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Jaaguar
How to say "I am only/just studying Japanese"?
As I understand,
"I study Japanese."
is
"Nihongo o benkyōshiteimasu."
How is
"I am only studying Japanese."
?
"Nihongo o benkyōshiteiru dake desu."
??
Mind you, I don't mean to say:
I am studying ONLY JAPANESE.
I mean to say:
I am ONLY STUDYING Japanese.
That is: please excuse my mistakes, I haven't yet studied long enough to reach proficiency.
2020년 7월 5일 오후 5:24
답변 · 1
Hi Jaaguar,
I think that's an interesting question. See, Japanese is a funny language. Intonation is very important for this tricky language. As you might know, Japanese relies a lot on formality indicators (for example, less formal or more formal sentence structures). Once these two clash (formal and informal expressions on the same sentence), it creates a nuance that may be seen as offensive or cynical, as if one is mocking another.
In this sense, you are right that "I study Japanese." is "Nihongo o benkyōshiteimasu."
But, if you say "Nihongo o benkyōshiteiru dake desu", it may be seen as offensive or cynical. As I mentioned before, because "dake" is often used in informal sentences (with some exceptions), if you use "desu" after that, which is a little more formal, it creates the clash that I was talking about. However, you can easily avoid the misunderstanding by just adding "yo" at the end of the sentence. (Nihongo o benkyōshiteiru dake desuyo)
(I'm sorry if this is not what you were asking about, but I believe this might help you in the future). So moving on...
A QUICK ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION:
1) "I am only studying Japanese." is "Nihongo dake benkyōshiteimasu." (If you mean "no other languages, only japanese)
or
2)"I am only studying Japanese" is Nihongo o benkyōshiteiru dake desuyo" (for formal way) or "Nihongo o benkyōshiteiru dake dayo" (for informal way).
2020년 7월 5일
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Jaaguar
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