In our endless pursuit of perfection, it can be easy to lose sight of the progress we've made so far.

I've mentioned before that I'm (kind of) studying Korean at the moment. There's only one problem with this--in addition to running this site, I'm working an increasingly demanding full-time job and teaching English lessons online on the side. All of which leaves me with virtually no time to study.

It's a struggle just getting through my daily flashcards reviews. And (*begin shameful confession*) in the last couple of months I've even been missing days here and there.

As a result of all of this, I feel like I'll never learn Korean. Like it would be a waste of time even trying to learn it.

Then I study a bit, and I try to focus on the progress I have made. I can read Hangul (it's way easier than hiragana and katakana), I can even type it without looking at my keyboard, I have a keen sense of the sounds of the language, and I can make and understand a handful of phrases. That's not much. But it's more than I had a few months ago. If I can keep at it long term, it'll be a lotmore than I had a few months ago (time will tell if I manage to stick to it).

(Random Japanese Note: "Touch typing" in Japanese is actually called ブラインドタッチ, literally "blind touch." I don't know why, but that word has always made me smile.)

Appreciating my progress in Japanese is a lot easier, because I'm so much further along.

At the moment, I'm reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in Japanese. Usually it's the last thing I do in bed before falling asleep. And I have to remind myself to be thankful that I'm able to read a novel and relax in Japanese. That was the dream, right?

To give you a glimpse of what you yourself might be reading some day in the future, I thought we could take a look together:

ハリー・ポッターと賢者の石
ハリー・ポッター　と　けんじゃ　の　いし
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Note: 賢者 technically means "wise man; sage." Also, for some reason they change "philosopher" to "sorcerer" in the U.S.

Rather than start with the Japanese, here is the passage I want to look at in the original English, first:

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English Only

"Hagrid," he said quietly, "I think you must have made a mistake. I don't think I can be a wizard."

To his surprise, Hagrid chuckled.

"Not a wizard, eh? Never made things happen when you was scared or angry?"

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Now let's look at the Japanese...

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Japanese Only

「ハグリッド」ハリーは静かに言った。

「きっと間違いだよ。僕が魔法使いだなんてありえないよ」

驚いたことに、ハグリッドはクスクス笑った。

「魔法使いじゃないって？えっ？おまえが怖かった時、怒った時、何も起こらなかったか？」

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Too difficult? No worries, we can add some kana and English alongside it:

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Japanese & English

「ハグリッド」ハリーは静かに言った。
「ハグリッド」　ハリー　は　しずか　に　いった。
"Hagrid," he said quietly,

「きっと間違いだよ。僕が魔法使いだなんてありえないよ」
「きっと　まちがい　だ　よ。　ぼく　が　まほうつかい　だ　なんて　ありえない　よ」
"I think you must have made a mistake. I don't think I can be a wizard."

驚いたことに、ハグリッドはクスクス笑った。
おどろいた　こと　に、　ハグリッド　は　クスクス　わらった。
To his surprise, Hagrid chuckled.

「魔法使いじゃないって？えっ？おまえが怖かった時、怒った時、何も起こらなかったか？」
「まほうつかい　じゃない　って？　えっ？　おまえ　が　こわかった　とき、　おこった　とき、　なにも　おこらなかった　か？」
"Not a wizard, eh? Never made things happen when you was scared or angry?"

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Now let's break that language down!

「ハグリッド」ハリーは静かに言った。
「ハグリッド」　ハリー　は　しずか　に　いった。
"Hagrid," he said quietly,
Literally: "Hagrid + Harry + は + quietly + said."
Note: 静か is the adjective "quiet." Since it's a na-adjective, you can put に after it to make it into an adverb: 静かに, "quietly."

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「きっと間違いだよ。僕が魔法使いだなんてありえないよ」
「きっと　まちがい　だ　よ。　ぼく　が　まほうつかい　だ　なんて　ありえない　よ」
"I think you must have made a mistake. I don't think I can be a wizard."
Literally: "surely + mistake + is + よ. + I + が + wizard + is + なんて + impossible + よ."

There is so much going on in this sentence. Once, long ago, I had a teacher tell me that that きっと means "surely" or "most likely" when you are about 90% sure of something. Generally speaking, that has seemed about right.

If 間違いだよ（まちがいだよ） is "that's a mistake," then きっと間違いだよ is "that must be a mistake."

When you want to say that something is unbelievable, you can snap なんて onto the end of it. So...

僕が魔法使いだ。
ぼく　が　まほうつかい　だ。
I'm a wizard.
Note: I put "I'm" in italics because this が has the nuance of "I'm the one who's a wizard." (Good luck ever using that one in a conversation.) It has that nuance because が is the "pointer particle," which we've talked about in a few other lessons.

Then we snap なんて onto the end of it. In this situation, なんて is kind of like a "spoken quotation marker." Usually when we want to mark a quote or phrase in a sentence, we do so by snapping と or って onto the end of it. But when we mark a quote or phrase as "unbelievable; outrageous; ridiculous; etc.," then we can snap なんて onto it. So maybe we could translate it like this...

僕が魔法使いだなんて…
ぼく　が　まほうつかい　だ　なんて…
To say that I'm a wizard. . . (is crazy). // The idea that I could be a wizard. . . (is ridiculous).

Lastly we have ありえない（よ）. I would recommend just remembering this word as is. Then you can use it when you want to (sarcastically) say "Yeah, right." In other words, "No way; That's impossible."

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驚いたことに、ハグリッドはクスクス笑った。
おどろいた　こと　に、　ハグリッド　は　クスクス　わらった。
To his surprise, Hagrid chuckled.
Literally: "surprised + thing + に, + Hagrid + は + chuckling(ly) + laughed."

Sometimes you'll see ～ことに being attached to verbs at the beginning of a sentence like this. I don't hear this in conversation that often, and I never use it myself, but it is worth knowing. Maybe we can look at it in another lesson.

Right now, I think it would be better to memorize this use of onomatopoeia with くすくす笑った。

笑った。
わらった。
I laughed. // She laughed.

笑ってた
わらってた。
I was laughing. // They were laughing.

くすくす笑った。
くすくす　わらった。
I chuckled. // She chuckled.

くすくす笑ってた
くすくす　わらってた。
I was chuckling. // They were chuckling.

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「魔法使いじゃないって？えっ？おまえが怖かった時、怒った時、何も起こらなかったか？」
「まほうつかい　じゃない　って？　えっ？　おまえ　が　こわかった　とき、　おこった　とき、　なにも　おこらなかった　か？」
"Not a wizard, eh? Never made things happen when you was scared or angry?"
Literally: "wizard + are not + って？ + Huh? + You + が + scared + time, + was/got angry + time, + nothing + didn't happen + か？"
Note: 何も means "nothing," but in Japanese it will attach to a negative verb. So they DON'T say "nothing happened." Rather, they say "Nothing didn't happen:" 何も起こらなかった. Also, I would avoid adding か to the end of a casual question like Hagrid does in most situations, as it sounds quite informal and, if you're not careful, a bit rude. We talked about this way back in Lesson #5.

Oh, also, here is the って acting as a quotation marker!

魔法使いじゃない。
まほうつかい　じゃない。
You're not a wizard. // I'm not a wizard.

魔法使いじゃない？
まほうつかい　じゃない？
You're not a wizard? // I'm not a wizard?

魔法使いじゃないって？
まほうつかい　じゃない　って？
You say you're not a wizard? // He says he's not a wizard?

That's all for today. Next time we'll look at Japanese Potions class.

No, not really. (Sorry if you were excited.)