Japanese 101 (2nd part)

Been a while since I’ve talked about it. So after almost one month here I guess I could share just a small part of my little Japanese learning.

So I already talked about the three forms of writing, more or less. Right now I would like to talk about actual Japanese sentences. Cause they are a whole new world of brain pain. You know how occidental people construct their sentences right. [Subject] + [verb] + [anything else]. Well more or less like that. “I’m going to the store.” Simple. Japanese don’t work that way. [Subject] + [anything else] + [verb]. Even if it sounds rather simple it’s a pain really. The verb always is the last thing you hear, always. Which mean that when you hear a Japanese speak sometime you don’t realise he was talking about maybe a location instead of something. So you have to make him/her repeat the whole sentence again. But you get used to it.

But What I really love is Japanese writing. As if having three forms of writing wasn’t intricate enough, they decided one day, like that, that they wouldn’t separate the words from one another. Which mean, for example, that a sentence is barely written like that: “thisisajapanesesentenceihavetotranslate.” So imagine that, even for someone fluent in English it gonna take longer than usual to understand. Will probably need to read it two times, maybe three. Now imagine for a second that you don’t speak a word of English and stumble on that sentence. The only thing you have as tool is the small English-[Something] stupid dictionary that you bought for too much just before leaving your country and doesn’t contain half the word you search in it. You’re, basically, screwed. And since you don’t make the difference between what is what you only get one solution. Take up your dictionary, a lot of courage, and search for each possible combination in this sentence. Which mean that the first word you’ll check is “this”, then maybe “thisis”... ooh... thisis doesn’t exist. After that you’ll check “is” oooh. Got something there. “this is.” One step toward success. And then the “a” even maybe “ajap” and so on till you found every little possibility and try to make sense of it. And that is of course if you find all the words cause you may as well don’t find one in your stupid little high-priced dictionary. And of course even if you all the words, even if you find them all. Imagine something like that:
“What do you think of Samuel?”
“He’s a pain in the ass.”
Still considering you don’t know a shit about English. Try to translate that. The first part is ok. A question easy to identify, easy words. The second is also easy. But only for the words. Cause your stupid little high-priced dictionary won’t tell you the exact meaning of the expression. So when you read it, for you Samuel is literally a pain in your ass. Nothing more, nothing less. So you may find yourself reading the whole book thinking that Samuel and the other guy are, maybe, a gay couple.

So that’s the main problem I have with reading Japanese right now. In school they make it more occidental, taking time to actual put a space between each word. In a book, they don’t care; you just had to speak Japanese before starting to read. Yeah, I guess it’s a good idea after all. But there’s still some way to help you.
First: Particle. Learn them, know them, and love them. They are your best ally against this terrible war. They are as useful as they are complicated to understand. Particles are inserted between words and actually tell you what is what. If you read “wa”, this mean that the word just before was the subject of the phrase. If you read “na” this is an adjective. If you see “wo” it means that it is the complement to the verb. “he” usually marks a location or a direction. So learn them. After you took time to learn hiragana and katakana, learn those fuckin’ particles or god help you you’re gonna be screwed by a children’s book. And it’s not because it is a children’s book that it’s gonna be any gentler for your brain, believe me. So learn them and love them.

Second: The kanjis. God I hate kanjis, but they are slowly becoming my friends. Cause usually a kanjis is the start of a new word. Doesn’t always work, but most of the time you know you have a new word in front of new because of the kanjis. And also useful because Japanese language have a lot of homonyms and kanjis are a good way to make a difference. Cause even if it pronounced the same, the kanjis will probably be different.

Third: Just learn your freakin’ Japanese vocabulary until you don’t remember how to write your own name in romaji.

Aside from that:
- Remember that if you see a word that end with the sound “masu (pronounced mass)” it’s a verb in a present or future tense.
- “mashita” is for the past.
- “Masen” is a negative verb. Ikimase <-> Ikimasen = I go <-> I don’t go.
- “Masendeshita” is a negative verb in the past.

Ikimashita <-> Ikimasendeshita = Went <-> Didn’t go.
- Shimasu means “to do”. Learn to recognise it cause you’ll see it often. Like “Denwa wo shimasu” Making a phone call.
- The particle “ka” is always at the end of a sentence and is in fact the “?” of Japanese. If you here a sentence with it, it means it is a question. “Dare desu ka” Who is he/she? “Kore desu ka.” What is it?
- “watashi” means “me”. “Anata” means “you”
It’s not a lot, but just take time to listen to anime you’ll notice them quickly. But probably that a lot of you already noticed them. I would like to tell more cause Japanese is fascinating, but it would take really too long.

And to answer Moi. Time and practice nothing more, nothing less. One of my trick for learning both hiragana and katakana was to actually find text in Japanese that are only written in hiragana and just translate the sounds. Not the actual meaning. But just getting used to reading them and recognising them. I must have done this stupid hiragana table over 20 times and still don’t do it perfectly. Cause often if I see a hiragana I’ll know what it is but when you ask me to write it and just can’t remember. So find yourself excuses to write them down. Anything is good.
Seeya