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Has Japanese been watered down? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| ericspinelli Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5784 days ago 249 posts - 493 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Korean, Italian | Message 25 of 53 14 February 2010 at 5:53am | IP Logged | |||||
Then again I met a Japanese 3rd grader (elementary school) who forgot how to write べ. Some people are just stupid. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5465 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 26 of 53 14 February 2010 at 6:28am | IP Logged | |||||
One thing you must always take into account is Japanese people's seemingly limitless capacity for humility! I'm sure in many of these cases people do really know how to write those simple words, but pretending they have forgotten makes for a much more comfortable interaction and avoids the dreaded 自画自賛! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| aabram Pentaglot Senior Member Estonia Joined 5534 days ago 138 posts - 263 votes Speaks: Estonian*, English, Spanish, Russian, Finnish Studies: Mandarin, French | Message 27 of 53 14 February 2010 at 7:47pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I'd speculate that this (watering down) can be safely said about many languages nowadays.
It seems to be common complaint with many languages -- oversimplification, people not bothering with more complicated grammar and having ever decreasing vocabulary, butchering even those few words they know, yadda yadda. As for Japanese kana and kanji mess, as a beginner I do find the hardest part having to decipher long strings of kana, trying to decide where grammatical function holders end and where words written in kana begin. I'd be much happier with all-kanji words, and all- kana grammar. Sometimes I think that should have I picked Chinese I'd be reading much better by now. Heck, I could be reading the text, instead of tokenizing. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Pyx Diglot Senior Member China Joined 5736 days ago 670 posts - 892 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: Mandarin | Message 28 of 53 15 February 2010 at 12:59am | IP Logged | |||||
Yeah, because it is MUCH easier, if everything consists of a kanjillion spaceless hanzi: Normal words, grammar, personal names, "phonetic" transcriptions, ... 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| nescafe Senior Member Japan Joined 5410 days ago 137 posts - 227 votes | Message 29 of 53 15 February 2010 at 2:57am | IP Logged | |||||
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The former prime minister, the Last LDP prime minister, Taro Aso, who can speak English but be very poor at Kanji, was called Mr K.Y (Kanji ga Yome nai: unbale to read Kanji).
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| aabram Pentaglot Senior Member Estonia Joined 5534 days ago 138 posts - 263 votes Speaks: Estonian*, English, Spanish, Russian, Finnish Studies: Mandarin, French | Message 30 of 53 15 February 2010 at 11:57am | IP Logged | |||||
Sarcasm duly accepted. Still, I have no aversion to hanzi/kanji, it's the switching between systems that I still haven't learned to appreciate. Half of the word in kanji and half in kana? Grrr. Makes no sense. Good people of Japan, make up your mind already! But that's just my personal peeve with Japanese. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Pyx Diglot Senior Member China Joined 5736 days ago 670 posts - 892 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: Mandarin | Message 31 of 53 15 February 2010 at 12:03pm | IP Logged | |||||
I'd love to have that in Chinese. Seriously. Anything that'd break up that wall of Hanzi a bit would be welcome, and a way to transcribe something that doesn't require already meaning-bearing signs would be very welcome as well. Also: Isn't the whole thread about people complaining that the Japanese actually ARE making up their mind, and are using mostly kana? ;P 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| lichtrausch Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5961 days ago 525 posts - 1072 votes Speaks: English*, German, Japanese Studies: Korean, Mandarin | Message 32 of 53 15 February 2010 at 6:49pm | IP Logged | |||||
Kanji usage is actually increasing with the spread of the internet due to the ease of typing Kanji vs. having to write them out by hand. No one in their right mind writes by hand 薔薇 instead of バラ but you see people using the Kanji version on the internet all the time. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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