id, like to learn japanse, so hard, and i did a little bit of indonesian but which im shit at

Written by PsychoNerd on 06.03.2008 at 05:02

id, like to learn japanse, so hard, and i did a little bit of indonesian but which im shit at

Japanese is actually quite easy once you start to get used to it. The grammar is very simple -- most of the rules have no exceptions, which makes it less difficult in that sense than many foreign languages. You should find a tutor or something and give it a shot. ^_^

Written by Deadgirl on 07.03.2008 at 06:25

Written by PsychoNerd on 06.03.2008 at 05:02

id, like to learn japanse, so hard, and i did a little bit of indonesian but which im shit at

Japanese is actually quite easy once you start to get used to it. The grammar is very simple -- most of the rules have no exceptions, which makes it less difficult in that sense than many foreign languages. You should find a tutor or something and give it a shot. ^_^

Can you write kanji? I study Mandarin myself and it's quite a task to memorize all the different hanzi....I may be able to understand written text but when it comes to writing myself then I may face complete blackouts....in general the Chinese characters are awesome...lol....the text looks more kvlt....

I would realy like to speak Russian language...but there is no time to learn it. Well I will have to sacrifice some time on holidays time

Written by Deadgirl on 07.03.2008 at 06:25

Japanese is actually quite easy once you start to get used to it. The grammar is very simple -- most of the rules have no exceptions, which makes it less difficult in that sense than many foreign languages. You should find a tutor or something and give it a shot. ^_^

i am learning what i can from a lonely planet book i bought, i can reconise the symbol that when u say it it sounds like no

Written by Ernis on 07.03.2008 at 16:58

Can you write kanji? I study Mandarin myself and it's quite a task to memorize all the different hanzi....I may be able to understand written text but when it comes to writing myself then I may face complete blackouts....in general the Chinese characters are awesome...lol....the text looks more kvlt....

^Yea, I can read and write kanji. ^_^ I have actually won competitions for it XD And I agree, it is hard to write them from memory sometimes. I really want to learn Mandarin though, that's fucking sweet that you are studying it. Do you know any words in Japanese? It's really interesting sometimes to find the differences between Chinese and Japanese because they are closely related. For example, apparently writing "toilet paper" in Chinese reads "letter" in Japanese. o.O

Written by PsychoNerd on 10.03.2008 at 04:53

i am learning what i can from a lonely planet book i bought, i can reconise the symbol that when u say it it sounds like no

^Which 'no' character? Phonetically, there are two -- one is in hiragana and one is in katakana. Then there are many kanji with the pronunciation 'no' so it can get confusing.
If you can, you should find a native speaker to help you practice. It's always easier to learn a language with support from someone who speaks it fluently. ^_^

Written by Deadgirl on 10.03.2008 at 06:43

It's really interesting sometimes to find the differences between Chinese and Japanese because they are closely related. For example, apparently writing "toilet paper" in Chinese reads "letter" in Japanese. o.O

Kidding right? Chinese and Japanese aren't even distantly related to each other....Japanese language has got nothing to do with the Chinese language...Chinese belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language family...Japanese is an isolated language...it doesn't have any related languages at all....claiming that Chinese and Japanese are related languages is as if saying that English language is closely related to the African Swahili language....Chinese and Japanese even don't have similar sound systems....

The only connection between Chinese and Japanese is the writing system which was adapted from Mandarin....Japanese also has a number of loanwords from Chinese....but it's the same with Estonian...Estonian uses Latin alphabet...does this mean that Estonian language is related to Latin? Even Vietnamese uses Latin writing...but it isn't even distantly related to Latin....and yeh...Estonian has shitloads of loanwords from German, French and other European languages...however, Estonian is an Uralic-Altaic language...with roots in Asia...nothing to do with any European languages at all....

Anyhow...Japanese language uses Chinese characters...for instance a certain character which represents the word "to go/to move" is pronounced XING in Mandarin and it does mean "to move" but in Japanese it reads ITTE....if English language would use characters it'd also read GO/MOVE....and yeh...the uses of characters in different contexts are different in China and Japan....Japanese, however can use Chinese characters not only to represent words but also represent certain sounds derived from the original Chinese pronunciation.....see....for instance MOUNTAIN is SHAN in Chinese but YAMA in Japanese, however, Japanese can also use the character in order to mark a syllable SAN which is roughly taken from SHAN, however, SHAN is not a Japanese word...

