Your reason(s) for learning an east-asian language?

[MrMoney]

Hi guys,

I recently read what languages many of the cubers on this forum know/have knowledge of.

The thing that struck me the most is how so many people want to learn some Chinese/Korean/Japanese/Thai/Vietnamese. How come, guys?

I at not criticizing you, I just cannot grasp why learn a language of a country you can maybe visit very little in your life. If I were to learn chinese and try to speak with Chinese in my community, sure they would be impressed, but just as soon they would call me a white dog. If I speak turkish with Turks on the street, they love it at show great respect. Why learn something that is soooo far away in culture and mannerism?

Thanks

 

[aronpm]

I at not criticizing you, I just cannot grasp why learn a language of a country you can maybe visit very little in your life. If I were to learn chinese and try to speak with Chinese in my community, sure they would be impressed, but just as soon they would call me a white dog. If I speak turkish with Turks on the street, they love it at show great respect. Why learn something that is soooo far away in culture and mannerism?

There are several general answers to that, but I think the two biggest are: a love of the culture/language (lots of people like Anime/Manga, for example), and the other reason is a love of language-learning. As an example of the latter, see Moses McCormick on Youtube.

I think your Chinese/Turkish example is a massive generalization though.

 

[MrMoney]

It does not have anything to do with the Chinese being bad or Turkish good, it has to do with the relations on the people. Albanians and Turks have a history together and being able to speak turkish is seen as a very respectable thing. Same thing goes to my Vietnamese friends who speak Chinese, they are also very respected.

But for me to learn Japanese, what? Learning German/Spanish/French would bring me alot further in life and expand my cultural understanding of my surrounding countries.

I am NOT bashing. Thank you for the reply! It is just that when people say: "I have studied Japanese for 1 year now, I speak 3 phrases: I am hungy, I am happy, I am sad" I am like: WTF? Is this really what you have learned in 1 year? Where the f are you going to go with 3 phrases?

 

[Olji]

I started to study Japanese mostly because I like learning languages, and also I'm interested in the Japanese culture
I find languages with different letters more interesting, like Russian that I plan on studying later
My japanese fanboyism prob helped too at the start, before getting the interest for unusal letters :rolleyes:

 

[MrMoney]

Thanks Oljibe I too have seen some Anime, loved it You really do get into the story after just an episode.

Can you recommend me a serie with about 10 episodes?

 

[Olji]

If you like mystery and thriller, I recommend playing Chaos Head, the VN is way better than the series, its a little gory but the plot is great (not done with it though, had a problem with corrupt saves but solved that rather fast, and the gameplay is between 10-30 hours, depending on how fast you read. I did however watch the first episode on the anime after I got further into the game, that episode was disappointing IMO)

Over to anime, it would be easier if I knew what tags you like (comedy, drama, etc.) send me a PM so we dont clutter the thread ^^

 

[janelle]

For me personally, it's usefulness. I'm surround by a fair amount of Asian culture so I do actually use what I've learned in real life. But if I were to learn say Turkish, for me, I would most likely have no use for it in real life. But I have to say, yeah I do like anime and that is part of the reason why I enjoy (not really the reason why I started) learning Japanese.

 

[Godmil]

Obviously sometimes it's very practical to learn a language, but it can also be done for fun. If someone spent a long time trying to learn a language, but only knows a few phrases, then they're probably just doing it for a hobby (they may find it enjoyable without needing to be good).
For me the closest non-english language is Gaelic, but I hear/see that a lot less than I hear Japanese (due to the films/TV that I watch) and that's on the other side of the world.

 

[MrMoney]

You guys have broadend my view on the subject, thanks! I did not have many of these arguments in mind when I first wrote the topic. Not everyone attempts to learn a language just to be GOOD at it, it can absolutely be a fun hobby to try puzzle out how a language works.

I myself have a few language-courses in my shelf: (German, Serbian, Turkish, Albanian, French, Chinese and English EFL) for different reasons. I lack Spanish though! Can anyone tell me about the major differences in Spanish spoken in Spain and Mexico/Latin America? Are they huge or simply dialects?

 

[d4m4s74]

I tried to learn Japanese, mostly for geek cred
But I gave up because I have no discipline

I do know a bit of german, french and obviously english because those are the languages of the countries around me, and I'm thinking of learning Turkish because we have a lot of people who speak that language here.

