Translations (JP to English)

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Originally Posted by Betelgeuzah

Pronounciation is not really the issue with Japanese, it's the writing, reading, and grammar structure that is completely different. They don't have a 'be'-verb at all, instead they have this abstract "topic" and "attribute" system instead. their sentence structure is neither object-subject-verb, nor subject-object-verb. It's just verb. Which leads to many issues...

My language is considered as one of the most difficult European languages to learn (sister language of Hungarian- or was it Ukranian?), but for a latin language speaker it is still easier than learning an Asian language. It's different in many ways, but not -that- different.

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Yeah I was mostly thinking about the speaking, but I am aware that way sentences and the grammar in general is very different.

I remember reading Hungarian was definitely up there as far as difficulty. I'm learning Mandarin Chinese and while the reading/writing is pretty difficult, the speaking part is VERY easy and the grammar is actually extremely simple. Which is funny considering how many people ask me how incredibly hard it must be.

ugh i thought you guys were done and going back on topic -1 for all of you >.<

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Originally Posted by Betelgeuzah

You know there's this forest I think it was in northern part of Japan, it's called the Suicide forest because so many people go out there specifically to die. The local ranger that patrols the area finds like 20 bodies a year and tons of people 'camping' there alone (struggling with making the decision). Pressure from the society to act in a certain way leads them there eventually.

But yeah, at least they have silly christmas ideals and kawaii uguu anime.



Let's just say that if you prepare properly, it's not much harder at all. But the problem is that nobody teaches you the proper way, and no preparation is done before it is too late.

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I'm sorry to keep derailing but I've seen this a lot (it must have a special on the history channel or something).

It's actually called Mount Fuji and it is an obviously spiritual place to many people there. If you don't think national forest park rangers in the US find suicides you are deluding yourself, we just lack any equivalent in terms of spiritual significance dating back thousands of years for people to congregate to do that in one location.

Japan does have high suicide rates, so do most developed nations, and it is a problem but it is not a reflection of a specifically perverted culture either. Unless you think Sweden and Canada are also obsessed with suicide. The way I personally look at it (though it is a much more complicated situation than this) is that the Japanese are simply more open to discussing topics relating to death whereas most Western cultures are deeply afraid of the subject.

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Originally Posted by Colino

Yeah I was mostly thinking about the speaking, but I am aware that way sentences and the grammar in general is very different.

I remember reading Hungarian was definitely up there as far as difficulty. I'm learning Mandarin Chinese and while the reading/writing is pretty difficult, the speaking part is VERY easy and the grammar is actually extremely simple. Which is funny considering how many people ask me how incredibly hard it must be.

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I'm surprised that you think that. Isn't a huge part of Mandarin learning the intonation of all the words? It's not exactly Cantonese bad but still if you're not used to it I figured it would be a difficult task to master.

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It's actually called Mount Fuji and it is an obviously spiritual place to many people there.

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It's close to it, but the forest is called Aokigahara.

Sure America has that uhh Golden Gate Bridge? where people commit suicide a lot, but to say that this isn't a reflection of the perverted culture that exists in Japan would be quite a claim.

Japanese are not doing mentally that well, and even though other countries could do better few places go to such extremes in practicing their culture as Japan does. You bring shame to your family? You are trash and may as well go die. It's funny that these people can go 'camping' in the forest for weeks and nobody comes looking for them. It's usually the ranger that goes to talk to them and may turn their heads. It's the sort of mindset that is disgusting.

It's at the foot of mount Fuji, it's not CALLED Mt.Fuji.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aokigahara

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Originally Posted by Murugan

Japanese are simply more open to discussing topics relating to death whereas most Western cultures are deeply afraid of the subject.

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They are most definitely not. I have no idea where you pulled that out of. They even stopped publishing the number of suicides that happen in said forest just to downlplay the tragedy.

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Originally Posted by Betelgeuzah

I'm surprised that you think that. Isn't a huge part of Mandarin learning the intonation of all the words? It's not exactly Cantonese bad but still if you're not used to it I figured it would be a difficult task to master.

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Yeah intonation is the main difficulty. But in all honesty it's not THAT bad. Most Mandarin speakers will still understand what you're saying as long as the context is there. It's not that many sounds to learn.

I have finally come to understand why they yell so much though, they have to make certain you understand the tones they're using.

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Originally Posted by Colino

I can say it's not, especially when coming from a latin language. In fact, most Italians/Spaniards I know pronounce all Japanese words perfectly, because they would sound exactly the same in their language.

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This one is quite true. For us here in Brazil, pronouncing something like "Domo arigato" is literally just reading the words exactly like we would if it was portuguese

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Originally Posted by Colino

Yeah intonation is the main difficulty. But in all honesty it's not THAT bad. Most Mandarin speakers will still understand what you're saying as long as the context is there. It's not that many sounds to learn.

I have finally come to understand why they yell so much though, they have to make certain you understand the tones they're using.

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Yeah I think there's like four different sounds? That's not too bad, but probably as difficult to learn as JP grammar. Not impossible but it takes some time to start "thinking" like them.

It's disgusting how the language is taught though. The particles are reduced to sound similar to "be"-verb even though that isn't even remotely accurate. As long as you can speak certain sentences thats 'good enough', but you never actually understand what you're saying. but that's besides the point.

Dudes make another topic. this is almost 2 pages with no updates from rein on devs but you people talking about stuff no one wants to see here.

Stop it make another thread.

Edit: @ Firon

I no i was checking like crazy thinking rein posted here just to see these people talking about stuff i do not want to see in this thread

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Originally Posted by DNO

Dudes make another topic. this is almost 2 pages with no updates from rein on devs but you people talking about stuff no one wants to see here.

Stop it make another thread.

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I agree i thought rien posted some new info but i was wrong!

Intonation is used in all languages.
Just google or wiki the word, english uses intonation all the time.
I am italian ( but raised in los angeles) and I've always been taught japanese phonetics are very similar to italian.