Japanese - Preliminary Considerations.avi

Alexander Arguelles interviews a Japanese teacher and discusses issues in the study of the Japanese language. For more information: http:/foreignlanguageexpertise.com

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Japanese
• Korean
• Altaic
• language
• family
• polyglottery
• foreign
• languages
• learning
• polyglots
• linguistics
• study
• strategies
• methods

[raydredX]

Wait a second... I was just rewatching this video. How is japanese easy for koreans? They don't know kanji, they have to learn kanji too. The only hard thing about japanese is that damned kanji. Can anyone answer me?

[ProfASAr]

@raydredX Koreans DO know hanja = kanji. Furthermore, up to 70% of the words in both languages are borrowed from the same hanja/kanji/Chinese source, so there is an enormous overlap in vocabulary. Structurally, the grammar of both languages is truly parallel something like 90% of the time. Finally, in terms of cultural/linguistic mindset, as with the grammar, if you want to look for and highlight differences you can certainly find them, but they are also truly sisterlike in this regard.

[orangeroomstudios]

Prof. Arguelles,

I am an American currently living in Tokyo. Like you, I studied Comp Lit and worked in a foreign language learning center during undergrad and enjoy teaching myself how to teach myself languages. I have tried to contact Ms. Regina Chin a couple times already regarding your courses in Singapore, but I have not received any response. Forgive me for using this space to contact you about this, but I am truly interested.

Thank you for your inspiring work.

Tommy McDonald

[ProfASAr]

@orangeroomstudios I'm sorry, I don't know what the problem might be.  Have you tried writing to : enquiries@relc.org.sg ?

[TheMephistoProject]

I've been greatly enjoying these videos, but I do rather miss the lecture-style ones covering technique and methodology as well. Are there still any topics you have planned to discuss in the original, monologue format?

[ProfASAr]

@TheMephistoProject There are more monologue methodology videos that I plan to do in the future, but for the moment I am just taking advantage of the fact that I have access to this kind of person.

[boredcrab2]

jesus did you film this right next door to a rave?

[ramblinevilmushroom]

lol construction in the background.

[relmneiko]

I've made too many comments already but - at the high levels of Japanese proficiency I find rather than kanji the hardest thing about Japanese is knowing the appropriate time to use different politeness levels. That requires a really high level of cultural knowledge and experience that's more complex than the straight memorization you need to get vocab.

[relmneiko]

@Siibillam I started with Japanese and found Korean to be a breeze. I have friends that dropped Japanese because it was too hard and found Korean much better. I'll mention that Korean pronunciation is harder, though. They have a bunch of consonant sounds that aren't in English, while a monkey could pronounce Japanese. Korean also has irregular spelling sometimes while Japanese spelling is almost as regular as the IPA! Korean's still easier though.

[relmneiko]

@Siibillam Korean has more irregular verbs and different types of verbs (about 7). You have to keep track of a bunch of consonant and vowel changes when conjugating. Japanese is extremely regular and there's really only 2 types of verbs. Korean also has some extra things like multiple ways to form negatives and double-past formations. It's kind of an initial hump when you get started but once past the beginner level it gets easier. I think Korean is easier overall and you should start with it.

[relmneiko]

That's READING 4000, though. You don't have to WRITE that many. Most Japanese people forget how to write most of them because they just use computer and cellphones to type :P

I studied Japanese intensively for 3 years (1 year of that in Japan) and passed the N1. I think for non-Chinese/Korean speakers it will take at least that long to learn. Too many people give up after the basics. You have to commit.

[relmneiko]

The Japanese language has changed a LOT in the last 150 years and there was a kanji reform that reduced the number of characters used for official publications/taught in schools etc. So stuff published before around WWII is MUCH harder to read and has way more kanji. If you want to read Natsume Soseki or whatnot or attend university in Japan you should know at least 3000 characters. The average Japanese person knows about 4000.

[relmneiko]

And to reference your other video, I think you can read Japanese books with less than 98% vocab comprehension because of the kanji. You can guess words not only from context but from their component kanji (though often you will have a situation where you can understand what the characters mean but you don't know how to say them)

As for reading books: I think you can read comics at 1500-2000 kanji but popular contemporary books require more like 2500. Serious literature is a lot harder.

[relmneiko]

Honestly everyone talks about kanji being so hard but I never found it difficult. It's just like memorizing vocabulary except visually. And once you DO know kanji you can make guesses at words you don't know from their component kanji and memorizing words becomes easy because you can associate component kanji. Ex: telephone = electric+talk (電話）. feeling=energy+part　（気分）. So now you know electric and energy you can get electric+energy=electricity（電気­）. It's so easy to memorize Japanese vocabulary!

[utubeviewer93]

japanese is easy to learn speaking except reading.