I want to learn Japanese very badly and my friend speaks it fluently because she IS Japanese.. she keeps telling me it's going to be SO hard and now I dont know if I even should... thoughts?
@marenfarroparamore I think instead of discouraging you, you should ask her to help! Japanese isn't an impossible language to learn, and is especially not any more difficult than any other language in terms of speaking it. In fact, speaking Japanese may be easier than a lot of other languages! If you practice the kanji, they aren't all that difficult either. Ask your friend to practice speaking with you once you get the basics~ It's a good resource :) Good luck!
@marenfarroparamore No problem :) Actually I dialect is a different way of speaking within a language, such as the people in osaka have a different dialect of Japanese than those in Tokyo, so when referring to Japanese, it's just a language :) and yeah why not!? You totally can :D go for it /o/
@QuilavaKing yeah I've played pokemon in Japanese too :) but thats because that game is for little kids ^^ i mean technically speaking, its not fully literate because kids that age can't even read enough kanji to be able to read a full newspaper really. Kanji is still a necessity ^^
Kanji don't make things easier, Kanji are the reason why so many adult Japanese can't read a newspaper without an electronic dictionary and several rural Chinese can hardly get by reading basic Mandarin despite being officially 'literate'. They're probably the most inefficient way of writing a language. Why Kanji are used is no longer a question of efficieny vs.efficiency but more like practicality vs. tradition. Don't be feel offended please, I just wrote this from a linguistic point of view.
@thephilosopherkartik its intresting to see it that way, but I still hold my opinion ;p if adult Japanese can't read them well, they need to learn more, it shouldnt be hard for them as they are surrounded by it every day...and chinese is an entirely different story OTL
Japanese could be written in ローマ字 (alphabet). The sentence you used would be: kyō no umi wa shizuka da. Just like English you would separate the words with spaces.
@thephilosopherkartik "So many adult Japanese can't read a newspaper without an electronic dictionary"?? I am sorry but where did you get that?? To my knowledge Japan has one of the highest literacy rates in the world.
But I agree with you about kanji not being efficient. Some intellectuals actually defend the abolition of kanji. Korean was once written with kanji, but they managed to abolish it, replacing with hangul.
But kanji has some advantages. It can make reading easier, somehow. If you know the meaning of one kanji, you can more or less deduct the meaning of all words that use that kanji.
@skwerl23 ahaha well its unreasonable to expect a young child to learn Kanji so quickly when they can't even communicate in kana yet ^^ But they do start early~ some simple kanji like hi (day) usually never have furigana because they are taught it very young. Depends on the audience the reading is meant for :)
I'm learning kanji before I learn how to say words. I've heard learning Japanese as a whole gets much easier if you know all the kanji prior to learning the spoken language.
Maybe it might be, but I think that would be kinda boring...learning all these symbols and not knowing any grammar or anything to use them XD; but if it works for you, its good :D
Interesting opinion. I can't wait till I can dig into kanji, I dunno, I have this pre conception that my Japanese must be at least intermediate before I can do it?.
Well it'd be better if you have hiragana and katakana down well before you try and seriously study Kanji I foundbut I did pick up a few when I was stil learning very basic Japanese. I mean 6 year olds learn kanji XD I think you can do some if you're not intermediate :D
@KaxyzKoi Oh okay, thank you, that was useful. Are there any particular sources you would recommend to learn it? Any particular websites ? :) Apart from your videos, of course!
I think exactly the sayme! I hate it when some Japanese try and make it simpler for me by not putting kanji but it makes it harder! It's much easier for me to just to look up the kanji when I don't know it than not knowing at all. Does 今日の海は静かだ even make proper sense? Today's sea is quiet. Shouldn't it be 今日は海が静かだ ? I dno, I guess I understand how it could make sense but that is how I would translate it.
Lol I was actually a bit lazy and just pulled that phrase from my Japanese dictionary. I forget the exact translation LOL but perhaps my dictionary is wrong XD;
I want to learn Japanese very badly and my friend speaks it fluently because she IS Japanese.. she keeps telling me it's going to be SO hard and now I dont know if I even should... thoughts?
marenfarroparamore 8 months ago
@marenfarroparamore I think instead of discouraging you, you should ask her to help! Japanese isn't an impossible language to learn, and is especially not any more difficult than any other language in terms of speaking it. In fact, speaking Japanese may be easier than a lot of other languages! If you practice the kanji, they aren't all that difficult either. Ask your friend to practice speaking with you once you get the basics~ It's a good resource :) Good luck!
KaxyzKoi 8 months ago
@KaxyzKoi Okay! Thank you very much! It's such an interesting dialect I always find myself wishing I could understand so why not you know? :)
marenfarroparamore 8 months ago
@marenfarroparamore No problem :) Actually I dialect is a different way of speaking within a language, such as the people in osaka have a different dialect of Japanese than those in Tokyo, so when referring to Japanese, it's just a language :) and yeah why not!? You totally can :D go for it /o/
KaxyzKoi 8 months ago
@KaxyzKoi NOw I feel stupid ;D Hehehe oh well we all have those days ... Shweet!
marenfarroparamore 8 months ago
When writing strictly in Hiragana, they do use spaces. I see it all the time when playing games, like pokemon, in Japanese.
