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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| Austin Newbie United States Joined 7085 days ago 18 posts - 18 votes Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 54 02 August 2005 at 9:29pm | IP Logged |
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Today I was waiting to get into my work building when one of my co-workers approached. "Good morning," I said. He replied with something I didn't understand. I thought he simply hadn't spoken clearly, so I said, "What?"
He repeated the exact same thing, this time louder, and with a smug look. I still didn't understand him. "What?" I said again. He then explained to me he had just said "Good morning" in Japanese, as though it were the most normal and obvious thing in the world, and began to explain to me its literal meaning and cultural context, still very smugly. I don't know if any of you have ever learned a language out of spite, but I'm tempted to learn Japanese just to embarass him. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Giordano Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 7174 days ago 213 posts - 218 votes  3 sounds Speaks: English*, Italian*, French Studies: Cantonese, Greek | Message 2 of 54 02 August 2005 at 9:36pm | IP Logged |
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Ew
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| laxxy Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 7119 days ago 172 posts - 177 votes Speaks: Ukrainian, Russian*, English Studies: Japanese | Message 3 of 54 02 August 2005 at 9:47pm | IP Logged |
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Ew indeed.
But by all means, go ahead and learn some Japanese :) maybe we'll be able to give each other some advice :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Giordano Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 7174 days ago 213 posts - 218 votes 3 sounds Speaks: English*, Italian*, French Studies: Cantonese, Greek | Message 4 of 54 02 August 2005 at 10:16pm | IP Logged |
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Spite won't be a lasting motivator, but if it spurs you to develop a genuine interest in learning a new language, then that's great!
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7376 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes 12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 54 03 August 2005 at 12:21am | IP Logged |
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Did this person reach fluency in Japanese or just stop at 'Sayonara'? I think you should ask him many questions about how he learned, how long, with what program, whether he went to Japan. You might find a crack and if not you'll learn something.
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| Bart Triglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 7160 days ago 155 posts - 159 votes Speaks: Dutch*, French, English Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese, Swedish | Message 6 of 54 03 August 2005 at 5:06am | IP Logged |
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It's probably one of those persons who will try and tell everyone how incredibly difficult Japanese is and how near-impossible it is to learn if you're not an asian.
The truth is that Japanese, writing aside, is _not_ a difficult language. You have no tones to worry about, no sounds you don't have in your native language, etc. The only small difficulty that takes some time to get used to is the way sentences are structured (completely turned around compared to English for example) Learn some Japanese to be able to answer him next time and who knows, maybe it will spark your interest in Japanese and make you want to go further and learn a whole new culture trough this facinating language! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Qbe Tetraglot Senior Member United States joewright.org/var Joined 7135 days ago 289 posts - 335 votes Speaks: English*, Latin, Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew Studies: Japanese, German, Mandarin, Aramaic | Message 7 of 54 03 August 2005 at 10:43am | IP Logged |
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Do the first few lessons of Pimsleur Japanese and you'll be able to tell whether he really knows any Japanese.
As Bart says, spoken Japanese is not particularly difficult, just different. And fun. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Farley Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 7092 days ago 681 posts - 739 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, GermanB1, French Studies: Spanish | Message 8 of 54 03 August 2005 at 8:09pm | IP Logged |
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I don’t have much experience with Japanese, but I have embarrassed a number of language showoffs in the US who claim to be “fluent” in German. My German is far from perfect, but I always use the following for obnoxious showoffs:
1 Ask the showoff where he learned to speak German so well 2 Tell the showoff that I speak a little German 3 Ask the showoff some basic questions in German and then 4 Watch his eyes go blank I have never found a case where a language showoff was fluent in German, and in most cases all I needed was the basic type of German you find in Pimsleur I. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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