What is Kanji? I live in Texas so learning Spanish was easier since it’s very easy to find people to speak with and I’ve had multiple jobs where I had to speak it 70 to 90 percent of the day. Trying to find similar immersion with Japanese short of going to Japan would be tough. Also with Spanish there are a lot of words that are similar to English due to common Latin/Greek root words
Kanji is the main form of writing they use, that they stole from China.
Its basically them combining multiple words or concepts (with their own unique meaning) together to create an entirely new and unique meaning. One example is that the Kanji for adolescence is the Kanji for Blue and for Spring put together because Blue can also mean youth and that age is considered the "springtime of your life."
Imagine basically every single word requires that level of knowledge of the vocabulary. Its almost as if the English language had an alphabet of 2000+ letters, because even native Japanese people have to just memorize Kanji for the most part.
Hiragana and Katakana are basic alphabets that function just like any other, but its considered either "for babies" or "for women" to use, so for the most part its not used in anything that isn't a kid's game or to make a point about how someone is talking being odd. They deliberately use the most difficult form of communication.
Speaking Japanese isn't that bad, relatively. So immersion will help you with that, but if you want to learn Japanese to get around localizers you will be memorizing Kanji out the ass no matter what you do.
Conversely, once you have a good grasp of kanji you are in good shape. If I come across a word I'm not familiar with there is a good chance I can figure it out without looking it up by seeing what characters compose it.
I've dabbled in Chinese and Korean as well and it's insane the boost that knowing Chinese characters gives, whereas with Korean its like I'm left alone in a desert. Many words come from the same Chinese words but they no longer use the characters so deciphering things is difficult for me.
Completely unrelated beyond your example fo Kanji but this coincidentally helps me understand the meaning of the OP for JJK Season 2 part 1 better. The talk of "this is our blue" and how the themes of part 1 heavily lean on "blue" and there are many Blue pallettes explain a lot since it's based on the adolescence of the characters being featured.
Sorry for the tangent, but you gave me an epiphany in a moment lol
That's Japanese for you, you just gotta learn these random infinite facts and trivia to understand wtf they are talking about.
Ironically, I only know that one because that one example was explained in detail in Fruits Basket (I think) during the brief time I tried reading that one.
I firmly believe that Japanese is very easy to learn to speak and understand compared to many languages, yet it is also likely the most difficult language to learn to read and write well.
The grammar is easy for any brain, western or otherwise, to wrap their head around so long as they are good at pattern recognition; compared to something like English, Japanese is incredibly consistent. Anyone who did well at math in school should be able to easily comprehend Japanese grammar. Yeah, they have a couple more conjugations for verbs based on respect/politeness, but the rules have few exceptions, so it isn't too difficult.
Vocabulary, while lacking Greek and Latin roots that simplify transferring word knowledge from one western language to another, is also very limited for non-academic Japanese. There simply aren't many synonyms in conversational (and anime) Japanese, context is typically in how the limited set of vocabulary is spoken. For instance, there really is only one word used for "big," "ooki." How many synonyms for big are there in common, everyday English? Likely over a dozen.
The written side is a bear, and I just have come to accept that, unless I move to Japan, I will never be motivated to learn to read and write Kanji past a basic level. Even in very common usage there just are too many characters, and it is often a 50/50 guess at pronunciation of Kanji.
Summary: learning any language is difficult, but for speaking and understanding Japanese, I believe it is one of the easier ones. Isolation has kept their grammar and vocabulary more fundamentally sound and simple compared to most other languages. Unfortunately, the reading and writing is incredibly difficult.
I agree with the grammar part. I still am not perfect but getting there. I just love how some stuff is easily understood that way but kanji is just a monster. I wish there was some trick to it. I know maybe 50 kanji and that is barely scratching the surface, I would probably never be able to write those by hand mind you, probably only by computer.
Kanji isn’t magic. There are 2000 or so commonly used characters, and kanji are the word markers in Japanese sentences instead of spaces, except where some adverbs, adjectives, and particles are used. Foreign loan words are common and written phonetically in katakana, so you know most of those already. Just say “drink” or “cola” or “internet” with what you believe to be an extreme Japanese accent. That’s actually just how they say the word.
You can find the best materials on the high seas or even for free, and learning a language gives you something to do to keep your brain active.
