わかる・わからない VS 知ってる・知らない

This confused me for a long time…in fact, until last week. Like many of you, I learned that わからない means “I don’t understand.” At the same time, it’s also “I don’t know.“ And on the other hand, 知ってる means “I know” as well. So what’s the difference?

I understand. ＝ わかる (知ってる) (wakaru/shitteru) I don’t understand. ＝ わからない (知ていない) (wakaranai/shiteinai)

You can use both わかる or 知ってる for “I know” and use わからない or 知らない for “I don’t know.” The difference is in the nuance and impression.

知ってる is for when you know of something, vaguely or superficially. わかる  is for a deeper understanding/sense of empathy, like “I know what you mean/ I know how you feel.”

Use 知ってる when you’ve seen, heard, or read about something. You have at least superficial information about it.

When you say “I know what you mean” or “I know how you feel,” it has the impression/nuance of empathy. It expresses a deeper understanding and not just superficial information, and わかる is best used in this case.

Consider these two examples:

#1 is a superficial question asking about a location, and #2 is a question with more depth, asking if you know what the heck you’re doing.

Here’s another two examples:

For the second example, if you don’t have that information (you don’t know if there’s a police ox nearby), there are technically two ways to answer. 知りません。I don’t know. わかりません。I don’t know.

However, in this case, you should say わかりません。

You’re probably wondering, what’s wrong with saying 知りません?

If you want to err on the side of politeness, use わからない 。  知ってる can give off an impression of being terse of cold, kind of like asking someone if they know where the police box is and them saying, “How would I know?”

Finally, if all else fails,

here’s a cheat sheet for which word to use. Pay attention to the form of the question.

がんばって！ アイビー

What wrong wif him

Nothing, he’s perfect

turn on the sound for the love of all that is holy and good in this world

cats just. are like that sometimes

[qozop]

weirdly it all seems to suit everyone

i love when fanfiction describes male orgasm simply as

“he exploded”

just like

Can confirm this actually happens

Everyone wants a rock bottom. Some Icarus shit. But the truth is some holes keep going, yawning, heady, one mistake becomes three: there’s always a dark darker than the dark you know.

— Hala Alyan, from “You’re Not a Girl in a Movie,” The Twenty-Ninth Year

fuck dude it sure is

I told Miyazaki I love the “gratuitous motion” in his films; instead of every movement being dictated by the story, sometimes people will just sit for a moment, or they will sigh, or look in a running stream, or do something extra, not to advance the story but only to give the sense of time and place and who they are.

“We have a word for that in Japanese,” he said. “It’s called ma. Emptiness. It’s there intentionally.”

Is that like the “pillow words” that separate phrases in Japanese poetry?

“I don’t think it’s like the pillow word.” He clapped his hands three or four times. “The time in between my clapping is ma. If you just have non-stop action with no breathing space at all, it’s just busyness, But if you take a moment, then the tension building in the film can grow into a wider dimension. If you just have constant tension at 80 degrees all the time you just get numb.”

Which helps explain why Miyazaki’s films are more absorbing and involving than the frantic cheerful action in a lot of American animation. I asked him to explain that a little more.

“The people who make the movies are scared of silence, so they want to paper and plaster it over,” he said. “They’re worried that the audience will get bored. They might go up and get some popcorn.

But just because it’s 80 percent intense all the time doesn’t mean the kids are going to bless you with their concentration. What really matters is the underlying emotions–that you never let go of those.

— Roger Ebert in conversation with Hiyao Miyazaki

間 - ma

opportunity rover: my battery is low and it is getting dark

me, already on the phone begging nasa to send me to mars so i can help her:

how does pink hair look good on everyone :/ god said fuck u when he made it unnatural

ok universe, i’m ready to feel good things. make me feel good things.

oblivious

i lost my shit at the last panel

Does this shit actually happen? Seems fake to me

Access denied: wheelchair metro maps versus everyone else's

Source: The Guardian

I don’t do very many reblogs on here, but this is very important—each inaccessible station reduces the number of possible trips on the network at factorial rates, and the earlier maps do a good job of illustrating that even if a decently large fraction of stations is accessible, the fraction of trips that can be made with full access is much smaller.

When I moved to Chicago I was bewildered by the number of inaccessible El stations. I couldn’t understand how it could be legal given the ADA. I still don’t really know. But because the train almost never runs at ground level, and when it does it’s often not accessed FROM ground level (the freeway-side stations on the south side are usually accessed from an overpass), it’s a heavily inaccessible system. Lots of the stations that have elevators or escalators don’t have them functioning half the time, and some just straight up don’t have any access except by stairs. Sheridan station, my old station, has literally no way to get to the platform except by climbing a flight and a half of stairs. No elevator, not even for emergencies. No escalator. No alternate access. It’s the stairs or nothing. 

AOA’s Seolhyun for GQ Korea