Learning Japanese
Dec. 30th, 2012 06:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebI'm not really learning Japanese, but I did pick up Japanese for Dummies partly to learn a little more about the culture so maybe we can understand some of Robin's co-workers better.
This book is so dumbed down it uses Roman letters. Still, the first chapter alone is fascinating.
They managed to have a section on English words that are from Japanese, like hibachi, karaoke, kimono, origami, sake, samurai, and tsunami.
Then there was a section on Japanese words that are from the English:
basude keki (bahh-soo-dehh kehh-kee)
jusu (jooo-soo)
kamera (kah-meh-rah)
kohi (kohh-heee)
nekutai (neh-koo-tah-ee)
pati (pahh-teee)
rajio (rah-jee-oh)
resutoran (reh-soo-toh-rahn)
suteki (soo-tehh-kee)
sutoraiku (soo-toh-rah-e-koo)
Unless you are used to listening to people with a heavy Japanese accent, you might not recognize these words. So I think they are a fun puzzle. I will put the meanings in a comment.
"Whenever someone says something to you, nod immediately. Otherwise, the speaker will think that you're not paying attention or that you're upset." Interesting. Are we perhaps assuming that someone is telling us that they understand something when really they are just telling us that they are paying attention?
The second chapter has some grammar, again fascinating. The following is just from the first part of that chapter.
In sentences the verb comes last. The subject and object can be in any order because they are attached to marker words (particles). "Ga" is the subject-marking particle, and "o" is the object-marking particle ("o" for "object"--what could be easier to remember?). So for example:
"Mari ga Jon o sasotta" means Mary-(the subject)-John-(the object)-invited or "Mary invited John."
"Jon o Mari ga sasotta" means the same thing.
Additional particles take the place of prepositions and conjunctions. And they don't use articles at all--so it makes sense that many Japanese speakers have trouble figuring out when to say "a/an" or "the" (or neither) in various situations. Frankly, I don't know how anyone learns English as a second language, but it looks especially crazy hard for Japanese speakers.
Japanese sentences often start with topic phrases such as "Speaking of chili, ..." or "As for yesterday's homework, ..." If the topic noun is also the subject or the object, just use the topic particle (wa), not the subject or object particle. So, maybe putting together the puzzle of a sentence's meaning isn't always so straightforward (to beginners). Like in Latin. Latin is one of those languages where sentence order almost completely doesn't matter because they have different forms for all the words in all the different roles. Only there is loads of redundancy--is this the possessive form of this noun or the first-person singular past tense of the verb with the same root? That really drove me nutso.
Questions don't have question marks. You just end them with the question particle (ka).
In English, we mostly ignore status. We add politeness by maybe using titles in front of names, perhaps referring to someone as sir or ma'am, and trying to minimize the slang. Japanese has different forms of verbs for different levels of formality. Unlike Spanish, which has two levels (formal and informal), Japanese has three (formal, polite/neutral, and informal), basically corresponding to the status of the other person compared to yours (higher, similar, or lower). Since we Americans are not in the habit of paying close attention to status, or of even admitting that there are status differences or that these differences matter at all, this is where we probably make some of our most laughable mistakes.
In Japan, they are so hyper-aware of status that there are also mind games involved. Robin's boss will sometimes tell him where to sit at a meeting table to make the impression she wants to make with him--basically to communicate how important it is to listen to what he says or something. And many bigwigs will act like they have much lower status than they really have, but their colleagues don't fall for that. Robin has learned to pay attention to how other people are treating a new visitor--not just how the new visitor is treating him.
Of course everything in this entry is third-hand (my interpretation of a Dummies book or from stories I've heard about Robin's day at work), so perhaps none of it is strictly true. But whatever the reality is, there are interesting bits to it.
Quote of the Day - At an interview for a job at Robin's employer, "Wait, is this a Japanese company? I speak Japanese!" Yes, he got the job. (But mostly because he passed the writing and tech tests.)
This book is so dumbed down it uses Roman letters. Still, the first chapter alone is fascinating.
They managed to have a section on English words that are from Japanese, like hibachi, karaoke, kimono, origami, sake, samurai, and tsunami.
