Category Archives: Language - Page 2

Learning Japanese via ‘manga’

Posted by on February 18, 2010 Comments Off

Check out a new site to help you understand/learn that pesky Japanese slang! Japanese in Anime & Manga.

“Manga” comic books and “anime” films are building up interest around the world in learning Japanese.

Providing a link: A Web site operated by the Japan Foundation features English translations of Japanese phrases typically spoken by “manga” and “anime” characters.

But students of the language are having a tough time understanding the colloquial expressions that abound in manga and anime, for instance when a samurai character ends a sentence with “gozaru” or a man from Osaka says “desse,” because dictionaries and language textbooks say sentences end with the polite forms “desu” or “masu.”

The Japan Foundation, a public entity supervised by the Foreign Ministry, launched a Web site earlier this month to teach foreigners phrases spoken by typical anime and manga characters.

via Learning Japanese via ‘manga’ | The Japan Times Online.

Appreciation

Posted by on May 24, 2009 2 comments

I had not really appreciated the significance of appreciation until recently when someone learning English as a second language wrote “I would appreciate you if you correct my English.” Yes, everyone knows that this is perfectly understandable, but the person really wanted strict advice and commented that there is almost no method to verify the correctness of a sentence. For me, learning Japanese is extremely difficult, but I cannot imagine how much harder English must be with all of it’s exceptions – not to mention all of the conversational usage which breaks what rules there are. This got me to thinking about “to appreciate.” Let the rambling begin …

It seems the issue with ‘appreciate’ is that it might seem crass if you say “I would appreciate you if you do XYZ” as it sounds a bit rudely like a bargain. Imagine if you say “I would love you if you buy me this” or “I would be your friend if you do my homework.” This sort of thing is only said jokingly (or extremely seriously to an intimate partner (eg. “I would love you if you stopped dating my brother and sister when we get engaged”)).

If you do want to ask someone to do something for you, rather than saying you would appreciate them if they do it, you would say ‘I would appreciate it if you (would/could) correct my English.’ This way it sounds like you would like the person to do something, but you will value the person regardless of whether they do it or not. Similarly, people frequently say something like ‘I’d love it if we went to Disneyland’ – but never “I’d love you if we went to Disneyland.” :-)

If you do not make appreciation (or love, friendship, etc.) of a person dependent on some action then you could say “I appreciate you.” So, if the other person has already done something for you or has already agreed to do it for you, then you could say “I (really) appreciate you doing this for me,” “I really appreciate you correcting my English,” “I appreciate you being there for me,” etc.

As a side note, I heard my father simply say “I ‘preciate ya.” Yes, he’s Southern (U.S.). I asked him about this, saying that in California we always say “I appreciate it.” He responded that “That’s the whole difference between California and The South. – Here we care about the person, not the thing.”

Anyway, I hope this is helpfully correct and makes some sort of sense. If not … I’d appreciate hearing from you.

PS: This is marginally related to the differences between North/South alluded to above and seems as good a place as any to input a nifty quote I heard about D.C.. “Washington D.C is a city of Northern hospitality and Southern efficiency.” I’ll put an attribution here if I remember who summed up things so pithily.

iKnow!

Posted by on May 21, 2009 Comments Off

Some folks are asking what this whole iknow thing is about as I apparently set it up to link with Facebook/Twitter when I created my account, so I thought I’d put a a thingy about it here.
iKnow! (or Smart.FM as they’ve changed their name) is one of the coolest sites I’ve come across of late. If you need to learn something (language, history, science, whatever) you make a list of questions/answers, or use one that someone else has shared, and the site makes a sort of game of it. I’m using it for Japanese and someone has even shared the textbook we are using in class. There are three knowledge acquisition methods on the site: iKnow is multiple choice to/from Japanese (in your choice of Kanji, Kana, or Romanji), as well as text entry of the same. I have not fiddled so much with the other two, but they are dictation/listening practice and a Brainspeed game where you madly try to beat the clock with your answers. All of this is quite amazing, but what really sets the site apart is that it lets you set goals and keeps track of when, for how long, and what progress you’re making in your studies. It’s also not restricted to the strictly serious, but is open to anything which has a question and an answer … say you want to be a wiz at your favourite tv, anime, movie, blah blah blah trivia. It is “smart” because it uses the spaced repetition system (SRS) to not only ask you new questions, but to ensure you remember the old information by intelligently bringing it back in intervals. So, if there’s anything that you wish to know, do check it out! (feel free to contact me – and we can ‘follow’ each other).

Oh, and yes, it’s no-strings attached free. Not an ad or annoyance in sight. Don’t know how they do it. And still better than sites I’ve already paid for by a long shot.

First Japanese Class

Posted by on April 14, 2009 1 comment

So, I’m going to AjALT ((ajaruto) – the school that made the Japanese for Busy People series of books) and started yesterday for their ‘Beginner Foundation’ course. It’s MWF with a specific teacher for each of the days. It’s at exit three from the Hibiya line Kamiyacho if you’re interested. It does seem to be a great school with no recourse to “childish or classroom-only” language. The class completes the first volume of their text from introductions, business cards to going to a party. It seems incredibly well structured for dealing with Japanese society. For example, last time I went to Billboard live we met the manager … introductions, introductions of friends, business cards … it’s a perfect fit for reality. At risk of being overly ambitious, I will try to put notes up on here. This is for me to remember and not to be construed as advice upon any language of any kind.

Ch1. Introductions
どなたですか？
こちらXYZ Corp のRandall-さんです。
はじめましてRandall です. よろしくおねがいします。

Lernin' the Speak

Posted by on February 24, 2009 Comments Off

I’ve been researching places to study Japanese and decided upon AJALT (Association for Japanese-Language Teaching) located near Kamiyacho station on the Hibiya line. They are the ones that publish the Japanese for Busy People series. They have a Beginners Foundation course starting on 13APR meeting MWF. Unfortunately they need more people to sign up to hold the course so I’m trying to temper my excitement until I hear if this is actually going to happen. F i n g e r s REALLY c r o s s e d!