A couple weeks ago I began studying Japanese. \u00a0I’m not sure why I suddenly got the motivation… I mean, I can point to reasons why I think it would be cool\/useful to know, but there’s nothing particularly new. \u00a0In part I think it was because I was speaking with a friend on Facebook about it and he just sort of suggested “well why not learn it then?”, and I guess my thought was… “yeah… why not?” \u00a0And so I set about doing so.<\/p>\n
My friend got me started a little bit and then I sought out some iphone apps to help in the process. \u00a0So fair I’ve been using Mirai Japanese and iStart Kana (which is also made by Mirai). \u00a0I feel like they’ve been pretty helpful thus far.<\/p>\n
My only experience with other languages prior to this was a tiny bit of French (I switched schools and the school I switched to did not have a French class, so, I did not continue), and then Spanish. \u00a0Both of those languages use roman letters, so there is nothing new to learn in that regard, and it’s just vocabulary and grammar. \u00a0With Japanese, one must learn 2\u00a0syllaberies, hiragana (\u3072\u3089\u304c\u306a) and katakana (\u30ab\u30bf\u30ab\u30ca) and then also kanji (chinese characters), which I haven’t even really started on yet. \u00a0I can recognize a handful… \u00a0the main one being\u00a0Japan (\u65e5\u672c). \u00a0Kanji is rather intimidating as there are literally thousands of them… so I’m waiting until I have the kana down before I really make an effort to start learning it.<\/p>\n
Since I started I have to say I have found it extremely interesting, if confusing. \u00a0Looking at a completely different language and thinking that to someone else your language is the strange foreign thing that is confusing and doesn’t make any sense is sort of fascinating. \u00a0It’s really sort of bizarre that these sounds and symbols are sort of intrinsically understood by us… \u00a0and in our native tongue, without us even thinking about it.<\/p>\n
It’s also interesting to see the reasons why Japanese speakers have the accents they do when speaking english. \u00a0One of the things that I found interesting early on is that there is no tone change when asking a question in Japanese. \u00a0In english, consider the difference in how you would say “Follow me.” (a command) vs. “Follow me?” a question. \u00a0Japanese uses the question marker \u304b to indicate a question… if I am speaking it to myself (I wouldn’t try to speak it to anyone else at this point.. haha) and I know I am asking a question, I find it very hard to NOT use the rising tone. \u00a0I don’t know if that changes the meaning at all in Japanese, but I know it’s not used to indicate that you’re asking a question.<\/p>\n
Anyway, I don’t know how long it will take before I’m able to actually read or speak anything of use in Japanese, but for now I’m happy with the progress I’m making on learning hiragana. \u00a0I actually recognize most of the characters now. \u00a0Considering when I first looked at it I wasn’t convinced my brain would be able to remember any of them… \u00a0that gives me hope that I might actually be able to learn the rest of this stuff yet!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A couple weeks ago I began studying Japanese. \u00a0I’m not sure why I suddenly got the motivation… I mean, I can point to reasons why I think it would be cool\/useful to know, but there’s nothing particularly new. \u00a0In part I think it was because I was speaking with a friend on Facebook about it … Continue reading Language<\/span>