Could someone please explain the meaning of the term 屋状態? (ya joutai?)
Also, is the こなす above supposed to be 熟なす？
Should 生物 be read as seibutsu or namamono? Could it maybe be interpreted as an ingratiatingly self-deprecating lame pun?

何でも屋：jack of all trades.

こなすー＞熟す

pretty sure it's just せいぶつ.

So something like:
海外でレコードをリリースするなど音楽活動もこなす何でも屋状態の変な緑色に生物。
a strange green jack of all trades (involved in various pursuits) creature also steadily active as a musician, releasing records overseas etc.

Thank you nadiatims.

What would the translation of 音楽活動もこなす here be? And is this an example of the typical/conventional usage of こなす in everyday speech?

Dictionary reads:
熟す (こなす）　-> to break to pieces, to digest, to handle easily
熟す (じゅくす) -> to ripen, to mature, to be in common use, to come to sound natural

Doesn't seem to make sense?

"steadily active as a musician" was a kind of loose translation.

音楽活動 basically means active as a musician, and usually refers to people being in bands or being involved in performances etc. こなす is usually written in kana and tends to mean 'can do something easily' or has a level of mastery over something. This is why I translated 音楽活動をこなす as "steadily active as a musician", it's not just a hobby (presumedly they're making money). It's often used in its potential form こなせる. eg 英語を使いこなせる implies can use English easily (ie has mastered it to a good level).

Ok, I think I understand now. Thank you for your help nadiatims!

The compound 使いこなす is pretty common also (meaning "use fully" or "know how to use well").

(I don't think I've ever seen it written in kanji before)

Thanks for the additional info yudantaiteki.

Context = Embarassing things you don't want your family to see:
真っ裸で開放感に浸っているところ

So is it something like "carefree and happily indulging in nudity"? or is it more a situation of a family member seeing you nude but you're not aware of it, and continue about your business in an nonchalant manner?

「ゲームしたりをやりまくってたのね…」I'm trying to figure out 「やりまくって」and my best guess is やる　combined with まくる : verb suffix to indicate reckless abandon to the activity. Is that right?

can someone plz explain the difference between にほん　and にっぽん?

just guessing here but the second seems more antiquated / formal? Is it like adding ご/お　before a noun to make it more polite?

thanks

I think we covered this topic a dozen times. Anyway, it's not a case of adding a polite suffix like ご or お but due to something called rendaku.

Wikipedia gives a good overview here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendaku
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_Ja...and_Nippon

I would add one more point and that is that the term 'Nippon', in modern Japan, carries a much more nationalistic feeling to it due to it's relationship with the older name of the Empire of Japan - だいにっぽんていこく. This is why you hear it in international sporting events or by the Prime Minister giving a post-Tsunami speech calling on the Japanese nation to rise to the challenge...

basically

kudokupo Wrote:「ゲームしたりをやりまくってたのね…」I'm trying to figure out 「やりまくって」and my best guess is やる　combined with まくる : verb suffix to indicate reckless abandon to the activity. Is that right?

Yep.
Not sure how to explain it further than that, but the following is from the まくる entry in Daijirin:

⑤（動詞の連用形に付いて）むやみに…する。…しつづける。「書き—・る」「逃げ—・る」

So essentially, to do something 無闇に and/or continuously/repeatedly.

I also found this quite entertaining: http://q.hatena.ne.jp/1200290046

This is probably not the correct thread, but anyway: There's this one thing that has been bothering me since I finished RTK.

If there are multiple ways to read a kanji compound, is there always a "correct" reading that is discernible from context, or is it sometimes up to me to "decide" which way I want to read it?

I've learned about 3000 vocab and 1000 sentences so far and I'm still surprised when a word I've learned is read differently. I'm just wondering if I'll ever be able to just read a sentence without wondering if 大部　is read たいぶ　or だいぶ. Or does it even matter?

Would someone share their thoughts? Thank you.

apirx Wrote:大部　

After the dictionary I have, both readings are valid.. Seems like there is no way but learning these kind of things by heart with Anki.

