Asian language

[Neutre]

Originally Posted by tada

- romaji are just English characters. If you can read this post, you know them all.
- There are only 46 hiragana and katakana each. You can easily learn them in a week.
- The simplest books come with furigana characters over the kanji. They are hiragana that tell you how to read the kanji.
- There is a huge gap between the most commonly used kanji and the least commonly used. Something like the most common 500 account for 80% of the kanji used, and the most common 1000 account for 95%. Once you get to 1000 or so (I can read around 1200), it's not hard to learn passively. You can read a lot of materials while only having to occasionally look up a kanji

That sounds encouraging.
I had two years of Japanese at school and it just irked me that not only do you have to memorize how kanji characters look like and how they are pronounced, but that there is a fixed order of strokes, with directions and point or let loose, etc. for each character.
In English nobody cares how you write the alphabet. As long as an O looks like an O, whether you starts writing it at the top or bottom, or clockswise or not, nobody gives a d***.

[Tiger Beer]

I'm in Japan now. I was in Korea before.

Japanese IS easier than Korean for speaking. But Korean's easy alphabetic makes Korean MUCH easier to get around and do quite a few other things - once you learn the simple alphabet.

I have to agree with the frustrations of Japanese and how easy it is to forget it. It is also difficult as most ALL transactions involve them speaking back in EXTREMELY formal Japanese. So even when you study and study and study, and then go to a store, it feels worthless.

On the other hand, seems like a large number of other expats in JAPAN DO speak Japanese. Much different than Korea, where most expats over there seldom learned Korean - mostly because Koreans almost ALWAYS want to practice their English on you.

[Aswang]

Even though many people in the Philippines know English, I love Tagalog and other languages in the Philippines. Most people will be pretty excited if you try to speak it, and if you fail in Tagalog, they can probably help in english. Filipinos are very friendly. its a pretty straightforward language and gets to the point, but there are some ideas that cannot be directly translated. They languages is so fun to speak and listen to! watching the Filipino news helps me, and if i am not sure what they are talking about a spanish or english word is know sometimes is thrown in the conversation and helps get me back on track! Mabuhay!
There is pure Tagalog (many people dont know any more) Tagalog using Spanish words and Tagalog using english and spanish words.

After you get a grasp of Tagalog, its fun to learn the non-Roman script, Baybayin.


I learned Japanese in college, and I have to say, I love Kanji, because sometimes I would forget how to say a word, but seing the kanji help me remember what something meant. Hirigana and katakana are easy, but kanji will take a while, best to make flash cards and always study. I love the lack of irregular verbs,and i found the grammar very pleasent.