Not-so Lost In Translation
I’ve been trying to learn Japanese on and off for almost three years now. I took a week-long basic language class when I first arrived in Japan but it didn’t help too much because at the time I wasn’t in situations where I needed to use Japanese on a daily basis. When I started working, I found it difficult to concentrate on my work when Japanese conversations were going on around me because for one, the men are unnecessarily loud but besides from that I kept trying to pick out words I was familiar with, which weren’t many.
I haven’t sat down and studied in a long time - over a year. Mostly because I figured I get enough accidental lessons at work. Lately, as in over the past couple weeks, I’ve noticed that I’m picking up phrases and words at a quicker pace and memorizing them almost instantly whether or not I use them in a sentence right away. At first I thought it had to do with my flying lessons. I figured all of the extra mental exercise was doing me some good but then it hit me. I had slowly become accustomed to the way Japanese people speak. I’ve been picking up on when certain words are used over others in different situations. Even my co-workers have noticed. I think I just feel more comfortable with the language. I can read Katakana and hiragana faster than ever. I still only recognize a small handful of Kanji but it’s not something I’m really concerned with and I don’t plan on learning more Kanji before I leave. Even though I can read hiragana, I can’t translate it most of the time because I don’t have the Japanese vocabulary to back me up.
Japanese sentences are written without breaks in-between words. Itkindalookslikethis. When English speakers look at sentences jumbled together like this you can read it. Now take the following sentence: J’aietudierfrancaispourcinqannees. Someone with a background in English, Spanish, German or Italian, whether he or she knows French or not can pretty much tell when one word ends and when one begins, pick up a bilingual dictionary and begin translating. Finally take the sentence わたしのたんじょびわじゅがつじゅきゅです。(You might need to install Eastern language fonts on your computer but then again, I guess I could have inserted Windings for all intents and purposes) It’s a simple sentence comprised of only Hiragana but before you can begin to translate you need to know how each character is pronounced. Once you get that, the same sentence looks like watashinotanjobiwajugatsujukyudesu. With no working knowledge of Japanese vocabulary except for the fact that (as in my case back then) lots of Japanese words are only 2 or 4 English letters long, learning to translate was complete hell, not to mention many of the two-lettered words can have different meanings. This means you have to understand the context of a sentence and go from there. The afore mentioned sentence said Watashi no tanjbi wa ju-gatsu ju-kyu desu, or my birthday is 19 October.
For this reason I believe it is very difficult to study Japanese without being in Japan or constantly being around a group of people who are fluent in Japanese. Otherwise no matter how much you study you won’t get the big picture of the language. If you don’t plan on traveling to Japan soon the best Japanese language resource is the Pimsleur series on CD because they immerse you in the language, break it all down in English and then go over it two more times. First section by section and then at full speed. The next lesson always has something to do with the one before so the new topic isn’t completely foreign.
I haven’t sat down and studied in a long time - over a year. Mostly because I figured I get enough accidental lessons at work. Lately, as in over the past couple weeks, I’ve noticed that I’m picking up phrases and words at a quicker pace and memorizing them almost instantly whether or not I use them in a sentence right away. At first I thought it had to do with my flying lessons. I figured all of the extra mental exercise was doing me some good but then it hit me. I had slowly become accustomed to the way Japanese people speak. I’ve been picking up on when certain words are used over others in different situations. Even my co-workers have noticed. I think I just feel more comfortable with the language. I can read Katakana and hiragana faster than ever. I still only recognize a small handful of Kanji but it’s not something I’m really concerned with and I don’t plan on learning more Kanji before I leave. Even though I can read hiragana, I can’t translate it most of the time because I don’t have the Japanese vocabulary to back me up.
Japanese sentences are written without breaks in-between words. Itkindalookslikethis. When English speakers look at sentences jumbled together like this you can read it. Now take the following sentence: J’aietudierfrancaispourcinqannees. Someone with a background in English, Spanish, German or Italian, whether he or she knows French or not can pretty much tell when one word ends and when one begins, pick up a bilingual dictionary and begin translating. Finally take the sentence わたしのたんじょびわじゅがつじゅきゅです。(You might need to install Eastern language fonts on your computer but then again, I guess I could have inserted Windings for all intents and purposes) It’s a simple sentence comprised of only Hiragana but before you can begin to translate you need to know how each character is pronounced. Once you get that, the same sentence looks like watashinotanjobiwajugatsujukyudesu. With no working knowledge of Japanese vocabulary except for the fact that (as in my case back then) lots of Japanese words are only 2 or 4 English letters long, learning to translate was complete hell, not to mention many of the two-lettered words can have different meanings. This means you have to understand the context of a sentence and go from there. The afore mentioned sentence said Watashi no tanjbi wa ju-gatsu ju-kyu desu, or my birthday is 19 October.
For this reason I believe it is very difficult to study Japanese without being in Japan or constantly being around a group of people who are fluent in Japanese. Otherwise no matter how much you study you won’t get the big picture of the language. If you don’t plan on traveling to Japan soon the best Japanese language resource is the Pimsleur series on CD because they immerse you in the language, break it all down in English and then go over it two more times. First section by section and then at full speed. The next lesson always has something to do with the one before so the new topic isn’t completely foreign.
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