Edit: Perhaps you recognised; the same thing for 世論（せろん・よろん）

They quite often have different meanings, but sometimes both are acceptable. I think in instances like your example where the only difference is だ instead if た, or ぐ　instead of く (ie with or without the dash things that I've forgotten the name of), it's usually just an alternate pronunciation.

This is the main reason I like to read furigana'd manga. It really helps to feel confident you're learning the right reading for a word.

Edit: Tori-kun beat me to it. XD

apirx Wrote:If there are multiple ways to read a kanji compound, is there always a "correct" reading that is discernible from context, or is it sometimes up to me to "decide" which way I want to read it?

Short answer: it depends.
I'd say something useful if I actually knew the details, but since I don't I'll just link to a related post by magamo instead: http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?p...#pid122111

apirx Wrote:This is probably not the correct thread, but anyway: There's this one thing that has been bothering me since I finished RTK.

If there are multiple ways to read a kanji compound, is there always a "correct" reading that is discernible from context, or is it sometimes up to me to "decide" which way I want to read it?

There is usually a correct way.

Quote:I've learned about 3000 vocab and 1000 sentences so far and I'm still surprised when a word I've learned is read differently. I'm just wondering if I'll ever be able to just read a sentence without wondering if 大部　is read たいぶ　or だいぶ. Or does it even matter?

It does matter, because だいぶ is a word and たいぶ is not (or if it is a word, it's not one that's used very often). This matters when you're listening or speaking, of course.

Thanks for all replies. The post by magamo was interesting to read, as always.

I'm still feeling a little lost though. I'm currently trying to read with rikaichan and for 大部 it offers both readings. So even if you say たいぶ　isn't used in spoken language, how am I supposed to know? I'm a little afraid I might adopt a lot of uncommon readings this way.

I think it'd be really funny, if I'd travel to Japan and nobody understands me because I read my kanji differently.

Is there maybe a another dictionary, where readings are sorted by commonness? Or is this an aspect that can only be learned through listening and not through reading?

Don't just read, listen too. Most of the times that there are multiple readings for the same word, only one is actually commonly used. I've never heard たいぶ for example.

The thing is that EDICT isn't a real dictionary - it's a file that has every Japanese word that Jim Breen has ever come across (or received an email about) and every English word that that Japanese word might mean in any context. It does have an unreliably applied 'common word' tag in it that can be useful for filtering out obscure readings.

Rikaichan is just grabbing the entries out of EDICT, so you'd have to go to a web page or an application to filter them properly, I believe, although I don't know all Rikaichan's options.

Anyway, real dictionaries naturally are going to note when a reading is obscure, often referencing you to the more common reading. If you don't have an electronic dictionary of your own and are presumably tied to the web anyway whenever you read Japanese, then you can find good dictionaries at goo, yahoo, and excite, and probably some other web portals as well.

In this case, だいぶ is the only reading that appears in プログレッシブ和英中辞典

(There is another reading in the 国語辞典, but おおいた is defined as 九州地方北東部の県,
and is probably not what you want unless you're reading about travel in Kyushu.)

http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8...5%88%86&oq=

Thanks guys.

I didn't knew rikaichan and EDICT were connected. Next time I'm unsure with multiple readings I'll definitely try looking it up in at goo or yahoo.
I'm also trying to listen as much as possible.

SomeCallMeChris Wrote:In this case, だいぶ is the only reading that appears in プログレッシブ和英中辞典

(There is another reading in the 国語辞典, but おおいた is defined as 九州地方北東部の県,
and is probably not what you want unless you're reading about travel in Kyushu.)

Kenkyusha 5th edition lists たいぶ as the only reading however :/

I guess you can't trust Kenkyusha 5th Edition, then.

Are we sure we're not confusing 大分 and 大部? Because as far as I know 大分 is usually pronounced だいぶ, and 大部 is usually pronounced たいぶ. Three dictionaries on my 電子辞書 agree, including 広辞苑 ６th edition.

(One of the dictionaries is プログレッシブ和英中辞典　第三版 btw. I think SomeCallMeChris was looking up 大分, since that's what he linked to in Yahoo. The OP wrote 大部.)

Oh, yeah...I guess 大分 is what I was thinking of.

Yeah, I was looking up 大部. Well that explains that then.