[IcewindDude]

This thread really reminds me back when I had to struggle through the "it's this way/it's that way" rules of Japanese. Back when I was thinking more rigidly and wanted to accept that there was a "right" way. When you think about it, our best language learners, children, have no concept of "right" and certainly have no rigid preconception of how language rules are followed.

I started off learning the safe textbook language, but then I followed suit and simply learned from listening.

Btw, I've heard of those examples (じゃありません / ではない) in anime before... But I learned very quickly that anime should not be a reference to normal conversation.