四字熟語 シリーズ

[stevesayskanpai]

こんにちは！

I'm really enjoying and benefitting from the 四字熟語　series.

However I'm wondering if its possible for you to put your heads together and come up with a list of how often each individual word is used in a) everyday conversation b) other conversation, e.g. TV documentaries and so on, and c) written Japanese. I know this is a problem a lot of people have when learning 四字熟語ー　how to fit them into their existing Japanese vocabulary. I also realise its a bit subjective, but if you could give a rough guide that'd be great!

それじゃ。

[Elfunko]

A) You can fit it into conversation by:
1a. Having a conversation and using the word
1a.1. If you don't get wierd looks or a comment it works
1a.2. If you do get wierd comments, maybe those people don't use idioms that much

B) Other conversations
1b. Listen with your ears to lots of conversations
1b1. When/if you hear one of these words come up, you might/might not recognize it
1b2. Therefore, lots of exposure is necessary, however
1b3. If you have already listened to tons of input looking for one yojijyukugo word, you will probably rack up hundreds of hours of listening before you actually recognize one

C) Written Japanese:
1c1. Read a lot
1c2. Recognize it in reading

I mean, why eat one grain of rice from a pile of a billion??

unless 99a1. You have no means of trying words in conversation
99a2. Then I could see why you'd what to overanalyze this small portion of such a larger picture.

oh ya

1,000,000,000a1. For finding examples of words in reading, just try googling the word.

[Elfunko]

Which then brings me to my request:

yojijyukugo is obviously meant for an advanced learner, then why have the whole thing in English?? Like I said, having a million inputs will give you a better result than just one, and that goes the same with studying even one yojijyukugo word. If you have the whole thing explained in Japanese, then re-clarified after questions, then example sentences etc, all the same stuff they do now in English, but hey, just for a wild revolutionary idea do it in Japanese, people just might learn something...

[stevesayskanpai]

Is there really any need for this sarcasm? Asking the people who make the pdfs and audio files how much they think a word is used in everyday life is hardly ridiculous.

And the English explanation is fine I think.

[Psy]

I know this isn't the best answer to your question (especially considering that google's result counts can exaggerate things a lot), but my means of learning more yoji-jukugo has been by plowing through http://www.nafai.org/japanese/yojijukugo.php . Combined with Anki and 2-direction review, it has also been a great quiz for writing kanji. I track my progress in my forum signature here to help stay motivated.

And please, Elfunko. You're a bright guy. You know a ton of Japanese. You've been there, done that with the living-in-Japan experience. But please realize that the majority of people studying Japanese here do not have regular interaction with natives. stevesayskanpai made a fair request and you don't need to be condescending in answering him.

[Hiroko]

stevesayskanpai san> Thank you for your request. Everytime a request/suggestion is sent to us via email or forum, I put the request in our "JP101 idea bank". Of course, we cannot make everyone happy at the same time, and there are always people that are not happy with things no matter what you do, you know? But, the request such as one you made, is very valuable to us. It doesn't necessarily mean it's going to change immediately, but even if that's the case, if you ask how often that yojijukugo is used, using comment section, we always respond to comments. And another thing is, even for Japanese, the usage of yojijukugo varies. So, if we say "ok, this is very popular yojijukugo" in the lesson, someone may say "No, i've been listening to news, watching TV, talking to people in japan, but have NEVER heard of it!"
So, the bottom line is, I'm going to add your request in our idea bank, and share that with other crews, and see what will happen! So, for now, could you try asking using the comment section? As you can see, I'm making every effort to respond to all the comments made And That's all because we value the opinions of our listeners!

[Elfunko]

I was a little bastard when I wrote that. Checked and understood, I apologize.

However, and I don't mean to make myself sound like more of an ass (but hey, we know the chances of avoiding that are slim to none)....I'm just stopping right here.

p.s. Focused study on one portion of grammar, yojijyukugo, etc. is not overanalysis and it is necessary.