What is Kanji? I live in Texas so learning Spanish was easier since it’s very easy to find people to speak with and I’ve had multiple jobs where I had to speak it 70 to 90 percent of the day. Trying to find similar immersion with Japanese short of going to Japan would be tough. Also with Spanish there are a lot of words that are similar to English due to common Latin/Greek root words
Kanji is the main form of writing they use, that they stole from China.
Its basically them combining multiple words or concepts (with their own unique meaning) together to create an entirely new and unique meaning. One example is that the Kanji for adolescence is the Kanji for Blue and for Spring put together because Blue can also mean youth and that age is considered the "springtime of your life."
Imagine basically every single word requires that level of knowledge of the vocabulary. Its almost as if the English language had an alphabet of 2000+ letters, because even native Japanese people have to just memorize Kanji for the most part.
Hiragana and Katakana are basic alphabets that function just like any other, but its considered either "for babies" or "for women" to use, so for the most part its not used in anything that isn't a kid's game or to make a point about how someone is talking being odd. They deliberately use the most difficult form of communication.
Speaking Japanese isn't that bad, relatively. So immersion will help you with that, but if you want to learn Japanese to get around localizers you will be memorizing Kanji out the ass no matter what you do.
You forgot the worst part. No spaces. If you don't know the kanji, good fucking luck figuring out where words end or begin.
Conversely, once you have a good grasp of kanji you are in good shape. If I come across a word I'm not familiar with there is a good chance I can figure it out without looking it up by seeing what characters compose it.
I've dabbled in Chinese and Korean as well and it's insane the boost that knowing Chinese characters gives, whereas with Korean its like I'm left alone in a desert. Many words come from the same Chinese words but they no longer use the characters so deciphering things is difficult for me.
Completely unrelated beyond your example fo Kanji but this coincidentally helps me understand the meaning of the OP for JJK Season 2 part 1 better. The talk of "this is our blue" and how the themes of part 1 heavily lean on "blue" and there are many Blue pallettes explain a lot since it's based on the adolescence of the characters being featured.
Sorry for the tangent, but you gave me an epiphany in a moment lol
That's Japanese for you, you just gotta learn these random infinite facts and trivia to understand wtf they are talking about.
Ironically, I only know that one because that one example was explained in detail in Fruits Basket (I think) during the brief time I tried reading that one.
I liked when fansubs would explain a couple of the wordplays and references. Watching anime used to almost be educational.
I firmly believe that Japanese is very easy to learn to speak and understand compared to many languages, yet it is also likely the most difficult language to learn to read and write well.
The grammar is easy for any brain, western or otherwise, to wrap their head around so long as they are good at pattern recognition; compared to something like English, Japanese is incredibly consistent. Anyone who did well at math in school should be able to easily comprehend Japanese grammar. Yeah, they have a couple more conjugations for verbs based on respect/politeness, but the rules have few exceptions, so it isn't too difficult.
Vocabulary, while lacking Greek and Latin roots that simplify transferring word knowledge from one western language to another, is also very limited for non-academic Japanese. There simply aren't many synonyms in conversational (and anime) Japanese, context is typically in how the limited set of vocabulary is spoken. For instance, there really is only one word used for "big," "ooki." How many synonyms for big are there in common, everyday English? Likely over a dozen.
The written side is a bear, and I just have come to accept that, unless I move to Japan, I will never be motivated to learn to read and write Kanji past a basic level. Even in very common usage there just are too many characters, and it is often a 50/50 guess at pronunciation of Kanji.
Summary: learning any language is difficult, but for speaking and understanding Japanese, I believe it is one of the easier ones. Isolation has kept their grammar and vocabulary more fundamentally sound and simple compared to most other languages. Unfortunately, the reading and writing is incredibly difficult.
I agree with the grammar part. I still am not perfect but getting there. I just love how some stuff is easily understood that way but kanji is just a monster. I wish there was some trick to it. I know maybe 50 kanji and that is barely scratching the surface, I would probably never be able to write those by hand mind you, probably only by computer.
Thanks. I’ll definitely keep all this in mind
Kanji isn’t magic. There are 2000 or so commonly used characters, and kanji are the word markers in Japanese sentences instead of spaces, except where some adverbs, adjectives, and particles are used. Foreign loan words are common and written phonetically in katakana, so you know most of those already. Just say “drink” or “cola” or “internet” with what you believe to be an extreme Japanese accent. That’s actually just how they say the word.
You can find the best materials on the high seas or even for free, and learning a language gives you something to do to keep your brain active.