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Saskle In reply to TheStarlightPrincess [2018-10-03 17:16:01 +0000 UTC]

Wow, I never heard of gambeson before, but it's indeed amazing! I guess most people think leather looks cooler. >.>

I hadn't seen that video, it's indeed perfect on point. I too have to admit that 'female armour' can look really nice (as in, being tight but not scanty), but in any setting where realism matters only just a little bit it's ridiculous.

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TheStarlightPrincess In reply to Saskle [2018-10-03 18:32:13 +0000 UTC]

I guess. And since modern day factories can produce you almost anything you want maybe some miss the point it wasn't always so. You had to feed your cattle or what ever first, or hunt a tremendous amount of animals. If like 20 squirrels must be killed for one coat... uuh. Honestly, I hadn't either, considered all those factors until I began to follow; Skallagrim, Shadiversity, Metraton... Awesome guys! History has began to interest me more and more in the recent years (Iron Age, The Middle Ages, Heian Japan) and I like to get the 'facts' right. But yes, I have to admit a few years back neither I had ever heard of gambeson. Funny, it's so underrated, because it was even used in an anime called: 純潔のマリア (Junketsu no maria) which is a sort of a Middle Ages related anime even though magic exists. Different units fight, witch hunts are included and there's a witch who hates war. I mainly found it because Skallagrim said many things about weaponry and armour are pretty realistic in the anime. ^^

Yeh, dress my heroine in a game to that (as long as it ain't too revealing) but never go out to battle with that as if it was real life.

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Saskle In reply to TheStarlightPrincess [2018-10-07 10:43:55 +0000 UTC]

Perhaps it's just that, nowadays, where any desire can be gratified almost instantly, people forget what it takes to create these products, let alone that there were times before steam turbines existed and mass production became standard.

Always nice to hear when an anime (or whatever medium) does it right! I never heard of Junketsu no maria but I hardly watch any anime so it's not a surprise XD

I've always been interested in history, but playing my first D&D session was the trigger to research medieval armor. I wanted to figure out what my character would look like, though I had actually never drawn anything like plate armor or mail. But those Youtubers indeed offer a treasure trove of information! I was mind-blown when I found out about half-swording! I am ready to get into a fight with the Dungeon Master about me being able to dealing piercing damage with a longsword! C:

Exactly!

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TheStarlightPrincess In reply to Saskle [2018-10-08 10:20:16 +0000 UTC]

Indeed, I partly 'hate' industrial revolution because of that. It also lessens not only the value of the work but also the object itself. It's funny thinking a person can have more books than he can ever read in his shelf, but sometimes it was the book that was one's most precious property. I think they also used to treat those books differently. 

Indeed, it was quite a surprise (maybe some Japanese people are better at researching than Hollywood XD). Yeah, I'm self studying the language and anime is a great way to keep up the motive and train the ear. I've taught myself the syllable system so I know how the words are supposed to be written, or the alternatives how they can be written. It's suprisingly helpful and logical once you know what syllables exist and there is not that many of them.

(Just a little over 46, but it goes like 'a, i, u, e, o and then ka, ki, ku, ke, ko and the same vocals in such order happen with consonants: s, t, n, h, m, r, g, z, d, p, b and then you have ya, yu, yo, wa, wo and the lone n. With a few exceptions: there's no 'ti' so it's 'chi' and tu is actually 'tsu, and 'hu' is 'fu'.

Those are the basic syllables, there are a bit more than that, and double consonants are formed by adding small 'tsu' before the syllable. And katakana has a bit more 'imported ones' than hiragana, like 'ti' or 'vi'. or the 'v' syllables in general. That's why some 'imported' words like 'video' may sometimes read: 'bideo', because if we ignore the 'vi'-sound the closest to that is 'bi'. XD Or take Pokémon Crystal Version for example:  ポケットモンスター クリスタルバージョン [Poketto monsutaa kurisutaru baajon] There the 'baa' is supposed to imitate the sound of 'ver', and ジョン (jon) stands for '-sion'. It's a bit confusing but since all words can be written in hiragana or katakana writing system, they sometimes must undergo a 'modification' process to fit the syllable system, which is to say, yes, Japanese people truly have their own Japanese-English. And why am I telling you this? I haven't the foggiest idea...).

The pronunciation is also pretty close to my own language. Only some accents or pronunciations are a bit hard. Like 'ro' can sound like 'do' (pretty much the same with all 'r' syllables) and the long 'ee' sound can also be written as 'ei' like 陛下 (heika = majesty) and such cases. Kanji is perhaps one of the trickiest parts though it's easier to read than write once you remember the mark, not to mention when listening you don't have to worry about complex symbols, haha. xD The rest of it falls for learning grammar and vocabulary.

