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Re: Japanese Vocabulary
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the thing is, i know some will get irritated when people start mixing japanese into their conversations. "as if you're so good at it!" or "yeah, you're a dog who barks for japan." this is the kind of emotional response one'll receive when he or she uses japanese in a society which consist partly of anti-japanese groups. therefore, i don't use japanese so often when conversing with people other than my family. ^^
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current favourite(s): niconico douga!!!!! |
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Re: Japanese Vocabulary
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| I think i'll put it this way, anybody watch Bleach? See Don Kanonji? The way he speaks japanese while inserting random english words... Well, to me he sounds ridiculous, so i'd never use any japanese words while talking to anyone who doesn't understand it... |
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Re: Japanese Vocabulary
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> I think i'll put it this way, anybody watch > Bleach? See Don Kanonji? The way he speaks > japanese while inserting random english words... > Well, to me he sounds ridiculous, so i'd never > use any japanese words while talking to anyone > who doesn't understand it... I don't know this Don Kanonji character, but... Doing so purposely may be annoying, but I end up doing something like that for two reasons: 1, There are many words that come directly from English, such as computer. I might add English pronounciation spin on it by accident. 2, I honestly can't remember or can't think of Japanese term to refer to something. I end up inserting English. Ok, maybe it's still annoying... |
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Re: Japanese Vocabulary
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by DarkNightDreamer
on 2006-02-26 03:58:07
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Um...there's also this character in DN Angel who speaks Japanese with an American accent. The seiyuu does a really good job with it, but when it comes to her speaking english...=P Forget it. LOL. I think the character's name is Mio Hio/Rio? Heh. I'm such a bad person. Anyhow, this girl does the accent on purpose. Um...for me...I don't really use Japanese in my conversations. I just ask my friend some words, and since she doesn't like translating a lot, I don't ask her much. However, I have a friend who used to live in Japan, so she's sorta happy to show me what she knows. =) I just use 'aho(u)' and 'baka' sometimes. =P It's fun. Also, I know a lot of Japanese wanna-bes who even go to the lengths of learning kanji, katakana, and hiragana. -dies- For me, I can sorta already understand a bit of Japanese katakana, cuz I'm chinese and all...but I mean, it's sorta weird to be korean and suddenly start writing Japanese on random pieces of paper. -sweatdrops- I know no Japanese words, only my name...XD
"Watashi wa honto ni anata ga suki desu..."
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Re: Japanese Vocabulary
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by
on 2006-02-26 08:16:15 |
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This thread reminded me of a funny story. I did a foreign exchange program in Japan a few years back. The program I went through was good, but still fairly big, so I tended to always find myself with both Japanese and Americans. Now, because the Americans only spoke a little Japanese, and the Japanese only a little English, we started to code switch like crazy. When we didn't know a word, we tended just to switch languages, start speaking in that until someone switched back. Now, when I got back to the US, I had a hard first couple of getting the random switches to Japanese out of my vocabulary. My mom especially just laughed it off, saying that my Dad, a Polish native, did the same thing when he came back from Poland. Soon I stoped the bowing while people were talking and all the 'un's.' Now, the funny part is about a year later, I decided to start taking karate again. I signed up for a local Taekwondo school, and started taking classes. Now, the thing was, when I started, I couldn't speak in straight English anymore, especially with this one instructor. I fell back to the same pattern I had when I came back to the states. And this instructor was nothing Japanese, being a huge black man. After slipping up a number of times, and getting lots of funny looks, this guy says to me, in perfect Kansai Ben, "You know, I taught English in Japan a while back and understand Japanese." That was weird.
--theKiyote
"Everything you ever loved will be altered or destroyed" |
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Re: Japanese Vocabulary
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> Now, the funny part is about a year later, I decided to start > taking karate again. I signed up for a local Taekwondo school, > and started taking classes. Now, the thing was, when I started, > I couldn't speak in straight English anymore, especially with > this one instructor. I fell back to the same pattern I had when > I came back to the states. And this instructor was nothing > Japanese, being a huge black man. After slipping up a number > of times, and getting lots of funny looks, this guy says to > me, in perfect Kansai Ben, "You know, I taught English in Japan > a while back and understand Japanese." I guess what makes this story a little funnier is that Taekwondo is a Korean martial art, not Japanese.... |
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Re: Japanese Vocabulary
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by
on 2006-02-27 16:15:22 |
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Believe me, that irony is not lost on me ^_^
--theKiyote
"Everything you ever loved will be altered or destroyed" |
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Re: Japanese Vocabulary
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Of course, it's true that many Karate school claims to teach Taekwondo and vice versa for marketing reason here in the States. I bet a lot of people don't even know the difference anymore. As for me, I am a Japanese, who learn Taekwondo. My instructor is half-Japanese American, who speaks no Japanese. |
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Re: Japanese Vocabulary
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by bishi baka
on 2006-03-01 15:28:30
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I'm teaching myself Japanese. It's not good my advice is to get a professional to teach you.  |
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Re: Japanese Vocabulary
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by
on 2006-03-01 19:20:31 |
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Bishi: I agree, to a degree. One thing that I think people tend to fail to realize is just how much work learning a language takes, and how much information you need to know to be able to use it. A language is a LOT of information, and it takes a lot of practice to be able to use most of it imediately. That said, it takes a lot of work to learn, and most people are not willing to undergo it without some additional motivation or incentive. Everything that is taught in a class, you can theroeticly learn on your own, but those vocab quizes and homework assignments really push you to study. And living in a foreign country is even more of an incentive to learn the local language, just to get by. Now, if you are stuck in a situation where you don't have the oportunity to study in a foreign country, or take a class, there are a couple things that I have found to help. The first thing that has always helped me was to buy a book (for a beginner, I recommend Genki I). I know that the internet is huge and has a lot of resources available, but there is something concreate about having a book in front of you, all bound up there as something you can hold and wave around. Next, you need to set time limits and due dates for yourself. Start out small and slowly work bigger. Say, for example, "I'm going to finish Chapter 1 by the end of this week!" or "I am going to finish this entire book by the end of the month!" etc. Set the goals so that they're hard, but not unrealistic. For example, don't tell yourself that you are going to become fluent in the language by next Thursday, it just isn't going to happen. The next thing you should do is totaly engage yourself in Japanese media. I recomend downloading raw manga and animes. If you own a lot of DVDs, turn the subtitles off, but I find it tempting to turn them back on. You might not understand the vast majority of what's being said, but when they do say something that you recognize, its really cool, and if you start to study something you remember hearing, it becomes easier to learn. Do this as much as possible. Also, come up with a concrete reason as to why you are studying Japanese and keep reminding yourself why that is. I personally tend to choose slightly unrealistic and/or stupid reason, say, "I want to enter a Japanese graduate school," because I find a bit of well-directed anger and the desire to spite somebody a good motivation tool, but you should pick whatever works for you. Some people like to have other people keep asking them how the studying is going, or something similar, because if they stop, they see themselves as not living up to expectations, or something similar. Whatever you choose, make sure that its something that you'll think about often, and make a point to remember it whenever you feel like slacking off. Hmm, this was a lot more that what I was originally planning on writting...
