@Hiroshi212 thank you for the detailed response! I have a further question. You mentioned the backshift of tenses; I assume you are talking about the following?:

来月ハワイに(行った)時、ハワイにいる叔父を(訪ねる)予定だ。
When I (go) to Hawaii next month, I (will visit) my uncle.
(My textbook says that tenses are taken in reference to the main sentence which is 叔父を訪ねる. 行ったー＞その後でー＞訪ねる)

Here is another example I'm confused about:
私は小さい頃から動物が好きだった。当時飼っていた犬や鳥はもちろん、公園のアヒルや捨て猫も「みる」だけで飽きなかった。

In this example, I'm not sure where to take the tense reference from. 飽きなかった?

Hiroshi212

8 giu 2018

Giapponese

@rakujin
I understand how you feel. The tense problem is one of the hardest parts about Japanese, but like I said, although there are some exceptions, I think most of them can be considered logically like in English.
Taking your first sentence for example, you should think (行った) as “have gone” and (訪ねる) 予定だ as “am going to (visit).”

For the second sentence, you should think (好きだった) as “had loved”, (飼っていた) as “had kept”, (見る)だけで as “(just to) see” and (飽きなかった) as “never got bored.”

The entire sentences go;

I had loved animals since my childhood. It never made me get bored just to see ducks or stray cats in the park, not to mention the dogs and birds I had kept.

Utente esperto

Hiroshi212

8 giu 2018

Giapponese

*get bored

Utente esperto

Hiroshi212

8 giu 2018

Giapponese

@rakujin
Am I answering you??

Utente esperto

mourou

8 giu 2018

Inglese (Stati Uniti)

@Hiroshi212 thank you once again for your detailed answer! I have certainly learned many things from it, but I cannot say I have fully understood. I'm wondering if I should just take the approach of trying to understand Japanese grammar completely without English, since there are so many things that just do not match up in these two languages. I wonder how these grammar points are usually taught in Japanese schools?

Hiroshi212

8 giu 2018

Giapponese

@rakujin
Well, as far as I am concerned, in my school days, I was taught English from grammatical point of view. Some people say that Japanese people can’t speak English because the Japanese English education is grammar oriented, but I think it’s wrong. There are lots of things in common between English and Japanese. After all, both are just languages. It’s obvious for them to have things in common. I’m sure you’ll notice that as you continue learning Japanese. Once you get the hang of it, it’s going to be easier to learn Japanese like solving math problems. I always learned English like math. Like memorizing some formulas. That’s why I can make sentences in English to a certain extent. I’ve never studied English abroad, but I can manage about making myself understood in English.
Yeah, I believe learning languages is something like learning math. :)

Utente esperto

Hiroshi212

8 giu 2018

Giapponese

@rakujin
That being said, I know learning Japanese is much harder than learning English. The biggest reason is that spoken languages and written languages in Japanese are a bit different unlike English because we express our emotions by using lots of ending particles and use lots of shortened forms in casual speeches. To your annoyance, we also have honorifics and three writing forms as well. That’s what I feel sorry for Japanese learners about. But I think it’s nice of you to have a question on such grammatical problems. I think you should continue learning Japanese at that rate.

Utente esperto

Hiroshi212

8 giu 2018

Giapponese

@rakujin
So, I recommend you still learn Japanese in comparison to English, especially in grammatical points. That’s what I did.

Utente esperto

mourou

9 giu 2018

Inglese (Stati Uniti)

@Hiroshi212 thank you for sharing your experiences and thoughts with me. I will certainly take that into consideration! once again, thank you for your answers. いつもお世話になっています。