Post #115,980
8/30/03 1:33:31 PM
|
On Japanese
According to a friend in the throes of, learning spoken Japanese isn't too arduous. Learning written Japanese, on the other hand...
Peter
[link|http://www.debian.org|Shill For Hire]
[link|http://www.kuro5hin.org|There is no K5 Cabal]
[link|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org|Blog]
|
Post #115,981
8/30/03 1:36:39 PM
|
Had the opposite opinion on spoken from college roommate :-)
But yes, written Japanese is pretty nasty too.
Regards,
-scott anderson
"Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
|
Post #116,190
9/1/03 9:57:12 AM
|
It's more of a culture than a language.
Quite a lot in the language will not make any kind of sense if you don't learn about the culture. Of course, a lot doesn't make sense anyway, but that's akin to English's odd-spelling...
Actually, Japanese is just really different for an English speaker to learn. It is a lot more regular in its construction that English, but it's grammar is just different. And written Japanese requires a mind that has had experience at image recognition.
Wade.
Is it enough to love
Is it enough to breathe
Somebody rip my heart out
And leave me here to bleed
| |
Is it enough to die
Somebody save my life
I'd rather be Anything but Ordinary
Please
| -- "Anything but Ordinary" by Avril Lavigne. |
|
Post #116,110
8/31/03 5:43:53 PM
|
From someone who's been there.
Learning BASIC spoken Japanese isn't that hard.
But learning to speak like a person of your age bracket, instead of a 10 year old girl...
Well, that's a whole different difficulty. ;)
In that final hour, when each breath is a struggle to take, and you are looking back over your life's accomplishments, which memories would you treasure? The empires you built, or the joy you spread to others?
Therin lies the true measure of a man.
|
Post #116,114
8/31/03 5:59:00 PM
|
Re: From someone who's been there.
Oh, I quite agree. What I was trying to get at is that making yourself understood in Japanese is much, much easier than in !Kung or Hungarian, to pick two glaringly obvious examples :)
Peter
[link|http://www.debian.org|Shill For Hire]
[link|http://www.kuro5hin.org|There is no K5 Cabal]
[link|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org|Blog]
|
Post #116,132
8/31/03 8:30:50 PM
|
Hungarian?
You've tried Hungarian?
(It's part of a small family of langauges that includes Turkish and Finnish.)
I know one word of Hungarian (I think) - zongora, piano. I only know that one from a Tamas Vasary disk, and I know he didn't play the sousaphone.
-drl
|
Post #116,167
9/1/03 3:13:45 AM
|
Re: Hungarian?
Part of the Finno-Ugric language group.
I spent a fortnight there and never got much more beyond saying "cheers" and "taxi". The language was a blank to me.
Peter
[link|http://www.debian.org|Shill For Hire]
[link|http://www.kuro5hin.org|There is no K5 Cabal]
[link|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org|Blog]
|
Post #116,189
9/1/03 9:53:07 AM
|
Ah, the essentials.
Just enough to get drunk, and get home. ;)
In that final hour, when each breath is a struggle to take, and you are looking back over your life's accomplishments, which memories would you treasure? The empires you built, or the joy you spread to others?
Therin lies the true measure of a man.
|
Post #116,713
9/5/03 3:28:02 AM
|
Absolut-ley :)
Peter
[link|http://www.debian.org|Shill For Hire]
[link|http://www.kuro5hin.org|There is no K5 Cabal]
[link|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org|Blog]
|
Post #116,137
8/31/03 10:22:32 PM
|
One thing I noticed in Spanish...
...there's a distinct subset of the total vocabulary that men use that women don't, and vice-versa. Subtle (because it's not absolute), but noticeable.
"There's a set of rules that anything that was in the world when you were born is normal and natural. Anything invented between when you were 15 and 35 is new and revolutionary and exciting, and you'll probably get a career in it. Anything invented after you're 35 is against the natural order of things." Douglas Adams
|