--theKiyote
"Everything you ever loved will be altered or destroyed" |
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Re: Japanese Vocabulary
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> One thing that I think people tend to fail to realize is > just how much work learning a language takes, and how much > information you need to know to be able to use it. This could be true. My wife and I are quite knowledgeble about English grammer because of this, probably more so than the most native speakers. > The next thing you should do is totaly engage yourself in > Japanese media. I recomend downloading raw manga and animes. > If you own a lot of DVDs, turn the subtitles off, but I find > it tempting to turn them back on. My suggestion along this line is to actually see it once with subtitle on (or with English dub), so that you know what's going on, then try it in Japanese. After a while, you may start making connection between what's being said, and what you know being said. Also, if you encounter a word in a sentence that you mostly understand, don't let it go...LOOK IT UP. |
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Re: Japanese Vocabulary
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I think it's kindof annoying when people use random Japanese words, especially kawaii and sugoi, and especially when people think sugoi means cool, and don't realize the actual meaning and that it is just used as cool sometimes. Anyway, I do refer to alot of my classmates as -san, and we speak to each other in Japanese as much as we can, because we are all learning Japanese in school. But I don't randomly spout out "kawaii" and things, though I do really like to say "yoku dekimasita neeeeee" sarcastically to anger my friends. Though, most of my friends really love anime, and I don't really like it very much, so they say all the popular anime words like kawaii and things sometimes. |
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Re: Japanese Vocabulary
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You need not to worry Metapod. There are some words in English that Japanese doesn't have. For example, the word sugoi. It can be used as great or cool. Kawaii is ok. It's not like there is a grammer police out there. Omoshiroi. |
Shinya|
Re: Japanese Vocabulary
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Shinya-san kakoi~ anata no nihongo sugoi yo ne.  |
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Re: Japanese Vocabulary
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| i dont use japanese words in my sentences unless im telling someone what it means. i know the language is hard to learn but i hate those people that will say it in an english sentence just to show off that they know the damn word. some others don't know what it means and it gets annoying to try and explain to them what it is. its easier to avoid it all together, right? |
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sorry, shira-san. |
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Neko-chan honto ni arigatou! Your Japanese is great as well. |
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Re: Japanese Vocabulary
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I agree with shira. Though a lot of people are not exactly trying to show off, they just think it is really exciting to learn another language like Japanese. Though I do warn people, using Japanese words randomly like this will actually hinder you from learning the language for real if you ever desire to learn it. I mean, most anime kids I know go around saying "That is not kawaii!" instead of conjugating it properly. In Japanese classes as school, I notice that a lot of people are majoring in Japanese just because they like anime, and they always use random Japanese words like Kawaii and Neko, but in class, they struggle so much to even say the simplest things. Though, not all people are like this, but relating it to simply a substitution for an English word or phrase will ingrain this improper meaning and usage in your brain, and you'll have to completely relearn the words and meanings later, which is really difficult. So to shinya, that is what I was trying to say. I was not saying that they shouldn't use the words b/c of grammar police, but if they really want to learn Japanese they might have trouble. If your final goal is just to learn random words from anime to impress your friends, I guess it is okay, but if you want to actually learn japanese...　ã¡ã‚‡ã£ã¨é•ã„ã¾ã›ã‚“ã‹ï¼Ÿ |
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Re: Japanese Vocabulary
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| About using "baka" with your friends, we actually called each other "クラッピーãªäºº" for a while XDDD It was kindof a joke, using the English word "crappy" as a nominal. We also would say other strange insults mixing insults in English/Korean/Japanese. |
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Re: Japanese Vocabulary
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You can't really compare using Japanese in your English vocab to using English in Japanese vocab. Since the Japaense are becoming very westernized, and all the students take English at school, it's not uncommon to have random English words mixed in with Japanese. (Just listen to Japanese music - you hear all kinds of Japanese words, and I'm not just talking about the places where they throw a whole sentence in in English). It's actually fun to listen to anime in Japanese and try to pick out the English words, since they don't sound quite right in the Japanese phonetic system. Everyone who knows me has gotten used to me saying "nani". I've even stopped correcting myself. My friend and I used to have this joke where I'd say something in Japanese, she'd give me this funny look, and I'd say, "Did I just speak Japanese again? Gomenasai!" |