

this is literally saying something like "one more time, without haste, say that, please"

Hi, I have sometimes sent some updates with typos, if you see "edited" at the bottom right corner, you should read again, and correct if you took notes, some users have spotted that, and contacted me through the bot (though most of the time it's the same one xD), thank you for catching that and letting me know!

I was just watching Episode 3 of the Flying Witch Anime, and there's this scene that some might feel identified with, the protagonist, Makoto, hears her relative speak "Sugaru-ben", which is a Japanese dialect of the North region (around Aomori), and cannot understand a word, what I wanted to bring attention here is that, in order to become good at understanding what is said, you need practice, lots, and lots of practice, I'll mention some resources to listen to spoken japanese, you can do it while you eat, cook, clean, etc.

off the top of my head, there are some news channels in youtube

I might not post tomorrow, I had to travel a bit, and didn't think the bus services would be eliminating some routes, so I'll have to spend the entire day away, instead of just the morning, if I don't, I'll post on Sunday

X気がする [Xきがする] means "I get the feeling of/that X"

this is a VERY common phrasing in Japanese, I'll use some examples from the 3-gatsu on Lion anime's dialogue to explain this, I do recommend you watch it, and get the subtitles from kitsunekko (link in the resources spreadsheet) I think it's definitely worth watching, but if you can't or don't want to, I'll provide enough context to understand the examples, without spoiling the plot

in episode 14, at about minute 00:12:14, Mr. Shimada says: ちょっと分かった気がするよ[ちょっとわかったきがするよ], which could be translated as "I kind of understand", or "I think I understand", though it's closer to saying
"I get the feeling I understand", or "I get the feeling I understood" (分かった [わかった] means "understood", it is in past tense)

you would say this if you get the general idea of what someone said to you, but you recognize there might be some gaps in your understanding

an example not from 3-gatsu no Lion, 先生の言ってた事を分かった気がする [せんせいのいってたことをわかったきがする] "I think I understood what the teacher was saying" or "I think I understood what the teacher said"

though in a more natural conversation, they would drop the を, leaving it as

先生の言ってた事分かった気がする [せんせいのいってたことわかったきがする]

の can be used to express possesion, this is similar to 's in English

so "my little sister" is 俺の妹 [おれのいもうと]

and "my little sister's dog" is 俺の妹の犬 [おれのいもうとのいぬ]

and "my little sister's dog's weight is 10kg" is 俺の妹の犬の重さは１０キロ [おれのいもうとのいぬのおもさは１０キロ]

キロ can mean kilogram, or kilometer depending on the context, Japanese people love to use shorter versions of everything, another example of this is あけおめ which is short for 明けましておめでとう [あけましておめでとう], which means "happy new year!"

I have been getting some requests for "older" content (in reference to the channel), so I'm working toward automatic updates so I can queue new things, and still post old stuff on a schedule, right now I can only do text, so no images or gifs, but I might do images later on

#JapanesePhrase
いただきます
itadakimasu
literally "I humbly receive"
this, is said before eating, to express gratitude for all who played a role in preparing, cultivating, ranching or hunting the food
it's similar to saying grace before a meal

this was the first message I automated

I set up a loop, so eventually, after all messages have been sent, this message will be sent again, this way, new things I write, will be sent at some point, but while I'm not writing new stuff, older things will get sent again, this means this channel will be active even if I'm not posting new things

if you have a particular topic you want me to cover (it can be how do you say this or that in Japanese), remember to use /ping message to the admin on the bot

#JapaneseGrammar
The Japanese language does not have plurals like English does. An example of that is 花 (はな, [hana]) means "flower" or "flowers", depending of the context involucrated in the sentence

by the way, I think immersion is very important, so eventually I want to do at least some posts entirely in Japanese, they will be for example

日本語を習いたいならかなと漢字を勉強してほうがいい

where

日本語 means "Japanese Language"
習いたい means "want to learn"
なら is a conditional to the previous so "if want to learn japanese"
らか are hiragana and katakana
漢字 are kanji, the characters with chinese origins
勉強して means "study (in imperative form)"
and
ほうがいい means "should do"

so "if you want to learn the Japanese Language, you should study the kana, and kanji"

these will be tagged as #Practice

#JapanesePronunciation
the つ “tsu” character can be used to mark a small pause that makes the next sound stronger, when used for this purpose it’s smaller than the rest of the characters, this is romanized with a double of the next letter, for example: にっき nikki (journal or diary) and なっとう nattou (fermented soybeans)

#JapaneseWritingSystems
Kanji are Chinese characters imported into Japan. There are tens of thousands of them, but the japanese government published a list of them that every citizen needs to know: the Jouyou kanji which consists of the 1945 most commonly used kanji

Hiragana is one of the two syllabic alphabets of Japanese. It is used mainly to write Japanese words and to show how a to read a word or phrase in kanji

Katakana is the second of the two syllabaries of Japanese. Nowadays, it is used mainly for foreign names and terms, items in Japanese pop culture and for some onomatopoeia.

The following shows the three systems being used at the same time is 私の名前はマリアです (My name is Maria):

私 [watashi] -> kanji
の [no] -> hiragana
名前 [namae] -> kanji
は [wa] -> hiragana
マリア [Maria] -> katakana
です [desu] -> hiragana

An example with a writing form on all three systems is [dame] literally, “no good”, commonly used to say something should not be done, for instance, たたかうはダメ [tatakau wa dame] which means “you shouldn’t fight”, in kanji is 駄目, in hiragana is だめ, and in katakana is ダメ

#JapaneseWritingSystems
check out the wikipedia page on Hepburn Romanization (http://wki.pe/Hepburn_romanization) to understand how we write japanese in roman letters!
ふ becomes "fu", but the 'f' in "fu" is not read as the 'f' in fire, it's sound is between the foo in fool and the hoo in cahoots

#JapanesePhrase
To greet someone throughout the day you can say こんにちは [konnichi wa], literally “this day”, but used to say “Good day!” or “Hello!”

#PolitenessInJapanese
You can think of ございます [gozaimasu] as a sort of politeness marker, but be careful not to use it with everything

this is a link to a 24/7 feed of news in Japanese, I recommend you take some time to see and hear Japanese as it is spoken on the news, getting used to how Japanese is spoken helps a lot to understanding

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coYw-eVU0Ks

you can also check some finished videos on that same channel, and re-listen so you can check your progress recognizing things you've heard before

#TalkingCasualInJapanese
To greet someone in the evening you can say こんばんは [konban wa], literally meaning “this evening” but used to say “Good evening!”

#JapanesePhrase
if it’s late in the day, or if you know you won’t see a person soon, you use さようなら [sayounara] as a farewell