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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| furrykef Senior Member United States furrykef.com/ Joined 6267 days ago 681 posts - 862 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese, Latin, Italian | Message 9 of 13 17 May 2010 at 1:07am | IP Logged | ||
I'm baffled that you've studied Japanese for six years, and yet you find the "three written languages" thing to be a hindrance at all. I haven't studied it nearly that long and I find that the use of two other scripts to be a mere trifle compared to learning kanji, let alone the other challenges that Japanese presents. The "multiple readings per kanji" thing is indeed a problem, though. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6563 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 10 of 13 17 May 2010 at 2:42am | IP Logged | ||
This is mainly a problem if you learn kanji without learning vocabulary. If you already know the word, you'll have little trouble knowing how to pronounce the kanji when you see it in context — even if it is being used in an unorthodox way. (And many Japanese writers enjoy using unusual kanji for certain words.) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| furrykef Senior Member United States furrykef.com/ Joined 6267 days ago 681 posts - 862 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese, Latin, Italian | Message 11 of 13 17 May 2010 at 4:45am | IP Logged | ||
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The flip side of that, Captain Haddock, is that the multiple readings of kanji can make it harder to learn new words in the first place! It also makes it a pain to look up a word that you don't already know, even if you know the constituent kanji. (What I do is I just write the kanji in an IME pad, but what if you don't know how to write the kanji yet, or worse, you don't have a computer?)
Although people generally advise against studying kanji readings in isolation, I'm actually considering it, because I find new Japanese vocabulary difficult to remember, much more than I do for other languages. If I had mnemonics for readings, the problem might not be so bad. - Kef 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| efeilliaid Newbie China Joined 4975 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes Speaks: English | Message 12 of 13 19 September 2010 at 8:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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I just wanted to say that if you can, try and live for a while in Japan, China, Taiwan...
See what it's like. I myself already know that I don't want to continue my Mandarin studies - my level is between non-existent and very basic ha ha :) I have lived in mainland China for three months and I feel it's time to go back to my beloved Japan (kanji OK, speaking shaky, generally reading not so poor) or at least to Hong Kong which is much more... oh well... you are you and I am me, so see for yourself - it may help you solve your dilemma better than anything else. I'm going to continue with Japanese and hopefully reach a very good level in a few years. I think it would be cool to speak/read/write Mandarin but I don't even think it sounds nice anymore. I'd rather learn Korean and/or Cantonese instead. I can only wonder what my attitude would be if I had tried to settle down in Taiwan instead of China (oops! I'm asking for trouble)... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| jimbo Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6089 days ago 469 posts - 642 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin, Korean, French Studies: Japanese, Latin | Message 13 of 13 20 September 2010 at 2:43am | IP Logged | ||
You got me thinking so I looked it up. Looks like 上 can also be read with a third tone in the word 上聲。Learn something new every day. For me, that hardest thing about Japanese is remembering how a given Kanji is pronounced in a given context. Lots of great study materials for Japanese though; just need to work through it. Edited by jimbo on 20 September 2010 at 2:44am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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