And the funny thing now....Japanese people write their names in Chinese characters...but Chinese don't speak Japanese, they don't have any idea bout the way the Japanese see the words behind the characters...therefore if a Japanese person is called Yamamoto Yoshiko, then the same characters are understood and read by the Chinese people as SHANBEN XINGZI....that has no logic at all for them and may even sound ridiculous....that's a grand source of fun for the Chinese people to read Japanese names....see....SHANBEN means literally "mountain root"....but the words are "Yama moto" in Japanese....

Also....hito means "man", in Chinese it's REN....the Japanese also use it to mark the syllable nin or something like that....

And the characters of NIHON are read RIBEN in Chinese (sun root) (btw RIBEN is pronounced more or less exactly like the English word URBAN)...the Beijing dialect of Mandarin has these US English sounds...the R is pronunced exactly like in English....

I speak english.

I am learning Japanese.

Written by Ernis on 10.03.2008 at 12:17

Kidding right? Chinese and Japanese aren't even distantly related to each other....Japanese language has got nothing to do with the Chinese language...Chinese belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language family...Japanese is an isolated language...it doesn't have any related languages at all....claiming that Chinese and Japanese are related languages is as if saying that English language is closely related to the African Swahili language....Chinese and Japanese even don't have similar sound systems....

...No offense (at least none intended), but wow. You don't have to freak out at me. I did mean the writing systems, I just kind of figured that since the rest of my paragraph was about characters (as was our side-discussion beforehand), you would get that writing was the implied area.
I mean, I'm sorry I didn't specify, but seriously... You didn't have to flip a shit. o.o;

Anyway, believe it or not, I don't have to speak Chinese to know all that stuff about writing, but I wasn't really going with sound anyway -- I meant with words and kanji compounds and their meaning (like the example I had provided), not with kanji words/compounds and their pronunciation.

And There are generally both "on" and "kun" readings for kanji in Japanese, but some characters have only the "on-yomi" which comes from Chinese... So I do know what you're talking about.

Written by Deadgirl on 10.03.2008 at 19:32

Written by Ernis on 10.03.2008 at 12:17

Kidding right? Chinese and Japanese aren't even distantly related to each other....Japanese language has got nothing to do with the Chinese language...Chinese belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language family...Japanese is an isolated language...it doesn't have any related languages at all....claiming that Chinese and Japanese are related languages is as if saying that English language is closely related to the African Swahili language....Chinese and Japanese even don't have similar sound systems....

...No offense (at least none intended), but wow. You don't have to freak out at me. I did mean the writing systems, I just kind of figured that since the rest of my paragraph was about characters (as was our side-discussion beforehand), you would get that writing was the implied area.
I mean, I'm sorry I didn't specify, but seriously... You didn't have to flip a shit. o.o;

Anyway, believe it or not, I don't have to speak Chinese to know all that stuff about writing, but I wasn't really going with sound anyway -- I meant with words and kanji compounds and their meaning (like the example I had provided), not with kanji words/compounds and their pronunciation.

And There are generally both "on" and "kun" readings for kanji in Japanese, but some characters have only the "on-yomi" which comes from Chinese... So I do know what you're talking about.

Ok, sorry....I just understood that you were speaking of the languages....well...bout writing system, Japanese uses indeed Chinese characters....
bout the few words I know...well...狗 dog/inu/gou 猫 cat/neko/mao
I know that the word "student" should be written like this 学生 but how is it in Japanese? In Mandarin it's xuesheng.....and foreign student is 留学生 (liuxuesheng)....

I'm trying to revive my French .French is very beautyfull language ...

Written by Ernis on 10.03.2008 at 20:40

Ok, sorry....I just understood that you were speaking of the languages....well...bout writing system, Japanese uses indeed Chinese characters....
bout the few words I know...well...狗 dog/inu/gou 猫 cat/neko/mao
I know that the word "student" should be written like this 学生 but how is it in Japanese? In Mandarin it's xuesheng.....and foreign student is 留学生 (liuxuesheng)....

((Oh no, I'm really sorry actually. My response sounds so much harsher and too defensive when I read it right now. I hope you're not too angry at me... ))
Yeah, 学生 is one word for student, "gakusei" but usually I would say student as 生徒 (seito) instead...And 留学生 (ryuugakusei in Japanese) is also written the same way.
Is it true that to say, for example, "mao" in the wrong tone will mean something completely different?