I appreciate your effort! That's why I want to research too, though I'm doing it for the sake of my own characters of whom I'm dreaming to write a complete book one day. ^^ Haha, yes I've also just recently found out about that. And some people still think you will cut your hand holding the blade with a bare hand... well, a year back I thought you'd hurt your fingers shooting on them with the fletching, so can't blame them. :') The more you know~ 

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Saskle In reply to TheStarlightPrincess [2018-10-14 08:38:36 +0000 UTC]

Yeah, Marx was right about that.

So you're learning Japanese? Cool! It's really interesting to see how foreign words are adapted to fit in the syllable system. Makes me think of my one-day trip to St. Petersburg, where we had to wait almost an hour to get through the customs XD One of the reasons it took so long was that the names of every person had to be transliterated to the Cyrillic script! My sister studies Russian and I bet she can tell you all about the writer Достоевский that we know as Dostoevsky, but the French and Germans as Dostoïevski and Dostojewski, respectively.

And I don't mind you telling me random things at all! XD

Why thank you! :3 It's so much fun to read up about all the little things that made things the way they were, but sometimes I end up reading so much that I forget to draw too XD

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TheStarlightPrincess In reply to Saskle [2018-10-28 14:21:45 +0000 UTC]

And so was Anders Chydenius , too bad Marx just got the honour since he managed to get his ideas popular first. Nobody remembers Chydenius, yet in our history he gets a mention.

Yep, just recently got the first book in the Kanji de manga series that features the first 80 kanji the Japanese people learn. Though I already know a couple from encountering them through different sources. I still lack a proper textbook but I have a native online teacher and his courses and the Internet to help me. He focuses on beginners, and the things textbooks get wrong about Japanese and also emphasises the importance of speech and being able to communicate with locals casually. What many get wrong is the politeness known as 敬語 'keigo' which refers to polite/formal speech used with co-workers, strangers, teachers, boss, legal situations and documents... but not with your familiars like family members, close friends, younger people etc. There appears many quirks in Japanese:

- Many words for 'I'. And just that word for 'I' like 私(watashi), 僕(boku) can tell you; the person's gender, status, attitude. Depending on the situation and the way it's used, but basically it's amazing how one choice like 'I' can give you so much information.
- no articles
- no prepositions (particles are used instead of prepositions though they kind of work like the same)
- no plurals
- feeling well/energetic 元気 (genki) and dislike 嫌い (kirai) and like 好き (suki) are actually adjectives in Japanese, but adjectives function like verbs. Whaaaat!?  
 - In most cases the 'obvious' is left out. So you don't need to say 'I' or other thing you're referring to as much as in English, only when you either want to emphasise it or the context is not familiar to whom you're talking to. 
- all verbs in infinite form end either '-ru', or '-u'. 
- Many nouns can be made a verb adding する (suru = to do) to the end. Like;
買い物 (kaimono = shopping) + する =買い物する  (kaimonosuru)  : to do shopping
会話    (kaiwa = conversation)　+ する = 会話する    (kaiwasuru)  : to have conversations 
かいほう  ( kaihou = release, releasing; as a noun) + する = かいほうする  (kaihousuru): to release
勉強　(benkyou = studying) + する = 勉強する (benkyousuru) : to study

    Of course, not all verbs are like that, there is a section that is 'proper verbs' too.
買う (kau = to buy) 、信じる (shinjiru = to believe)、かんじる (kanjiru = to feel; sense)、 いう (iu = to say) 、行く (iku = to go)、読む　(yomu = to read) 見る (miru = to look, watch)...
But I find it quite nice you can do that with many words. 

- in most cases you don't say 'no', you can often use the negative form of verb instead for an answer like:　
買わない  kawanai = to not buy
行かない  ikanai = to not go
いわない  iwanai = to not say
読まない  yomanai = to not read
信じない  shinjinai = to not believe
かんじない kanjinai = to not feel; sense
見ない　　minai  = to not look, watch

The negative form depends whether it's a '-u' verb or '-ru' verb. Only some '-ru' ending verbs are '-u' verbs for some reason, but often with
'-ru' verbs:
         - 'ru' -> 'nai'

- 'u' -> 'anai'         (a bit hard to show since 'anai' is in the syllables, especially the 'a' since a consonant usually has a vowel attached, in the above examples it's the underlined part, bold matches the reading to romaji. )

When the verb ends with:
おう   ou  ->  おわない　owanai
いう   iu  -> 　いわない  iwanai
あう   au -> 　あわない  awanai


