chinese is pretty difficult for most westerners just because we're not used to tonal stuff, but japanese is pretty straightforward tbh. it's mostly the writing that can be tricky.
Yeah, hirigana and katakana are easy to learn as alphabets with phonetic symbols, but as soon as the kanji w/ chinese loaned symbols starts god help you
Japanese is tonal too. It's just that the textbooks aren't up front about it. It's one of the reasons that Asian speakers are better, because they can speak the tones in Japanese. While the white boys are always going to sound weird and off. Not to mention, a lot of them learn from their girlfriends, so you've got this big hairy man and when he opens his mouth he sounds like a prissy little girl. :hahaha:
yeah but tones in japanese only affect dialect like you're talking about, right? so sure the dumb white guy talks like a valley girl but if he tries to speak chinese he accidentally insults your mother. sounds like japanese is still straightforward relatively lmao
No, they're an integral part of the language. It's just that textbooks don't seem to mention it, and that reflects the poor state of pedagogy in Japanese learning. I'm convinced the people who write textbooks don't want anyone to learn, because more people speaking Japanese would diminish their own accomplishments and make them feel less special.
No they don't. There are at most two meanings between these 4 things, and both of those meanings could be extracted from context by a person speaking in a monotone.
What a lame response. Why even comment? "I've decided you're wrong and I know more than you, but of course I can't articulate why." Did I accidentally log into reddit today?
I mean, its difficult for me because I feel like I've got nowhere to use it. Even my friends who do speak Chinese just won't even pretend to have a conversation with me. And its not as though I'm employing it daily.
Both languages are quite difficult
chinese is pretty difficult for most westerners just because we're not used to tonal stuff, but japanese is pretty straightforward tbh. it's mostly the writing that can be tricky.
Yeah, hirigana and katakana are easy to learn as alphabets with phonetic symbols, but as soon as the kanji w/ chinese loaned symbols starts god help you
Hiragana and katakana are the alphabets
whoops fixed it
Japanese has fewer than 2000 kanji. That's it. Once you've learned those, you're done.
Chinese has 5000 hanzi if you want to read a newspaper. 10,000 if you want to be able to read. Keep going, literate Chinese can read 50,000.
Japanese is tonal too. It's just that the textbooks aren't up front about it. It's one of the reasons that Asian speakers are better, because they can speak the tones in Japanese. While the white boys are always going to sound weird and off. Not to mention, a lot of them learn from their girlfriends, so you've got this big hairy man and when he opens his mouth he sounds like a prissy little girl. :hahaha:
yeah but tones in japanese only affect dialect like you're talking about, right? so sure the dumb white guy talks like a valley girl but if he tries to speak chinese he accidentally insults your mother. sounds like japanese is still straightforward relatively lmao
There are words that entirely change meaning with tone. Not as many as Chinese, but still a lot
No, they're an integral part of the language. It's just that textbooks don't seem to mention it, and that reflects the poor state of pedagogy in Japanese learning. I'm convinced the people who write textbooks don't want anyone to learn, because more people speaking Japanese would diminish their own accomplishments and make them feel less special.
I had no idea, that's interesting. Where could I read more about this?
I quit studying Japanese long ago in favor of Chinese. Tones are definitely there, though. Heck English has tones.
English just has one tone that's grammatically meaningful though, and even then you can do without it through context.
What?
What!
What.
WuuuuuUUUT?
All four have different meanings.
No they don't. There are at most two meanings between these 4 things, and both of those meanings could be extracted from context by a person speaking in a monotone.
All I have to say is that we have very different views of what tones mean in speech. Having studied tonal languages, I'm sticking with my view.
What a lame response. Why even comment? "I've decided you're wrong and I know more than you, but of course I can't articulate why." Did I accidentally log into reddit today?
It would take way too long to write and I'm not wasting the finger calories.
:cringe:
I mean, its difficult for me because I feel like I've got nowhere to use it. Even my friends who do speak Chinese just won't even pretend to have a conversation with me. And its not as though I'm employing it daily.
yeah that's always the hardest part. you simply can't learn a language without having someone to speak it with. it doesnt stick lol
fortunately there are way more resources for that these days than there were in the past
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