So, you want to learn Japanese?

Post by **Beowulf** » 2004-01-14 04:33pm

http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~thoureau/japanese.html

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2004-01-14 04:36pm

I have that page saved somewhere.

Absolutely hilarious, and right in sooooooooooo many ways. I dated a girl in my sophmore year that was taking Japanese as her major. Oi jeebus the bizarre hell of understanding that language CORRECTLY is nuts.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2004-01-14 04:49pm

saw that page a few months ago. still damned funny. what's sad is if you post it at an anime or videogame forum everyone will jump down your throat for being closed minded. . . . .

Shinova · Post by **Shinova** » 2004-01-14 05:10pm

Hmmm.....Well I still plan to learn it someday.

Alex Moon · Post by **Alex Moon** » 2004-01-14 05:26pm

The classmates part was the most accurate. Too accurate.

The author is right: Japanese is pain. Unfortunatly, some of us are masochists.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2004-01-14 05:40pm

I have that page saved too.

Thing is, I gave up.

They should be speaking English now like good bitches anyway.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2004-01-14 05:47pm

I'm going to minor in Japanese, so nyah!

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2004-01-14 06:15pm

Japanese is very easy, but for someone who is used to speaking in cryptic english, its different-ness is too great.

Darth Yoshi · Post by **Darth Yoshi** » 2004-01-14 06:59pm

That was pretty funny.

AnimeJet · Post by **AnimeJet** » 2004-01-14 07:11pm

*is taking Japanese* ... I wanted Chinese!

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2004-01-14 07:13pm

chinese is infinitely more complex. mainly due to being a tonal language.

Darth Yoshi · Post by **Darth Yoshi** » 2004-01-14 07:27pm

AnimeJet wrote:*is taking Japanese* ... I wanted Chinese!

Just because you're a native speaker.

To be honest, Japanese is slightly easier, vocab-wise. I'm not sure about grammar-wise, though.

Exonerate · Post by **Exonerate** » 2004-01-14 08:12pm

Darth Yoshi wrote:
AnimeJet wrote:*is taking Japanese* ... I wanted Chinese!
Just because you're a native speaker.

To be honest, Japanese is slightly easier, vocab-wise. I'm not sure about grammar-wise, though.

I think that Chinese is a little easier grammar-wise. But that might be biase speaking on my side, since I grew up with Chinese, and am now taking Japanese...

Chinese definitely is a lot harder to write (Tens of thousands of characters - augh), and harder to speak as well.

Agent R · Post by **Agent R** » 2004-01-15 12:05am

I should have taken French. The French teacher is much easier to look at than my Japanese teacher.

Young, hip, 20-something woman >>>> balding, 30 year old man. *sigh*

AnimeJet · Post by **AnimeJet** » 2004-01-15 12:57am

Exonerate wrote:
Darth Yoshi wrote:
AnimeJet wrote:*is taking Japanese* ... I wanted Chinese!
Just because you're a native speaker.

To be honest, Japanese is slightly easier, vocab-wise. I'm not sure about grammar-wise, though.
I think that Chinese is a little easier grammar-wise. But that might be biase speaking on my side, since I grew up with Chinese, and am now taking Japanese...

Chinese definitely is a lot harder to write (Tens of thousands of characters - augh), and harder to speak as well.

The grammer in Japanese is definitely harder to get. Chinese is pretty similar to English, something like.. "I eat rice" is the same structure in Chinese and English, but in Japanese it's "I rice eat" (but "I ate rice at the cafeteria" would be "I at the cafeterian ate rice" in Chinese, and in Japanese it would be "I at the cafeteria rice ate" >.>), and then there are all those damned particles, yarrgg >_<.

I think Chinese is easier to write, its just memorization. I keep mixing up my Hiragana and Katakana though.

Now I don't know if should switch to Chinese next year, since I'll probably have to start with Chinese 1, blah, sucks.

Exonerate · Post by **Exonerate** » 2004-01-15 01:02am

AnimeJet wrote: I think Chinese is easier to write, its just memorization. I keep mixing up my Hiragana and Katakana though.

I'm guessing you haven't gotten to the more advanced characters yet. They're really a bitch to remember...

I have no problems with Japanese syntax... I keep forgetting my katakana at the worst possible moments though.

XaLEv · Post by **XaLEv** » 2004-01-15 04:16am

I've only read a little bit of this, but so far it is hilarious, in an "idiots shouldn't stray into subjects beyond their intellectual capacity" type of way.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2004-01-15 07:47am

I have to wonder how such smart races created such inefficient languages. German is my favourite, but even they have something against splitting long words up.

Schwarzwaldkirchetorte? ARGH!

Dahak · Post by **Dahak** » 2004-01-15 08:02am

Admiral Valdemar wrote:I have to wonder how such smart races created such inefficient languages. German is my favourite, but even they have something against splitting long words up.

Schwarzwaldkirchetorte? ARGH!

Actually, it would be Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte

If you like long words, try "Donaudampfschifffahrtskapitänsassistentenmützenhalterschraubenzieher"

And if you want to laugh about German, go here

A bit dated, but still true in many parts

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2004-01-15 08:08am

My Deutsch tutor used to make this one guy say... black forest gateaux (auf Deutsch) every lesson. That's one of the only damn German words I'll never forget... uh, except in spelling it then (I always saw it as one word in the books).

And this is a most highly inefficient language, Dahak. Hang your mortal head in shame.

Zoink · Post by **Zoink** » 2004-01-15 10:51am

If you get the tones wrong for “orangutang” in Japanese you end up with “virgin”, which could result in some embarrassing situations if you take your date to the zoo

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2004-01-15 12:42pm

This applies to SO many people that it isn't funny. some of which dwell...well...lurk.....here. I shall not name names.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2004-01-15 12:51pm

I know, the real otaku culture in the West is scary. People going full on Japanophile and wanting to learn the language to enjoy the series more or go on holiday there or buy merchadise with all their disposable income.

I like animé, but I'm not some diehard freak on it. Hell, even the guys at MT.com (Central Forum at least) can't stand this thing, but then a lot are Asian too.

Post by **haas mark** » 2004-01-15 01:50pm

And this is why I'll stick to Russian, thankyouverymuch.

~ver

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2004-01-15 03:49pm

sad thing is most of the american anime fans labeling otaku without realizing that in japan its considered a derogatory term, as it means self-focused fanatic. so anyone that's fanatic about one subject to the exclusion of everything else is considered otaku, whatever that subject might happen to be.

one of the original uses of the word, iirc, involved some pedophiliac/murderer in japan that was put on trial after being captured. he pleaded that he'd watched so much anime that hed gotten to the point that he couldn't tell the difference between fantasy and reality, and got the tag otaku. (i don't recall the story in exact detail. i'll do some digging to look it up though.)