With the nouns made verbs using 'suru' you only conjugate 'suru' that's the verb which becomes 'shinai';
勉強しない benkyoushinai = to not study 
買い物しない kaimonoshinai = to not do shopping

Of course, that's just the non-polite way of present verbs. If you want to go keigo it's a bit more complicated. Usually it's done with　ます 'masu' or ません　'masen' the negative form, but there's other ways that rank in the level of politeness;

 見ます  mimasu  = to watch (keigo)  compare  見る   miru
見ません　mimasen = to not watch    compare 　見ない minai

買います kaimasu  = to buy (keigo) <=> 買う  kau 
買いません kaimasen  = to not buy (keigo) <=> 買わない kawanai


    
   You use です desu (keigo thing) with everything else but verbs, usually. 

今、外さむいですか?   (Ima, soto samui desu ka?)  = Now, outside cold? = Is it cold outside? (keigo)
vs: 今、外さむい?  (Ima, soto samui?) = Now, outside cold is it? = Is it cold outside? (non-keigo) 

今  ima = now
外  soto = outside
さむい  samui = cold
か  ka: tells it's a question (usually used with keigo speech) 

And for a friend you can just say: 
さむい。Samui.  meaning it's cold, you're cold, he is cold, something's cold or you can use it as a question with a change in pitch to show it's a question: さむい?　Samui? Is it cold/are you cold? etc. Again the pronoun is obvious so it's not used. And it has no verb either. Just the adjective meaning cold. XD
In keigo you can say: さむいです。Samui desu. 


- indirectness is often more appreciated than saying things straight especially when speaking of a thing that's 'wrong' or a mistake
- Japanese lacks a future tense (as does Finnish by the way ), to make a future tense you simply add words like 明日　ashita = tommorow;
明日買い物行く?   Ashita kaimono iku?  = Tomorrow shopping going? aka. Going shopping tomorrow?  [The Japanese sentence lacks the pronoun since it often clears from the context.]  

- So from some point the grammar can seem surprisingly logical.  


The only thing I miss is a real person who to talk to. It's a bit poor conversation trying to say something in Japanese when she won't understand a word and then translate that. X'D



Oh my goodness, I can hardly imagine that! So, eh did you go with English there or did you learn their language? 
I still have to read Crime and Punishment, and I just learnt it's 罪と罰 (tsumi to batsu) in Japanese. 

Good. XD 

Indeed, I could research and get nothing done. Sometimes you just have to stop that, too. 

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Saskle In reply to TheStarlightPrincess [2018-11-13 20:54:07 +0000 UTC]

I have to admit I indeed have never heard of Chydenius. But don't you mean Adam Smith?  Chydenius' ideas of economic liberalism sound a lot like Smith's The Wealth of Nations to me. 

There are plenty of Japanese learning textbooks with such misinformation? o.O Cool that you found a native teacher online though, that sounds super helpful!

Wow, so many grammatical quirks! XD Japanese does share two similarities with Czech, though! In Czech you also don't say 'I' unless you want to put emphasis on it, and Czech (like many Slavic languages) doesn't have any articles either. I had one teacher in Prague who spoke English pretty decently, but the one mistake he kept making was not using articles. I loved listening to him because of that.

I've read The Culture Map (which is about doing business in different cultures) and one of the things I found super interesting is how autor Erin places different cultures on a scale with at one end low-context cultures and the other end high-context cultures. Low-context cultures like anglo-american and we Dutch too tend to value explicit communication: what I say is exactly what I mean. High-context cultures like Chinese and Japanese tend to communicate with much more sublety, leaving the message between the lines. These are broad generalizations of course, but still hold truth I think! And when you say in Japanese the 'obvious' is left out, I think these ideas are even reflected in the way the language is used.

Erin then goes even a step further, suggesting these differences could be rooted in their history: The United States are only a few hundred years old and had always to deal with large numbers of migrants from vastly different cultures. By communicating direct and clearly one was sure the message would get across. China and Japan, on the other hand, have thousands of years of history. Japan, consisting of islands, could isolate itself from the world and develop a sophisticated culture where subleties are understood.

Perhaps you could look for someone to talk to at www.studentsoftheworld.info/? It's a penpal network, but as there are many people looking to improve their languages, I'm sure there must be someone who would like to voice chat too. And it's still active despite the 90s look of the website XD

Nah, we made do with English. My Russian doesn't go much further than yes (да/da), no (нет/njet) and thanks (спасибо/spasiba) XD There is actually a manga adaption of Crime and Punishment by Osamu Tezuka, you should read that too! ^^

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