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Post by spindrift on May 2, 2009 14:20:06 GMT
At last I have written my first letter in Japanese to my Sensei who lives to the east of Tokyo. I hope he will be pleased at my progress. I started learning Japanese in October 07 at one evening class per week during the two University terms per year. We spent the first year learning the language in its Romanized form. Year 2 found us struggling to read and write in Hiragana and Katakana. Hiragana is the kana used for words of Japanese origin and Katakana is used soley for words coming from outside of Japan. It is very confusing to learn the two scripts side by side. When I started to do this I believed I could never do it. However it's amazing how much one can achieve if one sets one's mind to it. Now we all read and write the scripts like 8 year olds and we have started to incorporate Kanji into our prose. Kanji come from China and have been adopted by the Japanese over centuries and are now the mark of educated people. Kanji are written in a strictly specified stroke order. Here is my letter, written yesterday. Please read it from right to left and from top to bottom. I am now so fascinated by the Japanese language I am sure I will never give it up. A better exercise for the brain was never invented.
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Post by Deleted on May 2, 2009 16:27:07 GMT
Hey that looks great. I didn't spot a single mistake.
More seriously, one thing that I know about anybody who learns how to write a different alphabet has absolutely perfect handwriting, because they are so afraid that any little squiggle will make it incomprehensible or totally change the meaning. Most of the things that I have seen written in the Roman alphabet by Chinese or Japanese people are excruciatingly perfect. My brother took Arabic for a year in university also, and when I would look at his exercises, you couldn't tell the difference from the professionally printed texts that he was copying.
It's almost a shame that they don't force us to write as beautifully in our own languages as back in the days when pensmanship was considered an important subject.
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Post by spindrift on May 2, 2009 16:54:25 GMT
What you say is interesting. You're right. I'm very very careful about how I write Japanese mostly because the meaning and pronounciation of a syllable can be changed by putting two little 'dots' or a small 'o' above or beside the syllable. The syllable 'ha' with two little dots becomes 'ba' and with a tiny 'o' it become 'pa'! I notice that my Japanese girlfriend's (Japanese) writing is careless in the extreme...she tells me that she writes in a 'running' manner, elongating the syllables down the page. This makes it impossible for me, a newcomer, to read. Now I come to think of it, she can't speak english perfectly yet and she's lived in the UK for 25 years. She comes unstuck with 'the' 'and' of' and 'to'...whereas I (and others) find Japanese particles a nightmare. Particles = 'o', 'de', 'no', 'to', 'ni', 'kara', 'made' and so on. There are entire books written about Japanese Particles.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 2, 2009 18:34:11 GMT
Ha ~~ at the rate you're going, Spindrift, I imagine you'll be comfortable enough in a year or two to have natively sloppy handwriting in Japanese. I am so impressed by someone who has the dedication to learn something like this. It's all discipline on your part, too, since you have no chance of learning it by immersion right now. *Applause!*
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Post by Deleted on May 3, 2009 12:24:52 GMT
Very impressive.BRAVO!,I know you have worked very hard at this and admire your discipline.
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Post by rikita on May 3, 2009 20:52:11 GMT
It's almost a shame that they don't force us to write as beautifully in our own languages as back in the days when pensmanship was considered an important subject. I disagree. I had "Schönschrift" (the art of writing "beautifully") class for the first two or three years at school, and it was pure torture. I never saw much sense in it, other than a reason to give me bad grades. I am very glad I didn't have to do that any longer.
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Post by rikita on May 3, 2009 20:55:13 GMT
wish I could write a letter like that yet. could only even read 20 % of it maybe. though I guess I might get more when re-reading it more carefully. There were a couple of signs I couldn't figure out, but my main problem is figuring out where one word ends and the next one starts. and to see wether a "tsu" is a small one or a big one... any tips on how to do that better?
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Post by spindrift on Aug 22, 2009 21:34:15 GMT
Rikita - it's easier when you see the script printed. I'll hunt for an example and I'll show you. Words are then very much grouped together. I'm still foxed by the large and small 'tsu'. I don't think there's an easy way to learn. It's time and practice. Writing and reading Katakana is very difficult for me. There are several scripts that are almost the same and only the angle of the strokes vary. I find this very frustrating. My Japanese friend pointed out to me that it takes Japanese people twelve years to learn to read and write their language and it's only by slogging at it every day that they succeed! For foreigners it's an endless task....the Kanji are so difficult to write and remember if they're more than 7 strokes. There's only one way to learn Japanese and that's the hard way I'm going to take a rest from the Japanese language for at least a term and I'll start Spanish instead (hoping to go and visit Bixa!).... ....and Bixa - thanks for your encouragement.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 26, 2009 0:36:07 GMT
Oh. Wait. I didn't mean to say you'd do well at Japanese. I meant to say that the planetary alignment, your tea leaves, and the cards all indicate you need to be studying Spanish!
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Post by hwinpp on Aug 27, 2009 6:09:50 GMT
It looks good, I couldn't tell if it as written by a Japanese or a foreigner. One surprise was that you said it's to be read right to left?
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