Huzzah! I’ve finished! I picked up Human Japanese back in February of 2013, so it’s nice to have finally cleared it off my perpetual to-do list. It’s really damned tough to make learning a language a priority… but I enjoy doing it. As for the rest of this year… I still need to finish playing Rocketbirds in Japanese. But right now, my priority is to get through Mass Effect 2.

Chapter 44: Weather

These are the most common forms of precipitation… but they’re all nouns. In English we say “It” is raining, or “it” is snowing. But in Japanese, we simply say that “rain falls” or “snow falls”. This is the verb, ふります.
ーあめがふりました。　　　　　　　「The rain fell – It rained.」
ーあしたゆきがふります。　　　　　「Tomorrow, it will snow.」
ーどようびにひょうがふりました。　「It hailed on Saturday.」

Often we want to state the present progressive … it “is” raining.
ーいまあめがふっています。　「It’s raining right now.」
ーあめがふっていません。　　「It isn’t raining.」
ーゆきがふっていました。　　「It was snowing.」

With はれます, you could be specific and state specifically that the sky is clearing up, but we wouldn’t tend to do that in English, and they don’t tend to do it in Japanese. rather than そらがはれました you can simply state はれました. Interestingly (and not discussed in this app) はれています does not mean that it “is clearing up” but rather that it “is in a state of having totally cleared up”. くもります is the same… it means that it clouded up, and using て will mean that it is completely cloudy.

ーきのうはねました。　　「Yesterday, it cleared up.」
ーあしたはれますかね。　「I wonder if it will clear up tomorrow?」
ーいまくもっています。　「It’s all cloudy now.」

Describe that a storm will happen using きます:
ーあらしがきます。　　　　「a storm will come.」
ーたいふうがきています。　「I typhoon is coming.」

But more destructive weather gets the verb “attack” or おそいます. Tsunamis and tornadoes attack cars, towns, or other things and thus also use を.
ーつなみがとうきょうをおそいました。　　「A tsunami attacked Tokyo.」
ーたつまきがイギリスをおそっています。　「A tornado is attacking England.」

Earthquakes on the other hand simply are:
ーせんしゅうとうきょうでじしんがありました。　「Last week there was an earthquake in Tokyo.」
ーおおきいじしんでした。　　　　　　　　　　　「It was a big earthquake.」
ーおおきいじしんがありました。　　　　　　　　「There was a big earthquake.」
ーじしんがきらいです。　　　　　　　　　　　　「I hate earthquakes.」

All Done!

So… what next? Well… the next time I do any Japanese, it will be to finish playing Rocketbirds. But after that? Well… I actually have a whole to-do list prepared. I’m not sure if I’ll tackle any of it in 2017. I’m on the fence about whether to try taking the JLPT N5 test this December. From what I’ve heard, N1 is the only test that really matters, and as I’ll be relocating to Montreal soon I won’t have the ability to take the next tests at all for the foreseeable future.. so.. maybe I’ll just forget about it…

At any rate I guess I’ll wait until the end of the year to decide what comes next… but I *do* have a rough to-do list organized to continue my studies with. Whether I end up pursuing it or not… here it is in it’s current state:

1. ０１．Play Rocketbirds
2. ０２．Study N5 Kanji
3. ０３．Read Genki I
4. ０４．Do rough N5 test
5. ０５．Take N5 Exam
6. ０６．Work through rest of Pimsleur L1? (Pimsleur seems like a shit product)
7. ０７．Play through mercenary Kings
8. ０８．Learn Grade 1 Kanji
9. ０９．Read Dragon Quest: Princess Alena Book 1
10. １０．Learn Grade 2 Kanji
11. １１．Learn Grade 3 Kanji
12. １２．Japanese For Busy People
13. １３．Learn N4 Kanji
14. １４．Study for N4 Exam
15. １５．Take N4 Exam
16. １６．Human Japanese Intermediate
17. １７．Learn Grade 4 Kanji
18. １８．Learn Grade 5 Kanji
19. １９．Read Dragon Quest: Princess Alena Book 2
20. ２０．Learn Grade 6 Kanji
21. ２１．Play Influent: Kanji
22. ２２．Read Dragon Quest: Princess Alena Book 3
23. ２３．Read Genki II
24. ２４．Study for N3
25. ２５．Take N3 Exam
26. ２６．Read Rockman 25 Anniversary
27. ２７．Read Final Fantasy Art Books
28. ２８．Read Dragon Quest: Princess Alena Book 4
29. ２９．Play: ジーザス：恐怖のバイオ・モンスタ
30. ３０．Read Dragon Quest: Princess Alena Book 5
31. ３１．Play: ファミコン探偵倶楽部
32. ３２．Play:リンクの冒険
33. ３３．Learn Junior High Level Kanji
34. ３４．Play: アルゴスの戦士
35. ３５．Play:オリュンポスの戦い
36. ３６．Play:ファザナドゥ
37. ３７．Learn High School Level Kanji
38. ３８．Study for N2
39. ３９．Take N2
40. ４０．Play:ゴッド・スレイヤー はるか天空のソナタ
41. ４１．Play:メタルマックス
42. ４２．Play:ラグランジュポイント
43. ４３．Study for N1
44. ４４．Take N1

It’s a long… long… long road ahead…