maybe it’s another Duolingo bullshit they push upon us or maybe a typical thing in Japanese? namely in phrases like けんさんは二年生ですか it could mean both “Is Ken a second year student?” and (according to duolingo) “are you a second year studentsophomore, Ken?” how do i know if it’s directly addressing the person? which is which?

  • human.encoded@lemmy.zipEnglish
    1·
    1 day ago

    I’ll say this because it is never ever said enough, Japanese is a high context language. Very often meaning is derived from what is going on in the moment. This is hard to convey through things like text books and duolingo.

  • PonyOfWar@pawb.social
    1·
    9 months ago

    It’s a pretty normal thing in Japanese, yes. You’d know from context which meaning it is based on who you’re talking to.

  • muhyb@programming.dev
    1·
    9 months ago

    If you are talking to someone asking about Ken, it’s the first. If you are talking to Ken, it’s the second.