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by Rendello 566 days ago
Fair enough, I like having friends but have a hard time figuring out when to fit them into my schedule.

In this case, I know my friend's friend talked about constant overtime and not having a life outside of the office.

I sent Mai this video of the crazy day-in-the-life of a salaryman in Japan [1], and we both felt it was crazy, but she said "I actually think he likes it". Some people are cut out for overtime every day but I know I'd go crazy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tmjXp_AYg0

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Unrelated, but I (sort of) wish English had an obviative case. It's hard to give a story about a friend and their friend of the same gender in English without ambiguity, hence why I gave [person 1] a name.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obviative
1 comments
apt-apt-apt-apt 565 days ago
Good to know about the obviative case, that there's a name for these type of things.

When writing docs in code recently, it struck me as a little odd that pronouns can be used as a shorthand when referring to a singular and a plural, but can't be if they have the same plurality.

E.g. "When the name and errors exist, and it is non-empty and they are capitalized, ..."

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Rendello 565 days ago
Speaking of Japanese, I learned from that friend that they don't use 2nd or 3rd person pronouns that much at all, preferring to repeat the person's name. For third person it's strange to my ears, but it was very surprising to hear my name repeated in second person!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_pronouns

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makeitdouble 564 days ago
Yes. 2nd and 3rd pronouns tend to be harder to use in social contexts.

You usually convey a bunch of info and intent when referring to someone (how close you're to that person and their social position relative to you), and pronouns don't easily cover that range. It can be done but requires more finesse.

That's perhaps why pronouns are so tainted (You=anata has become the most stereotypical way to call one's husband)

The better choice is usually to omit the subject and just imply who you're talking about. Using their name is the second best alternative.

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