Written by Deadgirl on 10.03.2008 at 22:07

Written by Ernis on 10.03.2008 at 20:40

Ok, sorry....I just understood that you were speaking of the languages....well...bout writing system, Japanese uses indeed Chinese characters....
bout the few words I know...well...狗 dog/inu/gou 猫 cat/neko/mao
I know that the word "student" should be written like this 学生 but how is it in Japanese? In Mandarin it's xuesheng.....and foreign student is 留学生 (liuxuesheng)....

((Oh no, I'm really sorry actually. My response sounds so much harsher and too defensive when I read it right now. I hope you're not too angry at me... ))
Yeah, 学生 is one word for student, "gakusei" but usually I would say student as 生徒 (seito) instead...And 留学生 (ryuugakusei in Japanese) is also written the same way.
Is it true that to say, for example, "mao" in the wrong tone will mean something completely different?

Thanks for the Japanese translations.....
You're right....Chinese has tones....mao with first tone means "cat" 猫 and mao with second tone means "hair/fur" 毛

The classic examples... Ma1 妈 "mother" ma2 麻 "weed/pot" ma3 马 "horse" ma4 骂 "be angry and bitch with someone" ma(toneless) is either 吗 a question particle to form questions (like ですか in Japanese? )or an assuring particle 嘛 such as saying "period" in the end of one's sentence to make oneself clear....

I speak only Greek and some English but I want to learn French (because I was thinking to move there actually), Japanese (because I like martial arts even if I don't know a thing, and I also like their culture, and finally because they are the first in technological matters) and maybe German (but I hate nazis) and Norwegian (because of black metal, but I hate paganism and vikings and nowadays they are turning shit). I also want to visit these countries, together with Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Ireland one day...

Written by Ernis on 10.03.2008 at 22:52

Thanks for the Japanese translations.....
You're right....Chinese has tones....mao with first tone means "cat" 猫 and mao with second tone means "hair/fur" 毛

The classic examples... Ma1 妈 "mother" ma2 麻 "weed/pot" ma3 马 "horse" ma4 骂 "be angry and bitch with someone" ma(toneless) is either 吗 a question particle to form questions (like ですか in Japanese? )or an assuring particle 嘛 such as saying "period" in the end of one's sentence to make oneself clear....

Yea, that's right -- か (ka) is the question particle... So is 嘛 like for emphasis then? I think I get it... like よ (yo) particle in Japanese maybe.

All that about tones sounds so confusing~ That's so impressive that you've been able to learn the language. (I dunno about most people who study it, but I think if I tried I would mix them up and completely butcher it >_< )

Written by Deadgirl on 11.03.2008 at 08:37

Written by Ernis on 10.03.2008 at 22:52

Thanks for the Japanese translations.....
You're right....Chinese has tones....mao with first tone means "cat" 猫 and mao with second tone means "hair/fur" 毛

The classic examples... Ma1 妈 "mother" ma2 麻 "weed/pot" ma3 马 "horse" ma4 骂 "be angry and bitch with someone" ma(toneless) is either 吗 a question particle to form questions (like ですか in Japanese? )or an assuring particle 嘛 such as saying "period" in the end of one's sentence to make oneself clear....

Yea, that's right -- か (ka) is the question particle... So is 嘛 like for emphasis then? I think I get it... like よ (yo) particle in Japanese maybe.

All that about tones sounds so confusing~ That's so impressive that you've been able to learn the language. (I dunno about most people who study it, but I think if I tried I would mix them up and completely butcher it >_< )

Nope, it isn't that awful....I think you'd manage it.....but for Japanese speakers, for instance, the pronunciation of Mandarin is difficult.....for me, Mandarin sounds sort of like English with French nasal vocals and the letters Õ and Ü...I personally would like to learn Japanese one day....at least I'd have a basis of the Chinese characters....

IU had to stop Italian for one semester due to my work schedule. The only available time was Wednesday-Frida 4-6PM, and I work 'till 5:30...
I have to wait t¡'till april to see if they accepted my request to save the place for me for teh next semester... or else I'll have to pay *sigh*

Quote:

Quote:

Japanese is actually quite easy once you start to get used to it. The grammar is very simple -- most of the rules have no exceptions, which makes it less difficult in that sense than many foreign languages. You should find a tutor or something and give it a shot. ^_^

I couldn't agree more. I learned Japanese as a second language, and was able to begin holding a coherent conversation within a couple of months. I work for a Japanese company, and conduct a good portion of my daily business in that language.

Japanese is definitely easier grammatically than English, in my opinion, because of the fact that there are few exceptions to grammar rules, only two irregular verbs, etc.