Then there was a section on Japanese words that are from the English:
basude keki (bahh-soo-dehh kehh-kee)
jusu (jooo-soo)
kamera (kah-meh-rah)
kohi (kohh-heee)
nekutai (neh-koo-tah-ee)
pati (pahh-teee)
rajio (rah-jee-oh)
resutoran (reh-soo-toh-rahn)
suteki (soo-tehh-kee)
sutoraiku (soo-toh-rah-e-koo)
Unless you are used to listening to people with a heavy Japanese accent, you might not recognize these words. So I think they are a fun puzzle. I will put the meanings in a comment.
"Whenever someone says something to you, nod immediately. Otherwise, the speaker will think that you're not paying attention or that you're upset." Interesting. Are we perhaps assuming that someone is telling us that they understand something when really they are just telling us that they are paying attention?
The second chapter has some grammar, again fascinating. The following is just from the first part of that chapter.
In sentences the verb comes last. The subject and object can be in any order because they are attached to marker words (particles). "Ga" is the subject-marking particle, and "o" is the object-marking particle ("o" for "object"--what could be easier to remember?). So for example:
"Mari ga Jon o sasotta" means Mary-(the subject)-John-(the object)-invited or "Mary invited John."
"Jon o Mari ga sasotta" means the same thing.
Additional particles take the place of prepositions and conjunctions. And they don't use articles at all--so it makes sense that many Japanese speakers have trouble figuring out when to say "a/an" or "the" (or neither) in various situations. Frankly, I don't know how anyone learns English as a second language, but it looks especially crazy hard for Japanese speakers.
Japanese sentences often start with topic phrases such as "Speaking of chili, ..." or "As for yesterday's homework, ..." If the topic noun is also the subject or the object, just use the topic particle (wa), not the subject or object particle. So, maybe putting together the puzzle of a sentence's meaning isn't always so straightforward (to beginners). Like in Latin. Latin is one of those languages where sentence order almost completely doesn't matter because they have different forms for all the words in all the different roles. Only there is loads of redundancy--is this the possessive form of this noun or the first-person singular past tense of the verb with the same root? That really drove me nutso.
Questions don't have question marks. You just end them with the question particle (ka).
In English, we mostly ignore status. We add politeness by maybe using titles in front of names, perhaps referring to someone as sir or ma'am, and trying to minimize the slang. Japanese has different forms of verbs for different levels of formality. Unlike Spanish, which has two levels (formal and informal), Japanese has three (formal, polite/neutral, and informal), basically corresponding to the status of the other person compared to yours (higher, similar, or lower). Since we Americans are not in the habit of paying close attention to status, or of even admitting that there are status differences or that these differences matter at all, this is where we probably make some of our most laughable mistakes.
In Japan, they are so hyper-aware of status that there are also mind games involved. Robin's boss will sometimes tell him where to sit at a meeting table to make the impression she wants to make with him--basically to communicate how important it is to listen to what he says or something. And many bigwigs will act like they have much lower status than they really have, but their colleagues don't fall for that. Robin has learned to pay attention to how other people are treating a new visitor--not just how the new visitor is treating him.
Of course everything in this entry is third-hand (my interpretation of a Dummies book or from stories I've heard about Robin's day at work), so perhaps none of it is strictly true. But whatever the reality is, there are interesting bits to it.
Quote of the Day - At an interview for a job at Robin's employer, "Wait, is this a Japanese company? I speak Japanese!" Yes, he got the job. (But mostly because he passed the writing and tech tests.)
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Japanese words from the English
on 2012-12-31 12:24 am (UTC)jusu (jooo-soo) - juice
kamera (kah-meh-rah) - camera
kohi (kohh-heee) - coffee
nekutai (neh-koo-tah-ee) - necktie (I actually guessed this one!)
pati (pahh-teee) - party (just like in Boston!)
rajio (rah-jee-oh) - radio
resutoran (reh-soo-toh-rahn) - restaurant
suteki (soo-tehh-kee) - steak (reminds me of the Spanish "bistek" for steak--or beefsteak)
sutoraiku (soo-toh-rah-e-koo) - strike