anime daisuki 246

[Funnygurl555]

Re: anime daisuki 246

I take Japanese at my school and we don't have this at all.
I mean we have peeps who like anime but they're not this crazy. Lots of us (including me) just used to like anime and had to fulfill a language requirement.

[AragakiAyase]

Re: anime daisuki 246

I take Japanese at my school and we don't have this at all.
I mean we have peeps who like anime but they're not this crazy. Lots of us (including me) just used to like anime and had to fulfill a language requirement.

yeah it's pretty hilarious and at the same time scary

there's nothing wrong with liking anime but it becomes a problem when you're very obnoxious/obsessive/disruptive about it in public

[Tyson ultima]

Re: anime daisuki 246

hahahaha the magnificent waste of time that is school

the best way to learn japanese is to just go to japan

That isn't exactly true since most of the information can fall flat not to mention a lot of japan caters to English speakers. I can't say I learned much from actually visiting and my friend has learned nothing from living there for 2 years. Yes I have studied for 2 years which is where all my learning has come from.

Also japanese is a very sucky language I have an article summing up my feelings about why it sucks and why 90 percent of my friends that did study it wished they learned another language.

[AragakiAyase]

Re: anime daisuki 246

That isn't exactly true since most of the information can fall flat not to mention a lot of japan caters to English speakers. I can't say I learned much from actually visiting and my friend has learned nothing from living there for 2 years. Yes I have studied for 2 years which is where all my learning has come from.

Also japanese is a very sucky language I have an article summing up my feelings about why it sucks and why 90 percent of my friends that did study it wished they learned another language.

Can you link me the article? Japanese overlaps pretty well with Chinese (because kanji) and Chinese would be my next language

[Tyson ultima]

