Japanese

Different55 · 2014-02-17 20:03:08

So I wanted to learn a language with a completely different set of symbols, so I picked japanese since russian is all like and chinese is all like but then I tried learning it and I was all like " Who came up with this crap?"

Because seriously. It has 2 different alphabet-things for the exact same sounds. Why not just trash one of them? You'd gain 50% fewer characters and you'd lose absolutely nothing. Having both is a waste of brainspace.

And then there's this kanji crap that should go die in a whole because having 1 word/word part per character is one of the dumbest ways to make a language because that's thousands and thousands of characters for no good reason.

And then there's the whole thing where sentences are structured like "I you slap" instead of "I slap you" but that's not really a problem that's just not being used to it.

#wtb #japaneseprobrems #foreignese #kanjisucks #katakanasucks $hiraganasucks #japanesesucks #learningsucks #[/rant]

Ratburntro44 · 2014-02-17 21:00:59

Just learn Arabic instead. I'm sure that will be totally simple.

Different55 · 2014-02-17 21:28:56

I forgot about Arabic. Arabic has fancy characters and right-to-left reading, right? I'll have to look at that.

Artemis · 2014-02-17 21:32:51

Ratburntro44 wrote:

Just learn Arabic instead. I'm sure that will be totally simple.

Or Thai. I've heard it'll give you no trouble at all.

Different55 · 2014-02-17 21:45:50

Artemis wrote:

Ratburntro44 wrote:
Just learn Arabic instead. I'm sure that will be totally simple.
Or Thai. I've heard it'll give you no trouble at all.

I like that Thai has sentences in subject–verb–object order like english. I'll look at that as well.

Coolio · 2014-02-17 22:02:20

What about Hindi?

Different55 wrote:

Because seriously. It has 2 different alphabet-things for the exact same sounds. Why not just trash one of them? You'd gain 50% fewer characters and you'd lose absolutely nothing. Having both is a waste of brainspace.

I know that there's some sort of historical reason, like hiragana was for women and katakana for men. Or maybe it's the other way around. Either way, I dunno why that still exists.

And then there's this kanji crap that should go die in a whole because having 1 word/word part per character is one of the dumbest ways to make a language because that's thousands and thousands of characters for no good reason.

That also exists in Chinese. They'll put 2+ characters together and they'll mean something different, like a compound word, except there's still spaces between everything. Also, I know that you can have a rough idea of the pronunciation of a character given different parts of it, but I don't know anything about Japanese and my Chinese is god-awful anyways, so I'm not an expert on this topic.

And then there's the whole thing where sentences are structured like "I you slap" instead of "I slap you" but that's not really a problem that's just not being used to it.

Also in French, and likely Spanish. Dunno why that's a thing.

Artemis · 2014-02-17 22:38:35

Coolio wrote:

Also in French, and likely Spanish. Dunno why that's a thing.

Yep, Spanish, too. All the romance languages, actually. And Greek.

Different55 · 2014-02-17 22:40:40

I think Spanish switches between Subject-verb-object and subject-object-verb. I'm nor sure what's going on there, either, but thankfully I've never run into it.

Artemis · 2014-02-17 22:48:54

Different55 wrote:

I think Spanish switches between Subject-verb-object and subject-object-verb. I'm nor sure what's going on there, either, but thankfully I've never run into it.

I speak Spanish, so I could go into detail on that if you want, but it's kind of complicated and not very interesting.

Different55 · 2014-02-17 23:17:02

My mother teaches a Spanish class at a college and she tried to explain it to me earlier. Most of it went right over my head.

Different55 · 2014-02-24 10:24:07

I'd like to use this topic to thank the creators of the d-, g-, and j- sounds in the Japanese language. Instead of making completely new symbols, they just add " over it and it sort of softens the sound. k turns to g, t turns to d, and ch turns to j. Hopefully the rest of the Hiragana are like this and I don't have to memorize any more characters.

Edit: I don't. At least, no more Hiragana. There's still a few thousand common kanji that can go do something physically impossible to themselves. And katakana but supposedly it's easier to learn than Hiragana.

scienceguyz · 2014-02-24 13:34:04

Latin student here. The main thing to remember is that instead of "Different55 ate a burrito" It's "Different55 burrito ate."

Different55 · 2014-02-24 13:58:56

There's this one guy I know who tries to do the impossible on hangman. One time he did a phrase in latin, another time he did a norse word.

scienceguyz · 2014-02-25 23:04:53

Different55 wrote:

There's this one guy I know who tries to do the impossible on hangman. One time he did a phrase in latin, another time he did a norse word.

Never play 20 Questions with one of my friends. He comes up with "Zonkey" and "Blobfish" and stuff. Yeah, they exist, but they're pretty obscure.

Different55 · 2014-02-25 23:06:38

There's always that one guy group of people.

scienceguyz · 2014-02-25 23:08:28

Different55 wrote:

There's always that one guy group of people.

Oh and those people who want to play "I never" and say, "I have never been in a room without a person named <insert their name> also being in the room"

Different55 · 2014-02-25 23:10:06

When that happens the person usually gets sacrificed and we move on with the game.

scienceguyz · 2014-02-25 23:17:33

Different55 wrote:

When that happens the person usually gets sacrificed and we move on with the game.

o_o

O_O

0_0

_0

0

I wish I knew how to animate.

Last edited by scienceguyz (2014-02-25 23:17:58)

Different55 · 2014-02-25 23:19:51

I animated a thing once. never again.

scienceguyz · 2014-02-25 23:30:14

Different55 wrote:

I animated a thing once. never again.

So did I. With how-to-make-gif.com and powerpoint. *shakes as he remembers bad memories*

Different55 · 2014-02-25 23:31:41

How did you... Nevermind, I don't want to know. I just used GrafX2 and GIMP.

N1KF · 2014-02-25 23:35:09

Back to OP:

I have to admit, that Japanese is actually kind of simple, in a way: Japanese letters are almost always pronounced the same, unlike English, that has multiple ways to pronounce each vowel. Not just that, but English can also combine vowels with OTHER letters to make even MORE sounds, much MORE sounds than the amount of sounds possible IN JAPANESE.

Oh, and like Coolio says, there's probably some justified reason for two separate alphabets. And kanji, which is basically a copycat of Chinese.

Grammar? I think it may be simpler, even though you're not used to it. "Different55 ate a burrito" would be "Different55 burrito eat," not "Different55 burrito ate." "Eat" and "ate" are completely different words, but in the language of nihongo, you don't have to worry about that. Since you speak English, it seems natural that you would be confused by it.

Japanese is not a fail, it's just confusing for those who know English best, that's all. Oh, and yes, I'm learning Japanese.

Last edited by N1KF (2014-03-20 16:09:38)

Different55 · 2014-02-25 23:38:13

The more I learn of it, the simpler it seems. It is a pretty well designed language. It's just different from the convoluted language known as English.

scienceguyz · 2014-02-25 23:41:44

Luckily, I hotlinked to how-to-make-gif.com/cache and now the animation has died.

Akai Tori · 2014-03-20 08:18:15

N1KF wrote:

"Different55 ate a burrito" would be "Different55 burrito eat," not "Different55 burrito ate." "Eat" and "ate" are completely different words, but in the language of nihongo, you don't have to worry about that.

Why wouldn't it be "Different55 burrito ate."? Do you mean that there not the word "ate" in japanese? Only "eat"?

Last edited by Akai Tori (2014-03-20 08:40:58)

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