First thoughts upon hearing "Japan".
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YES Japanese makes so much more sense than English... this language is so... inbred if that makes sensegame-lover said:
OT Tokyo, Anime, some rock bands I like, Amazing food, manga and then the awesome trains
First things that popped into my head as soon as I read the thread title...
Cherry Blossoms, Big Flashy Cities and Shinto Shrines.
Cherry Blossoms, Big Flashy Cities and Shinto Shrines.
I hope you mean "Japanese is so inbred", because that would make more sense.The Last Parade said:
English is the most descriptive language on the planet, ffs, we have 30+ synonyms for every word. Does japanese even have a term for "synonym". No.
Plus, the way they sort prepositions is just weird.
"The store, go I, desu."
It's like Yoda wrote the language.
It's simpler, but that is all.
Except English, even to the basic level of the alphabet is retarded.GTwander said:
- 2 letters for the k sound, except one of them can also be an S sound
- Q is essentially kw combined
- no letters for the ch or sh sound
- every vowel can be pronounced at least two but usually three different ways
you don't see that shit in Japanese because the alphabet is based on syllables
Sentence structure doesn't mean shit when it's the way you learn it, sure it might not make sense when you say it in English but the Japanese have learned it in a different way which will make sense to them.
also, the Japanese term for synonym is Dōgigo
English is a needlessly overly complex language that could really use a restructuring, at LEAST in the alphabet
It was a pleasure to write. Japan is totally doable. If your country has a working holiday agreement with Japan, travel there with some savings and try to find work, or apply for jobs in your own country and go over with a sponsored work visa. Once you are there for a full first visa, it is apparently possible to self-sponsor, particularly if self employed. Just don't fall for dreams of being every girl's ideal man. It's a myth, or your picking up a lot of bar girls. But finding a relationship is as easy as anywhere, perhaps easier if you are a 'genki gaijin'. But marrying a Japanese is hard freaking work and there's a tonne of cultural and family hurdles to jump, ie who's gonna take care of 'mum' where's that gonna be, and whether a foreigner has proper earning potential to support a typical and expected 'house wife and kids' family. And so on. Anyway, go for it.otakon17 said:
Actually it would be "I store-to go."GTwander said:
Also, the particles, or prepositions as you called them, are very logical and inspired, if you ask me, as somebody who speaks Japanese every day. There are some neat innovations in Japanese, for example:
* meaning is highly contextual, ie a sentence can be a single word and yet be perfectly understandable and correct;
* particles serve as much better markers than English prepositions and thus sentence structure is highly variable and modular as long as the verb (if necessary) is at the end (but no always);
* formal tense conjugation is also very modular and easy to apply;
* compound verbs such as 'do+give' and 'do+receive', or 'hold+come' and 'hold+go' are very efficient at portraying new meaning (do for you, do for me, bring it here, take it there);
* topics and grammatical subjects of sentences each have their own particle marker. This is vital because many sentences omit the grammatical subject, which is a general 'no no' in English. What it means is, the topic of discussion can be made clear, even if the subject of the verb is something else. It seems counter intuitive for English speakers, but it is key to unlocking the strengths of Japanese.
HOWEVER, I will say that Japanese does lack in variety, especially for cursing. However, the language is keen to create new words for even the slightest trend or one hit wonder comedian with a funny phrase. Many of my friends say that English is an easier language to express personal opinion in. I buy that, but tend to speak Japanese with the lack of tact and directness I speak English.
And English has so many words because English speakers have conquered, been conquers, colonised, been colonised and otherwise have absorbed so many other cultures. Japanese has plenty of synonyms but it is also much more precise about their application. New words and nuances are added every day as the culture continues to absorb new things.
Anyway, I suspect none of that likely interested you. Oh well ...
As someone who's been learning Japanese recently, I can agree with you on how "clean" Japanese is. It makes it so much easier for me when I can sound out some writing and I'll be able to work out what words they are suppose to be, since each kana always makes the same sound. To be honest, I'd nearly rather they had a seperate set of kana instead of re-using old ones and adding ten ten to them. I know it's logical, but I'm always having to double think.The Last Parade said:
There was something interesting I read, when it comes to single syllable sounds, Japanese has 110 of them total. English? Over 8000. That can be an advantage though, since we're able to use this massive pool of sounds to make accurately approximate the correct sound in Japanese, vs what a Japanese speaker can do with theirs in English.
@Last Parade: Horray! I wasn't talking to myself 
@Fireazza: pronunciation of pure vowels is great for a learner of a new language. English has some hard ones. I have to teach people sounds that they have never made ever in their lives but which to us is easy.
@Fireazza: pronunciation of pure vowels is great for a learner of a new language. English has some hard ones. I have to teach people sounds that they have never made ever in their lives but which to us is easy.
I thought of how they're presently perceived in Asia and the burden of the Japanese government to give its nation the respect that Germany has despite problems of which Japan similarly has had.
Edit: So not to annoy anyone or appear hateful, presently I live in China (I am actually Welsh) and I have a particular Korean friend with whom one day I got talking about Unit 731 (I am very into History). He later sent me some images on Skype which were photographs of the experiments that were preformed on the Chinese, Koreans, Russians and some Allied POWs during WWII. Those responsible were never put on trial after the war and the topic has gone mostly forgotten - America even tried to dismiss the Russian trials of some of the 731 members as propaganda. I quickly began to understand why we feel as we do in Europe about the Holocaust and why more attention is similarly being garnered for the Russian Gulag system - victims need care, compensation and politicians need to stop denying it and maybe it should be taken as far that "731 denial" should be illegal.
Edit: So not to annoy anyone or appear hateful, presently I live in China (I am actually Welsh) and I have a particular Korean friend with whom one day I got talking about Unit 731 (I am very into History). He later sent me some images on Skype which were photographs of the experiments that were preformed on the Chinese, Koreans, Russians and some Allied POWs during WWII. Those responsible were never put on trial after the war and the topic has gone mostly forgotten - America even tried to dismiss the Russian trials of some of the 731 members as propaganda. I quickly began to understand why we feel as we do in Europe about the Holocaust and why more attention is similarly being garnered for the Russian Gulag system - victims need care, compensation and politicians need to stop denying it and maybe it should be taken as far that "731 denial" should be illegal.
I think the difference between a Weeaboo and an Otaku is that a (Western) Weeaboo is generally interested in Japanese things only due to Anime/Manga and thinks that they know pretty much everything about it, despite they are looking through at it from a western person's point of view; characters and cultural aspects might look cool or bad for the right or wrong reasons compared to how the Japanese sees their own characters on their pieces of media.Vault101 said:
Whereas an Otaku is pretty much someone who's into their niche to such an extent that it's a part of who they are; Sort of like Cosplay Otaku, Railway Otaku, Bugcatching Otaku...to the potentially obscure and unheard of types such as British Itaku (not a British "Otaku", but rather someone who's in japan who's heavily interested in british things) and Magician Otaku.
As for Japan itself, i guess its one of the few places that still embraces it's cultural heritege, though the people is extremely foreign to our customs, like there would be heavy emphasis on cuteness, and less restraint on Japanese men touching up women on a monorail, however they're pretty restrained, polite and potentially chivalrous, which is different from what we normally see for things as game shows like Mummification and 20 squarewide fetishes as contests....i guess the most latter might have been due to a "accent the negatives" sort of situation, but humor could translate over as weirdness here.