DigitalAudio

DigitalAudio OP Mod , 6 months ago to Japanese Language in 日本語の週刊練習スレッドしようか

おお！すごい！6月から勉強していますか！頑張って！

DigitalAudio OP Mod , 6 months ago to Japanese Language in 日本語の週刊練習スレッドしようか

いいと思います。全部理解できて、ちゃんと書いていると思います！ここは完璧な文法で書くスレッドではなく、逆にミスを多く書いて、他の文章を読みながら、学ぶスレッドになって欲しいです。私もミスをしても大丈夫だと思います！

よろしく！

DigitalAudio , 10 months ago to Work Reform in 207 Hours Overtime: Japanese Man in Kobe Worked to Death

Colombia. Solidly placed among the worst countries in the world in terms of work-life balance.

I have a decent job and I don’t work that much, but I’m basically a freelancer, so that’s already pretty different.

DigitalAudio , 10 months ago to Work Reform in 207 Hours Overtime: Japanese Man in Kobe Worked to Death

Holy shit. 15-18 hour shifts aren’t uncommon at all where I’m from. No wonder we placed well below Japan on work-life balance statistics.

The fact that there are places where people legitimately only work 8 hours a day is kind of mind blowing, thinking about it.

DigitalAudio OP Mod , 11 months ago to Japanese Language in Why doesn’t Japanese just get rid of Kanji?

Basically: Japan has tried to get rid of Kanji for convenience several times since the mid-19th Century. However, the first attempts which were mainly supported by the idea that regular civilians had low kanji literacy, amounted to nothing as kanji literacy among regular Japanese civilians was higher than expected.

For a while in the 20th century the 常用漢字 was actually named 当用漢字 or "provisional kanji list" as there was yet another push for education reforms that would gradually diminish kanji use. This was especially poignant before the arrival of personal computers, as there were no convenient input methods for kanji with typewriters.

But this was halted, once again, as personal computers provided a convenient and easy way for typing Kanji. Which meant that there was no real need to stop using it.

Ultimately, Japan hasn't abandoned Kanji because it hasn't been necessary. Most people already know how to read it, and it provides easier access and understanding of their historical texts.

Personally, I also think Kanji provides several advantages, such as an immediate understanding of vocabulary based solely on its kanji, or the ability to transmit more information in fewer characters.

DigitalAudio Mod , 11 months ago to Japanese Language in What are your motivations or goals that make you learn Japanese?

I started because I was super into Japanese music. This was almost 10 years ago already. But over time I’ve come to appreciate the lenguaje itself. Especially Kanji. Now I love it, and is the main reason why I still go out of my way to learn new vocabulary that I may never use.

That being said, I’m also trying to get into a Japanese university for my masters degree, and I use Japanese every day at my job, so it has financial and professional uses for me as well, and has sort of gone beyond a mere hobby at this point

DigitalAudio Mod , 11 months ago to Japanese Language in Couldn't get this wrong because there was only one option

Oh I had heard that w came from 笑い but yeah, it’s 草 because it looks like grass

DigitalAudio Mod , 11 months ago to Japanese Language in Japanese is harder/easier than other languages in what ways?

Assuming English is your native language:

Pronunciation is a majorly difficult thing for most native English speakers. I know people look at Japanese vowels and consonants and think “wow, only 5 vowels and a limited set of consonants and combinations, this is super easy!” And I guess it is easier than… Russian, Hungarian or French. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy.

But that’s mostly because they’re thinking of the “a” sound in English and the “o” sound, and so on. In reality, Japanese vowels are so radically different from English vowels, the vast majority of learners are going to completely butcher their pronunciation. You have to learn how to simplify all of them to their real sounds, because English vowels are usually rather complex, while Japanese are more similar to Spanish vowels. You also have to get rid of the plosives, which are also a dead giveaway when someone is a native English speaker.

As for what makes Japanese easier than others… hmm… well, not a lot, actually. I guess tenses and verb conjugations are considerably simpler than most Romance languages, for example. There are no gendered nouns but you have Kanji which is far more time consuming to memorise, and grammar structure and logic is usually completely different from English, and you’ll have to learn how to think differently to get your head around many concepts. This happens with most languages but even more so with Japanese.

So uh… the only thing that I think makes Japanese easier is that it’s arguably one of the most studied, documented and resource-rich languages to learn. There are millions of resources focusing on efficient and thorough study methodologies, as well as a lot of very popular media, books, TV shows, you name it. Cultural relevance is, in my opinion, Japanese’s biggest advantage, which is only rivalled by Spanish in the United States, or perhaps (I honestly have no clue but I’m guessing) French in the UK.

DigitalAudio Mod , 1 year ago to Japanese Language in Internet Archive of /r/LearnJapanese Resources

This is amazing, and I’m actually going to pin it, and link it on our sidebar.

As I’ve mentioned before, although this instance is fundamentally different from r/learnjapanese and we won’t necessarily have the same approach as them, that doesn’t mean that we won’t be welcoming and discussing learning resources, so this is an incredible resource for us.

Thank you so much for this post!