This is the third week of my nihongo class. It is an interesting class and 8 of us are having fun! Ya rite...With a funky Shimizu sensei, kireina Kumai sensei, kawaii Toyosawa sensei and shizukana Kanako sensei, I am bestowed the fundamental arts of hiragana and katakana and lots of kanji that I picked up along the way.
I always thought that recognizing katakana is hard after forcing my already limited memory into accepting hiragana. But some of the katagana if you realize are almost the same as the one as hiragana. All you need to do is to square it. And some are ehem...bad. They are part of a mandarin character and that makes it hard for me to memorize it. I need to transfer the katagana into mandarin pronunciation and the nemonic of it later...sigh...
Another observation is the use of katagana. The way things are spelt are predetermined. Although borrowed from foreign languages, it can only be spelt just one way! dang it... it is worst if it is not English. Example, restaurant, but 'ent' sound is absense in French. Our Japanese friends followed the French and thus it is spelt resutoron. I was expecting resutaronto. Other non-English word that I could remember now is alberto?? (which means part time). In katakana it is spelt as arubaito. Why is it not patotaimu?? Not to mention su-pa- (supermarket), depa-to (department store).
Final observation, kanji. Number one thing I learned, not all kanji are the same as chinese character. They are similar but not the same. Some meaning are different at all as a matter of fact. There is one time I so wanted to just write in Chinese character and be done with it. However I realize that flipping the coin, what would I think if a Japanese write mandarin character using their familiar kanji instead? So I forced myself to write the weird looking mandarin character. Similiarly, would you be angry if a French writing English but spell the words in French instead? Or in Spanish?
Still, I like kanji. I asked my friend why they have so many characters, now I think I can answer part of the questions. It makes life so much better after that. Whatever that is in katakana, it is some foreign object. Most likely a noun. Hiragana is normally particles or adverbs. Kanji, nouns. I actually find it weird to read foriegn names or stuff in hiragana. Unlike chinese, everything is chinese character, so it is hard or even weird when there is something foreign appeared in that. However, most of the foreign stuff, chinese have a substitution for it. And sometimes, just written in pure english. Well, the diversity of language. If I could learn and be fluent in one language within 3 years, and I live for say 75 years...I could be fluent with 18 more new languages, minus the first 21 years that I'd wasted. Hahaha.
Wakarimasuka?
posted by: PresentMoment (reply)
post date: 06.28.04 (10:07 am)
Romanization made japanese so much harder.
peace
posted by: PresentMoment (reply)
post date: 06.28.04 (10:07 am)
grrr i'm not signed in
posted by: Hangedman (reply)
post date: 06.29.04 (6:30 pm)
hai hai...gomen ne...I am using my friend's PC and dont have a Japanese writing program...dont ask me why I didnt download it. Btw I just sent an email in romanji but it looks so weird...:-)
posted by: wen yen (reply)
post date: 06.30.04 (2:14 am)
hehe..you finally updated...tot you 'hanged' your blog oledi...:P
posted by: Krelian (reply)
post date: 07.01.04 (12:49 pm)
Hi, I just wanted to clear the thing with "arubaito". The language it was borrowed from is German. The word itself is "Arbeit" which actually means work in general.
posted by: hangedman (reply)
post date: 07.02.04 (9:42 am)
Reply to: Krelian
hehe, I know that also...after looking up on my textbook...hehe...arigatou
