I’m struggling with what to write, to be honest. I think a part of it is that I’m far more depressed then I usually am, but that’s not all of it. I just feel like I’ve said everything interesting that I have to say, and everything else just seems to be a rehash of some old post from here or there. There are only so many ways to say “Japanese is hard”, and Japanese popular culture, as I’ve mentioned, seems mostly to be a very broad, very shallow sea –… Read More »Honesty
At my Japanese lesson today, the question was posed: ひらがなは漢字どちら方が一番やさしいですか (which is the easiest, kanji or hiragana) I responded 漢字は方が一番やさしいです (kanji is the easiest). I didn’t make this statement lightly or without thinking. And while it would have been fun to troll sensei, I wasn’t doing that either. I really do think that is the correct answer. And here’s why. Yes, when it comes to pronunciation, hiragana is by far easier. This is obvious. Each kana has its own pronunciation, and the syllables are one to one – meaning there… Read More »Kanji is easier than Hiragana
I found a book at Half Price Books yesterday called “zakennayo”. It’s an introduction to slang in Japanese. It doesn’t paint a very flattering picture of early 90s Japanese teen culture, but maybe that’s just realistic. “Zakennayo” is an extremely rude word that means, essentially, “fuck off” in Japanese. It’s a word I’d actually rather I didn’t know, but I guess it’s good to have in my arsenal if I really, really need it. And I can’t think of a situation where I would. But here’s the funny thing. This… Read More »Ignorance
Many words in Japanese are borrowed from other languages. Many from Chinese, and quite a few from English and Portuguese. A smattering from other languages as well. The interesting thing about Japanese, though, as opposed to many other languages, is that the Japanese language doesn’t have the syllabic structure to migrate the loanwords over untouched. So when they migrate a word into their language, even though it’s somewhat recognizable as the word they borrowed, it’s not the same word anymore. For example, “Starbucks”. In Japanese, it’s “sutaabukkusu”, or スターブックス. For… Read More »Loan Words
I started this blog on a whim, not really knowing what I would even do with it. Honest truth is, that hasn’t changed. I still have no idea. I just write about what I feel like. Sometimes it’s good. Sometimes it’s crap. Sometimes it’s crappily good. But here are some interesting insights. My most popular post is 5 Reasons J-Pop sucks. Interestingly, that was an experimental post. Everything in that post was designed to be popular. I put in a “5 reasons” tagline, I had an emotional conclusion that would draw… Read More »100 posts
A recurring theme of this site is my continued wonder at why I’m bothering to learn Japanese at all. I mean, it is an interesting language, it’s difficult, it’s a challenge. All these things are true. But at the end of the day, as a gaikokujin, I find that my reasons for learning the language are really, at the end of the day, somewhat puzzling. What I mean is this: after learning Japanese, I’ll have the following abilities: I’ll be able to read manga in its native language (yay!). I’ll be… Read More »The Shallowness of Exported Japanese Culture
My first true exposure to Japanese language was Rosetta Stone. In fact, I remember the first word I ever learned: otokonoko. I became very disillusioned with Rosetta Stone very quickly, and decided that it wasn’t worth it, particularly for the price. But lately I’ve been studying the kanken books. You see, in Japan, there are ten levels of kanji certification. I could probably pass test 10 right now, but honestly, so could most first graders. But what really interested me was the beginning of the book. Because, you see, there… Read More »Immersion
Let me preface this by saying: this is only a thought experiment. I have no illusions that this will ever happen. I’m not even seriously proposing it. But I do like to think about these kinds of things. So, that said, how would I redo Japanese if I were God? Well, my first thought is, expand the syllabary. Add a couple of vowels and a couple of consonants. Then, redo the syllabary to something that is logical, something like the korean hangul. Make the rules regular and predictable – this… Read More »How Would I Have Done It?
There are two pillars to success when learning any language: vocabulary and grammar. The thing about them is, they are actually rather orthogonal to each other. Even in Japanese, as long as you learn the dictionary form (or to some degree even the polite form of the word) you don’t need to worry too much about how to use it to know the word. You need to know both, obviously, but you can work on both separately, and not lose anything when it comes to learning whatever language you’re trying… Read More »The Two Pillars of Success
Western people know many Japanese place names. Osaka, Tokyo, and even for more unsavory reasons, Hiroshima, Nagasaki… But what many western people don’t know is that these are actually very ordinary names in Japanese. Hiroshima, for example, means “Wide Island”, and Tokyo means “Capital City” (or something similar). The fact that the names are in a language we don’t understand makes them sound exotic, but they’re not exotic at all. Just like, for example, “Austin” might sound exotic, but it’s just a random guy’s last name, and “Round Rock” is… Read More »The Other