With only RTK under one's belt, would it be okay to jump straight into Core 6k?
I am planning on mining sentences from Tae Kim and Genki 1, and then do Core 6k, but I want to know if that will be redundant.

Also, is core 2k included in Core 6k?

Marble101 Wrote:With only RTK under one's belt, would it be okay to jump straight into Core 6k?
I am planning on mining sentences from Tae Kim and Genki 1, and then do Core 6k, but I want to know if that will be redundant.

Jumping straight into Core6k will probably be too hard. You should probably go through Genki 1 & 2 (or some other textbook) first. After that you can continue with a more advanced textbook, or go ahead and start on Tae Kim and Core6k.

If you start Core6k after doing Genki 1 & 2, there will be some words you already know. Feel free to delete these words from the Core6k deck.

Marble101 Wrote:Also, is core 2k included in Core 6k?

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: Core2k is cards #1 to #2000. Core6k refers to cards #2001 to #6000 and occasionally includes Core2k. Core10k refers to cards #6001 to #10000 and occasionally includes Core6k and Core2k.

You basically need to look at the deck you've downloaded and see how many facts it contains. If it contains 6000 facts, then it's probably cards #1 to #6000, i.e. Core2k + Core6k.

I assume you're doing sentences?
Tae Kim then Core6k is good enough. At least thats what I did.

Also, I've heard that male and female speech in Japanese is different.
Since i'm a male, if I dont' want to learn female speech. With that in mind, were the Core 6k sentences made by a female or a male?

You'll have to learn both obviously. The material you use to study grammar should tell you which expressions are only used by one gender.

Marble101 Wrote:Also, I've heard that male and female speech in Japanese is different.
Since i'm a male, if I dont' want to learn female speech. With that in mind, were the Core 6k sentences made by a female or a male?

Core6k tends to be pretty neutral. On occasion you can spot a sentence that might be feminine, usually those are question sentences ending in の instead of か.

Thanks!

There's almost nothing in current Japanese that is truly "female speech". It's mostly a matter of pronunciation/intonation, and that females tend to use politer speech in cases where it's not required.

Quote:usually those are question sentences ending in の instead of か.

That's not feminine.

yudantaiteki Wrote:There's almost nothing in current Japanese that is truly "female speech". It's mostly a matter of pronunciation/intonation, and that females tend to use politer speech in cases where it's not required.

As a counterpoint, see the following paper by Junko Ueno on gender differences in Japanese conversation:

http://www.uri.edu/iaics/content/2004v13...20Ueno.pdf

yudantaiteki Wrote:There's almost nothing in current Japanese that is truly "female speech". It's mostly a matter of pronunciation/intonation, and that females tend to use politer speech in cases where it's not required.

What about something like using "のよ" instead of "だよ"? Or adding "わ"?

So are gender differences mostly in sentence endings (these "da yo"'s and "no instead of ka"'s you guys are discussing), or do men and women even use different vocabulary (aside from personal pronouns like Watashi vs Ore)?

[s0apgun]

mmhorii Wrote:http://www.uri.edu/iaics/content/2004v13...20Ueno.pdf

Thanks for this!

I just asked the Japanese people I'm living with if there are any words only girls use and they said no, apart from sentence endings (like adding わ. Although depending on what part of Japan they're from, some men use わ as well but it doesn't have the same rising tone as when girls use it). As yudantaiteki said, girls do tend to use politer language though which means maybe adding an お or ご before a word, or using a different word that's higher up on the politeness scale.

There are however more "manly" words. She used the word らんぼう to describe these words (it means like violent/rough). Girls can use these words but generally don't unless they're wanting to come off as boyish.

In my personal opinion, if you want to sound more manly just learn how to slur all your words together I can hardly understand some guys when they're talking (especially when they're talking to other guys) cause they slur sooo much.

Purrlsta Wrote:

yudantaiteki Wrote:There's almost nothing in current Japanese that is truly "female speech". It's mostly a matter of pronunciation/intonation, and that females tend to use politer speech in cases where it's not required.

What about something like using "のよ" instead of "だよ"? Or adding "わ"?

Those are both feminine but few people under 50 use either of those (わ with the rising intonation. Falling intonation is used by both men and women.)

かしら is more feminine but I have heard men use this in more formal situations where they may feel that かな is too blunt.

I think that JSL's explanation works really well -- they tend to use "gentle" and "blunt" rather than male/female and just note that women are more likely to use "gentle" language and less likely to use "blunt" language, and men are the opposite.

Quote:http://www.uri.edu/iaics/content/2004v13n1/08% … 20Ueno.pdf

I don't know if that's much of a counterpoint -- that paper basically goes along with what I said that the differences in male and female speech aren't really in things that would show up in core 6k sentences. Some of her information seems outdated (few people use "ze" outside of dramas, and I've never heard anyone use "atakushi" outside of an anime.)


EDIT: As a final note, if you are male, there are two common mistakes you should be aware of.

(1) Putting よ or ね directly after a noun (or na-adj) ismore feminine; as a man you should use だ or だよ (in plain speech). So アメリカだよ rather than アメリカよ. This is especially tricky because after an i-adj you cannot use だ, so 高いよ is gender-neutral.

(2) The explanatory の is gender-neutral at the end of a sentence (i.e. 分かるの？　いいの？) but feminine at the end of a statement (高いの。) You should use んだ instead as a male.

Also, do not use か at the end of plain form questions unless you really know what you're doing. A previous poster implied that this was the male version of の, but they're completely different in meaning, and a plain form question with か can often sound challenging or threatening in the wrong context. 分かるか? can have the implication of "You understand, right? Or do I have to pound it into you?" (slightly exaggerated).

yudantaiteki Wrote:

Quote:http://www.uri.edu/iaics/content/2004v13n1/08% … 20Ueno.pdf

I don't know if that's much of a counterpoint -- that paper basically goes along with what I said that the differences in male and female speech aren't really in things that would show up in core 6k sentences. Some of her information seems outdated (few people use "ze" outside of dramas, and I've never heard anyone use "atakushi" outside of an anime.)

"Counterpoint" is a musical term; I agree with your statements, but thought they could be expanded on.

mmhorii Wrote:

yudantaiteki Wrote:

Quote:http://www.uri.edu/iaics/content/2004v13n1/08% … 20Ueno.pdf

I don't know if that's much of a counterpoint -- that paper basically goes along with what I said that the differences in male and female speech aren't really in things that would show up in core 6k sentences. Some of her information seems outdated (few people use "ze" outside of dramas, and I've never heard anyone use "atakushi" outside of an anime.)

"Counterpoint" is a musical term; I agree with your statements, but thought they could be expanded on.

Ah I see. As a devoted Bach fan I know all about musical counterpoint but I've never seen it used in a wider sense.