Ah, wish I had more friends interested in doing this. But I'm the only one in my circle who likes J-pop at the moment.

as for keigo, i suggest you don't venture into it yet until the basic is strong. keigo is very hard and even some japanese r confused about it

Interesting. So there's a Japanese language interest thread here.

Here's an idea - quite a few Karaoke places here have Japanese songs. Ever considered having a Japanese only karaoke outing? Its one way to practice and build your confidence.

さしあげます - this is business Japanese. Would suggest you to stay out of this till you get the basics right. For me the most difficult part is still the partilces like に、を、が、は、etc. I cannot really explain why a sentence have to be like that, but when someone speaks to me, I do understand what it means.

It would be nice to have a platform where local Japanese learners can gather to share information/ answers and interact. Thus thought we can have a more casual thread in Serious K than Education.

Probably good idea to learn through songs at home than at a Karaoke haha. Not everyone is good at singing, and you can always select several Japanese songs to sing when you're hanging out with your friends.

I do like J-Pop as well. Especially my favorite singers are Ken Hirai and May J. But there are many more.

as for keigo, i suggest you don't venture into it yet until the basic is strong. keigo is very hard and even some japanese r confused about it


While I asked my sensei whether does に similarly mean から he said no. Thus it causes me confusion.
Another one that's commonly used it を and が which, again, is my source of confusion. Don't have my stuffs with me now, I'll check and share tomorrow.

Nope, I didn't venture. My sensei taught us a little on that. He likes to paint the whole picture and share which part (of the whole idea) that we're studying now. It made things more meaningful. And because he mentioned several times about さしあげます, it merely sticks in my memory.
It would be nice to have a platform where local Japanese learners can gather to share information/ answers and interact. Thus thought we can have a more casual thread in Serious K than Education.

Probably good idea to learn through songs at home than at a Karaoke haha. Not everyone is good at singing, and you can always select several Japanese songs to sing when you're hanging out with your friends.
Yes boss, it's something my sensei taught/ mentioned several times in class. I remembered it because he said it a couple of times. Can easily understand what they mean? Guess it's the advantage of staying in Japan long enough

To my extremely limited understanding, に is mainly to denote direction towards something? eg. 東京に行きます

Whereas から is roughly 'from'.... eg. マレーシアからです

Sensei's pls don't crucify me if I'm wrong

I have a weakness with keigo, that's when I stopped...

Stopped after passing N3 and never continued.. it has been nearly 10 years.

Seeking some clarifications for some examples like the below sacwoc chinti

Any other forumer who can explain the situation is also welcome to share his/her insights.
これは田中さんに＿＿＿＿＿＿日本語の辞書です。
Ａ．もらった
Ｂ．くれた
My answer for this is A, since it's an item. I assume rather than a favour, it is an item received from Tanaka-san. What do you think?

---

言葉の意味が分からない時、先生に教えて＿＿＿＿＿。
Ａ．もらいます
Ｂ．くれます
This one is a bit of a headache... Not sure how to rationalize this, but I'll take it as "receiving the teaching/ lesson" from your teacher, thus I'll go with A, もらいます。

---

子供の時、お父さんはよく私を公園へ連れて行って＿＿＿＿＿＿。
Ａ．もらいました
Ｂ．くれました
I'll choose B くれました for this as the child is receiving 'favour' from the parent?

I have a weakness with keigo, that's when I stopped...

Stopped after passing N3 and never continued.. it has been nearly 10 years.

Seeking some clarifications for some examples like the below sacwoc chinti

Any other forumer who can explain the situation is also welcome to share his/her insights.
これは田中さんに＿＿＿＿＿＿日本語の辞書です。
Ａ．もらった
Ｂ．くれた
My answer for this is A, since it's an item. I assume rather than a favour, it is an item received from Tanaka-san. What do you think?

---

言葉の意味が分からない時、先生に教えて＿＿＿＿＿。
Ａ．もらいます
Ｂ．くれます
This one is a bit of a headache... Not sure how to rationalize this, but I'll take it as "receiving the teaching/ lesson" from your teacher, thus I'll go with A, もらいます。

---

子供の時、お父さんはよく私を公園へ連れて行って＿＿＿＿＿＿。
Ａ．もらいました
Ｂ．くれました
I'll choose B くれました for this as the child is receiving 'favour' from the parent?

question 1 A is correct.
question 2 i would say B as the meaning is lik the teacher kindly taught me and i am grateful so kuremasu
question 3 also B coz u r grateful to ur father

sorry been pretty busy wit work...new staff causing a lot of troubles..

My answers are as underlined below.

My reasoning is based on how もらう　and くれる are used in relation to the particles used in the sentence after each of the persons involved.

In the 3rd question, 「お父さんは」 tells me that the topic is my dad, and he's the one doing the acting of "giving / doing me a favour", hence 「くれました」.
ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー
2nd question, 「先生に教えてもらいます」、because of the existence of the に particle after 「先生」.

（わたしは）言葉の意味が分からない時、先生に教えてくれます。

If 「くれます」was used , the sentence will literally mean "When I do not know the meaning of a word, I will teach (or tell) the teacher."

in which case, I shouldn't be using 「くれます」 if I'm the one telling the teacher.
If I want to use 「くれます」, I would change the particle from に　to は.

言葉の意味が分からない時、先生は教えてくれます。

Basically, from what I understand, the person doing the favour/「くれます」 has to be the topic of the sentence, which means it has to have は before the person.

たぶんそれが使用されている方法だと思います。

chinti 教えてください

Owhhhh that's a little sad. Don't let your weakness conquer you.

Did you work in any Japanese-related companies?

N3 still a bit too early for keigo, usually u start keigo after N2 as its really confusing.

hmm...now i also bcome confused d 
coz in my case, whenever u r receiving a favor, its kuremasu so the second one is receiving a favor as well. hmm...now tht i think about it, u can have two diff meaning if u use either 1 

あげます is to give, もらいます is to receive and くれます is also to give.



For example

    あげる

    先生はエリコに本をあげました。
    The teacher (giver) gave a book to Eriko (recipient)

    もらう

    エリコは先生に/から本をもらいました。
    Eriko (recipient) received a book from the teacher (giver).

For くれる, it's the same sentence formula as あげる, but used like this:　<ーimportant part.



Here are some examples:

        あかつねはエリコに花をあげました。
        Akatsune gave Eriko a flower.

        あかつねは弟に花をくれました。
        Akatsune gave a flower to my younger brother.

        母はエリコにお茶をあげました。
        My mother gave Eriko green tea.

        お兄さんはわたしにプレゼントをくれました。
        My older brother gave a present to me.

        わたしは父にコーヒーをあげました。
        I gave my father coffee.

how's everyone? just back from bangkok work trip and before tht a 10 days japan vacay trip. found another few great restaurant in japan, will update on the travelling thread when im free