Miscellaneous Learnings

I have a partner on the site italki that I've been messaging for a week or two now. He's Japanese and is learning English, so we go back and forth in speaking our languages to help each other practice reading and writing. I've learned a few things so far from this practice that I'd like to note.

1. Experiences - To say something like "I have been to Japan" or "I have not visited Osaka", the translation is roughly "As for the [description] event, it exists/does not exist." For example, I wrote: 大阪を訪ねることはありません。 A literal translation is "As for the visiting Osaka event, it does not exist." This is me saying that I haven't visited Osaka before.

2. 屋 「や」 - This kanji can mean roof or shop. It's often attached to another character to signify a business of some sort. In one of our messages it was attached to the word まんざい, which is like comedy or a comedic duo. So a まんざいや would be a comic shop. A 肉や (meat roof/shop) would be a butcher.

3. If I want to say "I live in X location", I would use 住んでいます to specify that it is an ongoing action. I currently live here and will continue to do so. Another example is marriage: 結婚しています. It's an ongoing state, so it's specified as such.

4. 何か - This and other question words with か tacked onto the end turn the word into the "uncertain" form. 何か is "something", 誰か is "someone" or "somebody", etc. This is very useful for everyday sentences.

5. This isn't about the Japanese language itself, but I learned about typhoon season and what it means for Japan. As autumn approaches, it looks like El Niño will begin to transition to La Niña, therefore making the rainy season less volatile. This means that when my friends visit Japan, they're less likely to face terrible storms that'll impact their flights, which is always a plus.