Learning Japanese

[vegeta76]

J'ai mange ton chat!

I dislike taking French :p ... I wanted to take Japanese, but, alas, it isn't offered. I tried to drop it so I could save my brain cells for picking up Japanese on my own, but my councellor basically told me that collages would think I was shit unless I kept going. You know, the whole "not enough language = bad college = bad job = cardboard box house" :p .

lol are you kidding?
i went to the guidance dept and this is basically what they told me:

me- should i take french next year?
counsellor- well... you dont really need it... so you shouldnt take it if your not any good at it an you dont like the course...
me- do i need it for university or anything like that...
counsellor- not really.
me- k works for me
*leaves*

and then my french teacher:
teacher- Jimmy are you taking french next year?
me- well i dont really want to but...
teacher- THEN DONT TAKE THE COURSE!!!

the moral of the story is: dont take french :p

[Andromeda18_]

Learning a new language is not one of my strong suits, I had to work my a** of just to pass two mandatory french classes in junior high and immediatly after learning I passed the class the whole thing just leaked out one ear and to this day remember only one line
Je mappelle monseur Jonathan.

You don't even remember that line very well. :p It's "m'appelle" and "monsieur". Ah, ah!
I wasn't too crazy about French when I was in high school either, mostly due to a pushy teacher who kept forcing me to speak in French in front of the whole class and that made me feel very embarassed. I was actually very good at it but by the time I was through with it I hated it like hell. The funny thing is that 1 or 2 years later I took up French again, on my own, and right now I really like it. Now I can read books by French authors in their original language, there's a huge variety of manga available to me that wouldn't be otherwise, etc, etc, and it's going to be very handy this September when I go to Paris. I don't like going to another country and not understanding what people are saying. That and the French aren't too fond of speaking English, or so I was told. In a general way I like speaking French because I like speaking different languages. I wouldn't mind knowing all the languages in the world. At the moment I have about a third of Europe, a third of Africa and almost all of America covered what with knowing Portuguese, English, French and Spanish but learning all of the languages in the world is an impossible task. At the moment I want to focus on Japanese then later learn Korean and/or German.

Well stated *nods* oh yeah, I love your new avatar and your sig! ^_~.

Thanks! I thought of going with Blue from Wolf's Rain as my new avatar but then Youko's strong personality just won me over.

J'ai mange ton chat!

I dislike taking French :p ... I wanted to take Japanese, but, alas, it isn't offered. I tried to drop it so I could save my brain cells for picking up Japanese on my own, but my councellor basically told me that collages would think I was shit unless I kept going. You know, the whole "not enough language = bad college = bad job = cardboard box house" :p .

I think learning French or any other language is important not just for college but for life. It might not seem like it at first but while learning another language you also learn something about another culture and that is a good thing. Knowing other cultures will turn you into a more open-minded person, it will put things into perspective, it will make you truly see the world around you. Also if you're thinking of visiting other countries you can't expect people there to speak your language, it's your (our) obligation to learn their language even if only a bit.

[Peter]

french rules, it's my primary language. Of course I know English, Japanese, some Spanish and some Latin. I'm trying to understand Italian right now.

[Batik]

I am going to call you Language Master from now on!

[geo85]

Its nice how I have to learn someone elses language if I am going to their country but when some people come over here we have to accomidate them, this country was founded on proper English english. And as you can see I didnt like taking french or I would of remembered that line.

[gubi-gubi]

Never liked French, too hard. Spanish I can get by on but I mainly only remember the swear words lol. As for those career councilers they never told me to do French or anything but they did want me to do maths at a level whcih hardly anyone does and I was total crap at anyway... I hate them people...

[Andromeda18_]

Its nice how I have to learn someone elses language if I am going to their country but when some people come over here we have to accomidate them, this country was founded on proper English english. And as you can see I didnt like taking french or I would of remembered that line.

What I said works both ways, if you go to a country you should know at least a bit of their language but if people visit your country they should know at least a bit of your language as well. However, when the native language of a country is English the probability of visitors speaking it is much higher than the probability of you speaking any other language since English is the 'international' language. English is everywhere, it's taught in the schools of just about every country (well, at least the ones with enough money) and there's this social idea that knowing English is a necessity (which it is). So believe me, England, the USA and other English speaking countries don't have to make as big an effort to accomodate the turists visiting them as do countries like Italy and Greece for instance.
And I'm sorry if I offended you by correcting your sentence, I was just joking.

[Andromeda18_]

Never liked French, too hard. Spanish I can get by on but I mainly only remember the swear words lol.

