[Other] Japanese

[Jiyongie]

Some Kanji have way more than two readings. Maybe a better way to put it would be - AT LEAST two readings.. It's so hard to remember all of them!! My teacher started us with Hiragana, but my sister's teacher started them off with Katakana.. I guess it really depends on the teacher and their idea of the easiest way to learn.

Japanese isn't a tonal language, but it does have tones. It's just HIGH and LOW, haha so easy compared to Chinese.

Haha, yeah, Japanese borrowed its Kanji from Chinese, and it also made some of its 'own' by putting together a couple Chinese characters into one.

(Sorry, just a correction, Kanji refers to the whole.. set of characters. So I don't think putting plural on 'Kanji' would be right..)

[Broken Spanish]

I started teaching myself Japanese a few years ago; I didn’t have any lessons, managed to learn to read Kana and learned quite a few Kanji. I can still read some, even though I no longer look at my books anymore, I have forgotten a lot .

The vowel sounds are a lot like Spanish ones. Took me a while to pronounce the Japanese R sound, now I’m having trouble with the Spanish RR sound, what is it with Rs!

It was the verbs that got me though, so many levels of politeness! Not just two like in Spanish! And the verb endings can be quite long, I found it confusing without having any lessons.

[ookami]

I have started to study Japanese (I've left it in the closet for manyyyy months) in a different manner: I'm just learning kanjis. I think that's a good way to start. After you know the 2.000 more common Kanjis, in one or two months you learn some grammar and vocabulary and you can start immersing through readings, movies, videos, books, newspapers and all that. (without knowing kanji is really difficult or almost impossible)

Yes, they have many levels of politeness and we, Spanish speakers, are used to use only one, so in that way is easier. About the pronunciation, for Spanish speakers it's almost the same, we don't have any problem with Japanese.

But you are right, for us (En, and Sp) Japanese vocabulary, politeness, culture, Kanji language, etc, is not very accesible and familiar, so that makes the wall we want to surpass bigger.

Without a good grammar book it will be difficult. If you have one, it's patience and perseverance.

[ceri]

顽张りましょう。日本语に兴味を持ちますので、今、日本语を勉强しています。
まだ、よくはできませんので、これから顽张って行きたいと思います。
Cheerio! I am interested in Japanese, too. I'm learning it myself on and off for a while.
But my Japanese is still just conversational stuff. Hope to advance a bit in future.

Jess

Originally Posted by ookami

i have started to study japanese (i've left it in the closet for manyyyy months) in a different manner: I'm just learning kanjis. I think that's a good way to start. After you know the 2.000 more common kanjis, in one or two months you learn some grammar and vocabulary and you can start immersing through readings, movies, videos, books, newspapers and all that. (without knowing kanji is really difficult or almost impossible)

yes, they have many levels of politeness and we, spanish speakers, are used to use only one, so in that way is easier. About the pronunciation, for spanish speakers it's almost the same, we don't have any problem with japanese.

But you are right, for us (en, and sp) japanese vocabulary, politeness, culture, kanji language, etc, is not very accesible and familiar, so that makes the wall we want to surpass bigger.

Without a good grammar book it will be difficult. If you have one, it's patience and perseverance.