QuilavaKing 1 year ago
@QuilavaKing yeah I've played pokemon in Japanese too :) but thats because that game is for little kids ^^ i mean technically speaking, its not fully literate because kids that age can't even read enough kanji to be able to read a full newspaper really. Kanji is still a necessity ^^
KaxyzKoi 1 year ago
Kanji don't make things easier, Kanji are the reason why so many adult Japanese can't read a newspaper without an electronic dictionary and several rural Chinese can hardly get by reading basic Mandarin despite being officially 'literate'. They're probably the most inefficient way of writing a language. Why Kanji are used is no longer a question of efficieny vs.efficiency but more like practicality vs. tradition. Don't be feel offended please, I just wrote this from a linguistic point of view.
thephilosopherkartik 2 years ago
@thephilosopherkartik its intresting to see it that way, but I still hold my opinion ;p if adult Japanese can't read them well, they need to learn more, it shouldnt be hard for them as they are surrounded by it every day...and chinese is an entirely different story OTL
KaxyzKoi 2 years ago
Japanese could be written in ローマ字 (alphabet). The sentence you used would be: kyō no umi wa shizuka da. Just like English you would separate the words with spaces.
hcm9999 2 years ago
@thephilosopherkartik "So many adult Japanese can't read a newspaper without an electronic dictionary"?? I am sorry but where did you get that?? To my knowledge Japan has one of the highest literacy rates in the world.
But I agree with you about kanji not being efficient. Some intellectuals actually defend the abolition of kanji. Korean was once written with kanji, but they managed to abolish it, replacing with hangul.
hcm9999 2 years ago
@thephilosopherkartik
But kanji has some advantages. It can make reading easier, somehow. If you know the meaning of one kanji, you can more or less deduct the meaning of all words that use that kanji.
hcm9999 2 years ago
I agree!! Great video!!
Cute nails by the way!! You are so cute and smart, Kaxyz!!
ilovebraziljapan 2 years ago
@ilovebraziljapan aw thank you :D
KaxyzKoi 2 years ago
@dkamm65 wiktionary is full of kanji with english names
@kaxyz only reason i know the words in the hiragana is because i know a couple particles, which made it stand out lol.
but i think your right. also the more you know the faster you read.
i didnt like kanji until you pointed out how kids dont read it, so kanji isnt in their books. and furigana isnt in adult books.
makes me wish america would adopt it.
its like cuss words, dont say em around kids lol.
skwerl23 2 years ago
@skwerl23 ahaha well its unreasonable to expect a young child to learn Kanji so quickly when they can't even communicate in kana yet ^^ But they do start early~ some simple kanji like hi (day) usually never have furigana because they are taught it very young. Depends on the audience the reading is meant for :)
KaxyzKoi 2 years ago
I'm learning kanji before I learn how to say words. I've heard learning Japanese as a whole gets much easier if you know all the kanji prior to learning the spoken language.
dkamm65 2 years ago
Maybe it might be, but I think that would be kinda boring...learning all these symbols and not knowing any grammar or anything to use them XD; but if it works for you, its good :D
KaxyzKoi 2 years ago
Learning Japanese is never boring! =)
dkamm65 2 years ago
Interesting opinion. I can't wait till I can dig into kanji, I dunno, I have this pre conception that my Japanese must be at least intermediate before I can do it?.
JeremiDesuyo 2 years ago
Well it'd be better if you have hiragana and katakana down well before you try and seriously study Kanji I foundbut I did pick up a few when I was stil learning very basic Japanese. I mean 6 year olds learn kanji XD I think you can do some if you're not intermediate :D
KaxyzKoi 2 years ago
@KaxyzKoi Oh okay, thank you, that was useful. Are there any particular sources you would recommend to learn it? Any particular websites ? :) Apart from your videos, of course!
JeremiDesuyo 2 years ago
I think exactly the sayme! I hate it when some Japanese try and make it simpler for me by not putting kanji but it makes it harder! It's much easier for me to just to look up the kanji when I don't know it than not knowing at all. Does 今日の海は静かだ even make proper sense? Today's sea is quiet. Shouldn't it be 今日は海が静かだ ? I dno, I guess I understand how it could make sense but that is how I would translate it.
tmrdrgz 2 years ago
Lol I was actually a bit lazy and just pulled that phrase from my Japanese dictionary. I forget the exact translation LOL but perhaps my dictionary is wrong XD;
KaxyzKoi 2 years ago
@KaxyzKoi Oh the dictionary wins, maybe it can be translated differently xD
tmrdrgz 2 years ago
XD perhaps!
KaxyzKoi 2 years ago