What makes the language a little difficult are:
A) The writing system, although the kanji become easier to learn and remember after you have processed about the first 200~300 of them.
B) Keigo - having to use different words and speech forms depending on whether you hold a socially inferior, equal, or elevated position relative to the person with whom you are speaking.

What made the difference for me was being around Japanese people a lot. I lived in Japan for a while, and as I mentioned, I work in a Japanese company. The language is so different from English that it would have been impossible for me to learn it just from a book. Being able to interact with native speakers was invaluable in picking up the nuances.

Hey, guys!

I'm very glad to announce that some time ago, I started learning Danish, which I found quite easy because it is closely related to both Norwegian and Swedish.Last week, I also started learning Japanese on my own (I learn most of the languages I do on my own).

Gosh, I'm soo excited!

Hm, I'm still going through the Norwegian language (pretty hard if you don't have any books or something from what to learn), but now I want to learn Danish too. It would be a lot easier to learn, if I could leave Latvia and live in Norway, but naah, I'm staying here. By now.

So, anyone (Norwegian guy) wants to marry me?

Written by Ragana on 16.07.2008 at 03:02

Hm, I'm still going through the Norwegian language (pretty hard if you don't have any books or something from what to learn), but now I want to learn Danish too. It would be a lot easier to learn, if I could leave Latvia and live in Norway, but naah, I'm staying here. By now.

So, anyone (Norwegian guy) wants to marry me?

Which Norwegian are you learning? Nynorsk or Bokmal....both varieties are official in Norway but one of them's more based on the Danish written language whereas the other one is a further development of the language....

You also have dialects of norwegian that are close to swedish and dialects of swedish that are close to norwegian. As I live near the norwegian border(about 9 miles away), my dialect is very close to norwegian.


@Elodie Artour: So when is it time to learn swedish? It's seems to be the least popular nordic language to learn. (taking Faroese aside)

About Danish, the written language may be easy, but the pronaction is truly a bitch. It's a nightmare for us swedes to have a a conversation with a danish person.

Aye the Danes speak as if having potatoes in mouth....."Jeg hedder mumiy troll...." or sth...
Bout Germanic languages why not study Icelandic nor even go further into the tro0 stuff and try mastering the Goth language....those who didn't know, Goths even had their own writing system (no, not the computer font called Gothic nor the 19th century way of typing text...)....

Written by Ernis on 16.07.2008 at 20:41

Written by Ragana on 16.07.2008 at 03:02

Hm, I'm still going through the Norwegian language (pretty hard if you don't have any books or something from what to learn), but now I want to learn Danish too. It would be a lot easier to learn, if I could leave Latvia and live in Norway, but naah, I'm staying here. By now.

So, anyone (Norwegian guy) wants to marry me?

Which Norwegian are you learning? Nynorsk or Bokmal....both varieties are official in Norway but one of them's more based on the Danish written language whereas the other one is a further development of the language....

Hell knows, I'm confused. IMO, it's Nynorsk but don't ask me.

Written by Torelli on 16.07.2008 at 21:46

About Danish, the written language may be easy, but the pronaction is truly a bitch. It's a nightmare for us swedes to have a a conversation with a danish person.

Don't worry, I have difficulties to speak even in Swedish (I have tried, but i sounds silly :/ and that's similar with my Norwegian too), not even to mention Danish, although few friends of mine can speak Danish very well.

Written by Torelli on 16.07.2008 at 21:46

It's seems to be the least popular nordic language to learn. (taking Faroese aside)

Are you kidding me?! Every Finn learns Swedish at school, so it can't possibly be the least popular nordic language to learn. Of course, on the other hand, no one wants to learn it hear, we just have to...

@Hobbit Viggo: I've been thinking of icelandic, it's an extremly beautiful language, not to say epic. For the sake of my origin I should learn it as it's pretty much a version of old norse.

@Ragana: Don't worry, the pronaction comes at time, until then, accents can be quite charming.

@Ernotar: Yeah, given how you veiw us in Finland("all swedish men are gay" hm... ), I hardly think you want to learn it voluntary. it seems to be a of little intrest for people to learn swedish, if they choose a nordic language, they usually goes for finnish or norwegian instead. And we are not exactly super popular among the other nordic countries either(save for some norwegians near the border).

Written by Torelli on 17.07.2008 at 15:36

@Hobbit Viggo: I've been thinking of icelandic, it's an extremly beautiful language, not to say epic. For the sake of my origin I should learn it as it's pretty much a version of old norse.