Re: anime daisuki 246

It is a facebook post so I will copy paste it. And the overlap stops just at kanji after that the Japanese language is a shitstorm.
Why you shouldn’t learn Japanese (esp. if your native language is English)
DECEMBER 27, 2015 · FRIENDS
Before I begin, to all my Japanese friends: stop reading now unless you can read this and not take it seriously. 注意:日本人の友達には特に国家主義的な立場あればここから読むのを辞めた方がいい
tl;dr version: learn a different language instead
Credentials: Alright, so I’ve been studying Japanese on and off since about 2010 and have lived in Japan for a total of 2 years now. I’ve also studied Mandarin for about a year and have taken high school German (lol) for 4 “years.” That being said, I have found Japanese to be the worst by far.
It should be no secret at this point, especially to language learners, that the Japanese language is an absolute shitstorm of nonsensical grammar, thousands of Chinese characters that differ in pronunciation depending on what precedes and follows them (not to mention 1 to upwards of 10 different readings each), has a horrendous conjugation system, and is an absolute nightmare to learn/speak. I will be detailing a list of items of why you shouldn’t learn this silly, baffling, illogical, rage-inducing language and should allocate study time elsewhere (preferably a European language). I will detail them in order from, what I think is, the most difficult to least (but still really fucking hard) difficult. Buckle up.
1. Everything sounds the same
A bit of a preface—every language has rules and sounds; every sound is made up of something called a “phoneme;” this is basically any individual sound that differentiates from another, for example, the English “th” in “thing” or the “b” in “build.” We’ve been blessed with English in the sense that we have a whole gamut of different sounds to work with—44 to be exact, and 4 blends: “eur,” “qu,” “x,” and “yew” (the “U” sound, such as in “utility”). Now, guess how many Japanese has? Barely half. It has 17 phonemes and 5 vowels. If you ever wondered why the Japanese can’t pronounce “th” or distinguish between “B” and “V” or “L” and “R,” then you can blame their language’s inherent lack of sounds as the main offender. With this limited sound range, you can expect tons of words to not only sound the same, but are the same on occasion. This coupled with the fact that Japanese is syllabic and everyone just strings an incomprehensible mess of syllables together, you can imagine how challenging it is to learn. Speaking Japanese isn’t too hard but trying to listen to and comprehend it is pure agony. Now now, I realize that every language has homonyms and similar sounding words, for example the English “plane” and “plain,” but they really amped up the bullshit here in Japanese. I’ll give you an example; There’s a word I fucking hate with a passion in Japanese because every time I hear it, I have to cycle through the 50 different meanings in my mind whilst simultaneously extrapolating from context to derive the meaning; this word is “kakeru” and it’s a bitch. Its meanings are, and are not limited to: hang, expend (time/money), make a call, sit, multiply, bet, put on (glasses), lock (a door), sprinkle (seasoning on food), lack, and many more which leads me to my next point:
2. Japanese is a high context language
English is a low context language. It is very explicit what the subject of a sentence is doing, e.g. what X is doing to Y. Japanese? Don’t make me laugh. If you’re foolhardy enough to tackle this language seriously, you had better be ready to dance around issues, get talked circles around, beat around the bush, and basically say/listen to everything in a roundabout manner except the main issue at hand. It is extremely frustrating and not effective. What good is a language if people can’t communicate properly? Now you’re probably thinking “well, you’re not Japanese so you just don’t understand the culture.” Well, I’ve been here long enough and talked to enough people to know that not only is it bullshit, but even natives have extreme miscommunication problems from time to time. I have a Japanese businessman student who comes in to my class and complains incessantly about how the language is engineered so that the boss man can shirk all responsibility for his actions by saying vague, ambiguous shit; this makes it so that the listeners are culpable because they didn’t “understand” what the boss meant. It’s a brutal hierarchical structured pyramid. When I first got to Japan, I was telling people to state the subject of their sentences while speaking Japanese because there’s this cute thing that Japanese people do where they constantly omit the fucking subject in the sentence. What does this mean? It means that if you want to become proficient at Japanese, then you’d better learn how to speak like a caveman and talk like donkey kong. I’ll explain:
Let’s say a simple sentence in Japanese such as “I’m gonna go to the convenience store.” In English, it’s very clear “who” is going “where.” Now, if I were to translate this into Japanese, it would sound like this in English: “to convenience store go.” Yeah, sure makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it? Who’s going to the convenience store? Are you saying that you make a habit of going? Are you going to the convenience store now? What’s going on here? Can you pass me that tanto short sword now so that I may commit ritual suicide immediately, please? I heard the phrase “okutte kureru?” one time and was completely stumped. In English, it means basically, “can you send (something/someone) for me?” Being an absolutely nonsensical sentence that’s, of course, completely consistent with the rest of Japanese’s incomprehensible grammar, I thought I’d be able to contextualize it. This translates to “can you take me home.” I should have known from the context that the character was asking the other to take her home because IT WAS DARK OUT. Oops! Should have been more observant of the situation, you sorry bastard! But the one that really fucking floored me was this one. My coworker said to me one time: “choko tsuketa mama shabecchatta” which means literally (not a wise thing to take into account when learning Japanese, my friend): “chocolate, attached to something as is, accidentally spoke.” I’ll give you a minute to try to think about this. I was in a different room than my coworker when she uttered this asinine phrase so I had no context to work with, which is an instant death sentence for Japanese communication. Alright, figured it out yet? Give up? I don’t blame you. This translates, in this situation, to “I accidentally talked to someone with chocolate on my lips.” What…? Then why in the motherfucking shitfuck did you leave out critical information such as “who” was talking to “anyone” and “where” the chocolate was?! I can’t see your face you fucking idiot. Jesus motherfucking Christ. I gotta calm down. Maybe this section should have been number 1 which leads me to number--
3. Onomatopoeia words are used in daily conversation
The worst is over, but it doesn’t get much better. Alright, so you remember those “moos” “cock-a-doodle-doos” and “heehaws” that you saw in books as a kid? Imagine incorporating those words into your daily conversation and trying not to sound like an unsophisticated ass. These words are so common that you have to learn them but the problem is that there are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many and the meaning is really hard to contextualize half the time. Are you excited? Might as well say “WAKUWAKU” Oh, is it thundering out? GOROGORO. So basically, what they do is they repeat the first 2 syllables in order to make a “sound” word that can act as a verb/adjective. I’ve been studying Japanese for a few years now and I’m nowhere close to learning all of these. They even use an onomatopoeia for when you’re drunk. Have smooth skin? SARASARA. Are you sweating profusely? DARADARA. Is it raining heavily? ZAAZAA. Raining just a tad? POTSUPOTSU. Man, this language really sucks.
4. There are honorifics and humble language
When you learn Japanese, it doesn’t feel at all like you’re learning just one language. There are 3 writing scripts, and there are several degrees to many words in order to show respect, or lack thereof, to the listener. Let’s use a simple verb such as “eat” to demonstrate what I mean. The casual form of this verb is simply “taberu” or “kuu.” Now if you want to be a bit more polite, we add a polite stem “masu” to the end of it: taberu ----> tabemasu. Now, what if you want to be humble? It becomes an entirely different word, “itadaku.” What if you want to speak respectfully to someone else? It becomes “meshiagaru” but actually those turn into “itadakimasu” and “meshiagarimasu” respectively because why not just add more politeness to the already polite words. Good job, guys. So, if you think your ass can get away with just learning casual forms, then you’re sorely mistaken. Anytime you go to the mall, café, restaurant, city hall, bank, what-have-you, the staff will be speaking to you in this super humble/honorific speech. In other words, you’re fucked either way. Learn Chinese instead.
5. The many Chinese characters
So this section is actually my strength but oppositely, it seems to be everyone’s weakness. Those runes from the moon that they call a writing system, Kanji, is a massive hurdle that you have to overcome while you’re learning Crappanese. For (almost) every character, there is/are a Chinese reading(s) and a Japanese reading(s). There are usually 1 or 2 Chinese readings, because those guys understand efficiency, and then there can be anywhere from 1 to 10+ Japanese readings. The pronunciation of these characters are variable and can change seemingly randomly. I’ll use a simple Kanji such as 生 to demonstrate. Normally this Kanji means ‘raw’, or has to do with ‘life’. 生ビール (nama bi-ru) = draft beer. 先生 (sensei) = teacher. 生まれる (umareru) = to be born. 生きる (ikiru) = to live. 生える (haeru) = to grow. So the pronunciation of just that character has been “nama,” “sei,” “u,” “i,” and “ha” respectively. I myself can count about 15 different readings of that character alone and there are most likely still a few I don’t know. Do you understand the implications of what this means? This means that not only are there 2000+ characters, but you will be spending more time on every other character because they have different readings. This is bullshit.
Conclusion: In the end, I wish I had chosen a less needlessly complicated language and settled on something like German or something, but learning Japanese has had its merits. Japan is a pretty awesome country despite things like the language and food and I recommend everyone visit at least once in their lifetime. However; have no illusions about it. Know that the language is engineered in a way that’s very difficult for foreigners to learn. If you think you can endure the immeasurable bullshit that makes up this language, then be my guest and prepare yourself for many days of confusion, frustration, and misery. If you have any inclinations about studying Japanese seriously, then refer to the following requirements; Japanese is for you if:
1. You don’t mind dumping a hundred hours into learning it but can still barely hold a conversation
2. The Sisyphus boulder that is Kanji sounds appealing to you
3. You like talking like a child or anime characters
4. You’re okay with your high efforts producing low results
5. You are a masochist

