The truth is in there, somewhere. I mean, get a copy of a good Kanji (Japanese alphabet/ideogram) dictionary, you’ll find it’s bigger than (any Christian) Bible and only slightly less inscrutable. However, I hear Chinese is both much worse and has a much larger alphabet (more ideograms).
February 2nd, 2005 at 12:47 am
Anonymous:
One does need more kanji to read Chinese (AFAIK they don’t have an official list like the jouyou=~2000), but I’ve been told the readings are easier to learn, at least. In Japanese, kanji have in general at least two readings (“Japanese and Chinese”, kun and on-yomi), but many have more: there are quite a few with 7-8 pronunciations or more.
I’ve been studying Japanese for a while and I’ve really enjoyed it. But it’s not something one should add to his 43things lightheartedly, it’s going to require more effort than 99.9% of the things listed in that site.
February 2nd, 2005 at 3:25 am
Anonymous:
Great reading
I am another of those having “learn japanese” on his 43list.
I started getting some stuff like manuals/tutorials/introductions and I really liked the introduction for the the “japanese is possible” online book, where the author goes on trying to kill the 4 myths:
“Japanese is hard”
“You need to learn all those difficult symbols”
“You have to learn Japanese in a formal classroom environment”
and, especially: “I don’t have time to learn it”
The truth is in there, somewhere. I mean, get a copy of a good Kanji (Japanese alphabet/ideogram) dictionary, you’ll find it’s bigger than (any Christian) Bible and only slightly less inscrutable. However, I hear Chinese is both much worse and has a much larger alphabet (more ideograms).
February 2nd, 2005 at 12:47 amOne does need more kanji to read Chinese (AFAIK they don’t have an official list like the jouyou=~2000), but I’ve been told the readings are easier to learn, at least. In Japanese, kanji have in general at least two readings (“Japanese and Chinese”, kun and on-yomi), but many have more: there are quite a few with 7-8 pronunciations or more.
I’ve been studying Japanese for a while and I’ve really enjoyed it. But it’s not something one should add to his 43things lightheartedly, it’s going to require more effort than 99.9% of the things listed in that site.
February 2nd, 2005 at 3:25 amGreat reading
I am another of those having “learn japanese” on his 43list.
I started getting some stuff like manuals/tutorials/introductions and I really liked the introduction for the the “japanese is possible” online book, where the author goes on trying to kill the 4 myths:
“Japanese is hard”
“You need to learn all those difficult symbols”
“You have to learn Japanese in a formal classroom environment”
and, especially: “I don’t have time to learn it”
You may find it interesting too:
http://maktos.tripod.com/jip/lesson1.html
The core point to me is: given I’m doing this for fun I can take all the time I want, I can actually even fail
And, even if reading the language will be hard for me for a looong time, it is anyway great to be able to get some simple words from jpop songs
February 2nd, 2005 at 9:13 am