| DJjazzyGETH said: Learning Kanji is the hardest part for sure, but it's easier in Japanese because they use a combination of Kanji and Kana, which is phoenetic. Japanese is often written up->down, right->left (the traditional method, used in books), but it can be used horizontally left to right too. Basically you can read it by being constantly bombarded by it 24/7, and practically no other way. Japanese and Chinese students go through intensive learning in middle and high school to get a couple thousand memorized. There are advanatages to it, particularly if you're a visual person, in that words are often constucted using kanji that are representative of ideas. It's basically how root woods work in English (television = tele, distant; vision, to see), and can simplify reading if you've truly memorized it all and understand how the words are constructed. It sounds daunting from outside, but native speakers can't imagine not using them. |
Sounds challenging for sure. I would never attempt such a feat but applaud anyone that can undertake such a task. I'm sure it is easier if you are a native but still seems a lot harder than English. I could learn a few simple words probably but that is about it. Pretty much I'm happy that the few Spanish phrases that I retained were important questions like where is the bathroom, I'm thirsty/hungry, etc... One language that I would never attempt to learn would be Vietnamese. Such an ugly sounding language (my girl is from Vietnam).
One thing I like about Japanese is that it always sounds like they are pissed off. Kind of like German.