[AragakiAyase]

Re: anime daisuki 246

Your post has a lot of really good points, but I still want to learn Japanese if for no other reason than that I find it enjoyable. I'm prepared for the pain that is Kanji because I started learning Chinese but didn't have any interest in it at the time. High context will be unpleasant and onomatopoeia is pretty silly but oh well. Things sounding the same is also kind of difficult but I don't find it terrible, I've found that I'm able to distinguish the sounds well enough.

tldr it's apparent from your post that Japanese as a language has issues but I want to learn it because I think it's fun. Maybe I'll change my mind in a semester or two but that would be pretty atypical of me

[AragakiAyase]

Re: anime daisuki 246

damnit how did this thread get somewhat serious

today nothing interesting happened because it was a lecture and the professor is very strict

tomorrow is a discussion with nice/lenient TAs as usual so we should have some fun then

[Tyson ultima]

Re: anime daisuki 246

Mainly I have suffered the issue of pursuing learning Japanese further myself and when I went to Japan it didn't exactly solve my answers. Speaking to people had been easy since they can understand basic key words or phrases but understanding makes you want to commit suicide.

[dAnceguy117]

Re: anime daisuki 246

teaching nyaaaaaaaaaassistants are the best!!

[AragakiAyase]

Re: anime daisuki 246

Mainly I have suffered the issue of pursuing learning Japanese further myself and when I went to Japan it didn't exactly solve my answers. Speaking to people had been easy since they can understand basic key words or phrases but understanding makes you want to commit suicide.

well when I do go it'll be with a friend whose Japanese is near-native so hopefully it'll be bearable

[Tyson ultima]

Re: anime daisuki 246

Like I said most of japan caters to English speakers. My friend that wrote the article knows someone who has lived in Japan for 40 years and still doesn't know hiragana. You probably wouldn't make many friends unless they are very good at English which is rare.

[choof]

Re: anime daisuki 246

there was a pretty great video I saw a while back about people learning japanese in like 60 days or something

I don't think I'll ever take japanese in a classroom again, given how much weirder your classmates seem to be when compared to the weirdos you get in other classes, like french/italian

[choof]

Re: anime daisuki 246

That isn't exactly true since most of the information can fall flat not to mention a lot of japan caters to English speakers. I can't say I learned much from actually visiting and my friend has learned nothing from living there for 2 years. Yes I have studied for 2 years which is where all my learning has come from.

Also japanese is a very sucky language I have an article summing up my feelings about why it sucks and why 90 percent of my friends that did study it wished they learned another language.

why are you allowing yourself to be baited by mina

[Tyson ultima]

Re: anime daisuki 246

there was a pretty great video I saw a while back about people learning japanese in like 60 days or something

I don't think I'll ever take japanese in a classroom again, given how much weirder your classmates seem to be when compared to the weirdos you get in other classes, like french/italian

Do you know the results of those 60 days?

[-JiZ53-]

Re: anime daisuki 246

Indo-european best. East asian worst.