"I wonder if you remember me."

[thegooseking]

みんなさん、おはよう、

Thank you for your help on my last post about not forgetting. Now I want to talk about remembering

I am trying to write a message to a Japanese exchange student I was friends with in high school. Because it's been so long, I want to write quite formally at first. From what I understand, 私ことを思い出しますかな is quite informal (at least the かな part is), but I feel that to simply ask him if he remembers me is a bit too direct. What would be the best phrase to use here?

My second question is a little unrelated, but the last time I saw him, I couldn't speak any Japanese. When I tell him about learning Japanese, I want to say that I have been practicing here, but I haven't really practiced in the real world. My guess for that would be:-
「JapanesePod101」という語学学習のウエブサイトで練習していましたけど、実世界で練習することがあまりありません。
My main question is whether 実世界 is the right term for "real world" as opposed to "learning environment", but of course I'd appreciate any other critique on this statement (can you use あまり with ことがありません, for instance? And is すること redundant to turn a noun into a verb and then back into a noun?)

よろしくおねがいします、
小狼

[community.japanese]

小狼さん、

I am not sure how many years you haven’t seen the friend, however, I recommend you to use polite form first.
私のことを覚えていますか。
If s/he uses plain form in a reply, you also can use it. It is hard for second language learners (or even native Japanese speakers sometimes) to recognize the timing of change of formality leve so follow your friend.

Regarding the second question, How about the sentence below?

「JapanesePod101」という語学学習のウエブサイトで練習していますけど、実際に人と話して使ったことがあまりありません。

1. When you say していました, it means, “I had studied”. I think you want to say “I have studied”.
2. Generally speaking 実世界で使う／使用する is commonly used.
However, I thought your 練習means ‘speaking’.
If it’s not, please let me know.
3. あまりーことがありません is good however you need た form before ことがありません which indicates no experience.

Yuki 由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com

[thegooseking]

由紀先生、

That is what I wanted to know. ありがとうございます。

If I were to guess why you use 覚える rather than 思い出す, I would guess that 覚える means 'remember' in the sense of having a memory of something, while 思い出す means 'remember' in the sense of becoming aware of a memory. Would that be right?

For the second question, I think I was making the mistake of thinking in English first. I wanted to use the present perfect progressive ("I have been studying"): i.e., it's something that I have done in the past but am also still doing. I forgot that in Japanese, ~ている translates both the present progressive and the present perfect progressive.

小狼

[community.japanese]

小狼さん、

If I were to guess why you use 覚える rather than 思い出す, I would guess that 覚える means 'remember' in the sense of having a memory of something, while 思い出す means 'remember' in the sense of becoming aware of a memory. Would that be right?

That is correct!

It's ok if you forget as long as you have a review again.

小狼さんの友達が小狼さんを覚えているといいですね。

Yuki 　由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com