I think that once you know a latin language learning another one will be somewhat easier so knowing Spanish should've made French easier for you. Then again you only remember the swear words so...

[gubi-gubi]

England, the USA and other English speaking countries don't have to make as big an effort to accomodate the turists visiting them as do countries like Italy and Greece for instance.

English people do get a bit selfish like that. I hear people saying how if someone comes to the UK they should speak English but if it was the other way round they wouldn't bother learning another language... Imigrants can be a bit annoying though when they don't know ANY English... Why bother coming to a country if you are not going to integrate? There are whole towns in the UK that you rarely hear English spoken by people in the street which does make me think it's a bit wrong sometimes... I for one wouldn't want to go to live in a country and just turn it into a mini England...

[Andromeda18_]

English people do get a bit selfish like that. I hear people saying how if someone comes to the UK they should speak English but if it was the other way round they wouldn't bother learning another language... Imigrants can be a bit annoying though when they don't know ANY English... Why bother coming to a country if you are not going to integrate? There are whole towns in the UK that you rarely hear English spoken by people in the street which does make me think it's a bit wrong sometimes... I for one wouldn't want to go to live in a country and just turn it into a mini England...

Yeah, I agree with you. I mean, I understand people might want to maintain the usage of their native language and keep their culture alive, especially because many immigrants move to other countries out of necessity not out of wanting. However, if you're going to live in another country you have the duty to make an effort to learn the language and culture, if for nothing else then because it will make your life there easier. "When in Rome do as Romans do." This sentence truly says it all. And I can't understand how a person can possibly want to live in another country without speaking the language, I'd go crazy!
Personaly, if I were to live in another country I'd want to mingle with the people of that country.

[tsunami]

I know lots of people who are immigrants and they speak good english. All them learned english before they came to america though. I agree that if I go somewhere at least know the language of the land as that is the most important thing in order to get around.

The main reason many colleges/high schools don't offer japanese is because many people are imtimidated by kanji which really don't come into the picture till your 3+ years into learning japanese. I found that japanese came to me quicker as I worked at my own pace.

I've noticed japanese language camps have become increasingly popular but I don't think anyone should spend that much time or money to learn something like japanese. If anything japanese is an acquired taste/talent.

I think Andromeda can testify to the ease of learning japanese. She doesn't know as much as I do but she does know alot.

[gubi-gubi]

I don't think anyone should spend that much time or money to learn something like japanese. If anything japanese is an acquired taste/talent.

That's a bit of an elitist attitude. Not everyone wants to learn it to watch anime you know and not every can be bothered or is able to teach themselves...

I felt like walking over there and informing them that unless they live in Japan, california or boston there isn't much chance of using japanese for anything but manga or anime.

What? Learning Japanese to watch anime and manga is probably the most superficial reason for learining it. Some people want to learn it for real reasons for use in the real world... So all the people learning Japanese are doing it so they can watch raw anime and if not they might as well give up?

[geo85]

I agree though that you should have the respect to learn at least some basics of another language if your visiting a country or moving there where that language is spoken. I have picked up on a little Italian and in the same turn that helps with speaking a little spanish as well.
My great grandfather had a vision of a new life for my granfather in America, my granfather learnt how to read write and speak english before he even stepped foot in this country and was a very hard working man his whole life, my grandfathers name is on the american immigrant wall of honor on ellis island.

[Ryujin]

I'm learning it, and its hard, you have to be really dedicated, its so easy to get bored or pissed off with it and just stop. Yes hiragana and Katakana are easy, but Kanji is very hard to learn properly.

[Andromeda18_]

I know lots of people who are immigrants and they speak good english. All them learned english before they came to america though. I agree that if I go somewhere at least know the language of the land as that is the most important thing in order to get around.

The main reason many colleges/high schools don't offer japanese is because many people are imtimidated by kanji which really don't come into the picture till your 3+ years into learning japanese. I found that japanese came to me quicker as I worked at my own pace.

I've noticed japanese language camps have become increasingly popular but I don't think anyone should spend that much time or money to learn something like japanese. If anything japanese is an acquired taste/talent.

I think Andromeda can testify to the ease of learning japanese. She doesn't know as much as I do but she does know alot.

Yeah, Japanese isn't hard. It takes dedication that it does but then again learning a language whatever it is takes dedication. I think having a good memory is quite important what with all the kanji one has to memorize plus the hiragana and the katakana but that's where the difficulty ends in my opinion. For instance, the grammar is rather easy, especially when compared to other languages, particularly latin languages. Having a natural inclination towards learning languages also helps a lot.