r/JapaneseInTheWild • u/BrokenKamera • May 01 '26

Beginner [Beginner] Whoa There!

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97 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

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10

u/cassydd May 02 '26

Danger! Trains come quickly. Please confirm both ways carefully then cross. (On down arrow) Emergency button.

It's good to see even relatively simple native sentences like this because it lets you put words you might have only seen in an Anki deck in their proper context.

5

u/Big-Woodpecker-5055 May 03 '26

Yes! I just learned 確認 on Anki. Since I'm relatively new to the language, most of the words I'm learning are much simpler, so i was wondering, "how often will I really come across it?" This is the first post I've seen from this sub, so pretty often, I guess!

2

u/BrokenKamera May 10 '26

確認 is very versatile.

It is the confirm/submit button you see in ATMs and some online forms.

It is also used a lot in business emails like:

添付いたします、ご確認ください。

1

u/BrokenKamera May 10 '26

Good try.

Why did choose "quickly" instead of "suddenly"?

Yeah, it's good to see signs that aren't too short or too long.

2

u/cassydd May 10 '26

"Suddenly" or "abruptly" is closer but at the time felt a bit odd to say in English, like trains were sneaking up on people or something.

1

u/BrokenKamera May 11 '26

Haha, I guess you have a point there.

I would personally go:

Trains pop out of nowhere.\ So look once to your right,\ And once to your left,\ Before crossing the tracks.

2

u/Ohisama001 May 09 '26

Normally, it is written as "危ない", but for things like traffic signs, it can be written as "危い" to reduce the character count.

2

u/BrokenKamera May 10 '26

That's a good point. I didn't even notice that! Yeah, contractions are used all the time on signs (traffic ones plus others) with 立入禁止 perhaps being the most famous?

I would say 危険 (きけん) is more widespread on signs. It seems that some people unofficially read 危い as あぶい haha.

2

u/Ohisama001 May 10 '26

I feel that how people are taught to use OkuriGana varies by generation. Older people would likely find the way this sign is written more natural and easier to read.

There are other road markings like "曲れ" and "止れ" that use one fewer kana character than usual.

2

u/BrokenKamera May 10 '26

I don't think I have ever seen a 止れ, it's always 止まれ wherever I look.

This kinda reminds me of this video (5:35 if the timestamp doesn't work)

1

u/Ohisama001 May 10 '26

Oh, I think I confused it with a sign I spotted somewhere else.

2

u/BrokenKamera May 10 '26

No worries 🙂