by "gin-san - shitpost specialist" (gin-san-)
Published 08/03/2017 at 21:24
by "gin-san - shitpost specialist" (gin-san-)
Published 08/03/2017 at 21:24
Tags: ME TALK GOOD
STARS: 0
...since I’m going on a trip to Japan in a couple of months. Being able to read is a bit overkill, but I have picked up on the basic phrases I need already and wanted to learn more. Besides, I figure having a bit of knowledge in this regard can’t be a bad thing.
I thought it couldn’t be that difficult, right? In some ways, it isn’t, but in many, many other ways, it is pretty bad.
Hiragana isn’t too bad and while I still stumble the characters are all familiar and I know the sounds. Katakana is not so good, but the fact that kanji is thrown in there and that they’re all used together is a bit of a mindfuck. Reading will take a while to learn, and I’ll still be slow in two months time. Still, it’s kind of fun to learn yet simultaneously frustrating.
At least when I picked up French, it still used the regular alphabet (what the hell do you call it? It’s not an English alphabet. Is it Roman? Latin alphabet?) and you threw some lines in for accents. Korean has one simple alphabet, although they do have hanja which is only used in specific settings. It’s strange learning a language when you’re nearly thirty years old and it’s basically self-taught. However, I couldn’t imagine doing this by myself even ten years ago - the online tools available these days are pretty awesome.
Are any oppos multi-lingual?
"415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)" (415s30)
08/03/2017 at 21:36, STARS: 1
I’ve lived in Japan off and on and my wife is. My only saving grace was the world cup went to Japan and they changed a lot of subway signs to read in euro character too. My stop was Utsukushigaoka, try that in Japanese. Later I had Tama Plaza, easy. I forget a lot of what I learned, my wife speaks English very well. But kanji is a mind fuck and from what I see my wife is mainly guided around by her phone anyway.
"BlueMazda2 - Blesses the rains down in Africa, Purveyor of BMW Individual Arctic Metallic, Merci Twingo" (bluemazda2)
08/03/2017 at 21:48, STARS: 0
I speak English, but Spanish is my native language.
Also, as far as I’m concerned, there’s one Japanese phrase that’s very close and dear to my heart.
It means a lot to me.
It should mean a lot to several Opponauts.
"Honeybunchesofgoats" (honeybunche0fgoats)
08/03/2017 at 22:14, STARS: 0
I speak Arabic and French; I used to be survivable in Mandarin, but not so much anymore, although I can say some really vile things in dialect; I have enough Spanish to travel and not die from a lack of food or alcohol; I can read German, but not speak or listen; for a time, I could read Cyrillic enough to recognize loanwords, but somehow I’ve nearly forgotten that alphabet entirely.
"Aremmes" (aremmes)
08/03/2017 at 22:32, STARS: 0
Spoken Japanese is a rather simple and surprisingly consistent language that could be approximated to a high degree with a context-free grammar. Written Japanese is chaotic and schizophrenic. It’s no surprise then that Japanese people love puns.
Time for a rude joke:
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"TheJWT" (thejwt)
08/04/2017 at 00:14, STARS: 0
I’ve been using nihongo master to learn japanese, its free and it teaches it in a really easy to understand way
"dsigned001 - O.R.C. hunter" (dsigned001)
08/04/2017 at 03:28, STARS: 0
Fluent French, some Vietnamese, Spanish and German.
I watch enough anime that I installed Japanese on Duolingo. Seems legit so far, but as with most language software, I haven’t put in enough time to have made a whole lot of progress.
"gin-san - shitpost specialist" (gin-san-)
08/04/2017 at 10:41, STARS: 0
There will be a lot of phone use, I’ll be getting a portable WiFi hotspot since my friend and I will need this to find our way around and to translate.
"gin-san - shitpost specialist" (gin-san-)
08/04/2017 at 10:44, STARS: 0
Spanish is something that messes with my head because the structure is basically the same as French. I remember when I was in Spain I found myself using a mix of English, basic Spanish, and inadvertently using French.
Luckily it did pay off for me since I was lost at one point and found a local who spoke French.
"gin-san - shitpost specialist" (gin-san-)
08/04/2017 at 10:45, STARS: 0
I used Duolingo to start, but I found this site called FluentU which seems much more robust. I started at the most basic level and picked up some things that Duolingo didn’t make clear. Only issue is that FluentU is a paid subscription, but given the choice of paying for Duolingo or FluentU, I think I’d go with the latter.
"gin-san - shitpost specialist" (gin-san-)
08/04/2017 at 10:47, STARS: 1
I could read the first word but had to use translate for the second one.
"BlueMazda2 - Blesses the rains down in Africa, Purveyor of BMW Individual Arctic Metallic, Merci Twingo" (bluemazda2)
08/04/2017 at 10:48, STARS: 0
“Merci Twingo” is basically Oppo’s motto now
"415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)" (415s30)
08/04/2017 at 13:34, STARS: 0
Yeah we get a hotspot and a local phone in the airport when we go back now, softbank I think. I did it years ago and I had basically no help. City addresses are totally insane in Japan, most places have a GPS location to help out. I had a guy help me get to where I was going to live the first day and he got lost once. Oh and I am a 15 year sumo fan, it is amazing and you have to go a day of the tournament in Tokyo when it’s there, it alternates every two months between Tokyo and other cities.
"gin-san - shitpost specialist" (gin-san-)
08/04/2017 at 13:49, STARS: 0
I definitely want to see a sumo match, but I’m going in October and the only events available are “tour” events, which I’d imagine is an exhibition match of sorts. Anyway, our best chance is to see it in Nagoya since there is a tour match a few days after the Japanese Grand Prix. I think my friend and I will be trying to go to that one.
"415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)" (415s30)
08/04/2017 at 16:00, STARS: 1
Yeah the junyos are like exhibition practices generally after a basho. The Kokugikan in Tokyo is amazing to go to. When I go I get a box over the corner walkways and bring my in laws. You can go early and see the lower division too, and you can drink beer. The junyo is less serious but they are fun and sometimes the kids get up there and mess around.
"gin-san - shitpost specialist" (gin-san-)
08/04/2017 at 16:46, STARS: 0
Cool, thanks for the tip!