@Ernotar: Yeah, given how you veiw us in Finland("all swedish men are gay" hm... ), I hardly think you want to learn it voluntary. it seems to be a of little intrest for people to learn swedish, if they choose a nordic language, they usually goes for finnish or norwegian instead. And we are not exactly super popular among the other nordic countries either(save for some norwegians near the border).

I know...Icelandic also has lots of their own original words such as "tölva" for computer which means (number seeress) or sth....

While I was in Finland I'd say that rather often Swedish language signs and names made more sense than the Finnish ones....
Plus the place names such as "Blabarslandet" (Blueberryland) and Vargön (Wolf Island) looked cool and tro0 in Swedish while the Finnish versions Mustikkamaa and Susisaari sound bit ridiculous.....If I didn't speak Estonian myself which is also a Fenno-Ugric language Finnish would sound completely Japanese for me....

Just take a look at this.... Järnvägsstation (Iron plus way plus station) is Railway Station....and compare it now to Rautatieasema....I guess the meaning only thanks to the fact that Raudteejaam in Estonian resembles a bit the Finnish name....

Written by Ernis on 17.07.2008 at 19:01

Written by Torelli on 17.07.2008 at 15:36

@Hobbit Viggo: I've been thinking of icelandic, it's an extremly beautiful language, not to say epic. For the sake of my origin I should learn it as it's pretty much a version of old norse.

@Ernotar: Yeah, given how you veiw us in Finland("all swedish men are gay" hm... ), I hardly think you want to learn it voluntary. it seems to be a of little intrest for people to learn swedish, if they choose a nordic language, they usually goes for finnish or norwegian instead. And we are not exactly super popular among the other nordic countries either(save for some norwegians near the border).

I know...Icelandic also has lots of their own original words such as "tölva" for computer which means (number seeress) or sth....

While I was in Finland I'd say that rather often Swedish language signs and names made more sense than the Finnish ones....
Plus the place names such as "Blabarslandet" (Blueberryland) and Vargön (Wolf Island) looked cool and tro0 in Swedish while the Finnish versions Mustikkamaa and Susisaari sound bit ridiculous.....If I didn't speak Estonian myself which is also a Fenno-Ugric language Finnish would sound completely Japanese for me....

Just take a look at this.... Järnvägsstation (Iron plus way plus station) is Railway Station....and compare it now to Rautatieasema....I guess the meaning only thanks to the fact that Raudteejaam in Estonian resembles a bit the Finnish name....

I suppose it's easier for a foreigner to understand the Swedish names, because Swedish is to some point similar to English. If I could decide, those Swedish street name signs etc would all be collected and burnt. I love Finnish language and its uniqueness. Too many places have a ridiculous name here, because there first was a Swedish name that has now gotten a clumsy Finnish version that just sounds the same and the meaning has been forgotten.

Well I speak Spanish [My mother langueage], Swedish and English... thanks to websites like this one [and of course thanks to music] that I could learn English faster because the english education really sucked at my school in Chile... So it was better to learn it on my own.

I just want to learn some other languages such as German [I don't know why but I find German kinda sexy... ajajjaja xD] and French would be also great ^___^

Written by Ernis on 17.07.2008 at 19:01


While I was in Finland I'd say that rather often Swedish language signs and names made more sense than the Finnish ones....
Plus the place names such as "Blabarslandet" (Blueberryland) and Vargön (Wolf Island) looked cool and tro0 in Swedish while the Finnish versions Mustikkamaa and Susisaari sound bit ridiculous.....If I didn't speak Estonian myself which is also a Fenno-Ugric language Finnish would sound completely Japanese for me....

Just take a look at this.... Järnvägsstation (Iron plus way plus station) is Railway Station....and compare it now to Rautatieasema....I guess the meaning only thanks to the fact that Raudteejaam in Estonian resembles a bit the Finnish name....

Have you ever considered to be a linguistic? No matter what language we bring up, you allways seem to reqonice it, bringing up simular languages, some gramatical rules and a couple of words and phrases.

I would defiently misstake finnish for japanese if it wasn't for the fact that it's a neigbour country, I trust you have heard the vocal version of "last of the wilds" by Nightwish?


Ernotar: If you want to eraze all the traces of the swedish heiritage, you will be erazing large parts of your history along with it. Take for example the finnish alpabet, which is practicly based on the swedish alphabet. Granted, the finnish heiratage has played a part of the swedish history as well(and I'm not just talking about our past colonialsation). What ever you like it or not, the swedish and finnish people are very alike, the nordic wellfare model being and example of it.