 

[MrMoney]

Türkce ögrenmek istiyor musunuz? Beraber ögrenelim! Ben cok türkce konusabilirim!

Turkish is a lovely language that is sooo simple to learn, you will be amazed! There are few rules and those are STRICT. You never need to think about the right form! It is gender neutral and is agglutinative. It uses latin alphabet+a few more letters. The letters are spoken as written, ALWAYS. It has vowel-harmony that makes it nice to listen to.

Kardes = sibling
-ler = plural
-im = my/I
-le = with

Kardeslerimle = I am with my siblings!

Arkadas = friend
-lar = plural
-ım = my/I
-la = with

Arkadaslarimla = I am with my friends

 

[Godmil]

That does seem pretty cool.

 

[ElectricDoodie]

I do not watch Anime or read Manga. In fact, I hate the Weeaboos in my classes.

I had to take 2 years in a foreign language in my high school. The 3 choices were Spanish, French and Japanese.
I speak fluent Portuguese, and Spanish is too similar, so it would bore me.
I was never interested in French, nor cared.
Japanese was the most interesting out of the 3, and I wanted a challenge.

I took it all the way to Japanese 4 in high school.
Once I got into college, I started back at Japanese 1, and am now in Japanese 4 (out of 6) trying to get a minor in it. My major is Marketing. I want to work with a company that does business with Japan, or vice versa. I'd love to work for the American side of some Japanese company, such as Sony, Panasonic, Toyota, etc...

I also wish to live in Japan, for about 1-2 years. Be it through a company who moves me there, or me looking for a job there.

Japan has a very high rate of import and export. And their technology and products are something that the world will almost always be doing business with. Also, Japan is the second richest country in the world. Second to America. So, being in a career where you deal with the top 2, is nice. (I actually think China might have or is passing Japan)


I have been on a year break from school, though, and this is bad... Unlike some other languages that most people take in schools, Japanese cannot easily be practiced. If someone takes Spanish, they can easily turn on a Spanish station, and watch to help them. Especially in Florida, where you will encounter a Spanish person almost everywhere. With Japanese, I have to actively find ways to keep practicing the language. Otherwise, everyday that I don't listen, write, read, or speak it, I am forgetting more and more. This is one reason why I wish I did enjoy Manga or Animes.

 

[MrMoney]

The verbs are usually very short (2-4 letters) and are used as stem for the suffixes. -mek/-mak (vowel harmony) is added to make it the infinitive.

Gelmek - To come
Almak - To take/To buy
Bakmak - To see
Dönmek - To return

-iyor is the suffix that gets glued to the verbstem to make it present tense. You then add the person suffix to tell whom is doing the action.

Geliyorum = I am coming
Alıyorum = I am taking
Bakıyorum = I am seeing
Dönüyorum = I am returning

Vowel harmony plays a role here, we have 4 variants of iyor/uyor/üyor/ıyor. Which one is used depends on the previous vowel!

Di/Ti is used with the verbstem to denote past actions.

Geldim = I came
Aldım = I took
Baktım = I saw
Döndüm = I returned

Di/ti is also in 4 forms and follow the same harmony: di/du/dü/dı and ti/tu/tü/tı

iyordu uses both present and past tense, making it and past continous form!

Geliyordum = I was coming
Alıyordum = I was taking
Bakıyordum = I was seeing
Dönüyordum = I was returning

And plus alot of other forms which will expand your vocabulary tremendous! I think this is a fun language to learn

 

[collinbxyz]

I started to study Japanese mostly because I like learning languages, and also I'm interested in the Japanese culture
I find languages with different letters more interesting, like Russian that I plan on studying later
My japanese fanboyism prob helped too at the start, before getting the interest for unusal letters :rolleyes:

this is my story...except I didn't finish learning.

 

[aronpm]

MrMoney: http://www.ithkuil.net/ithkuil-intro.htm

 

[Escher]

MrMoney: http://www.ithkuil.net/ithkuil-intro.htm

While this is very interesting, I am not surprised in the slightest to see a Star Trek reference...

 

[Cool Frog]

I had to take 2 years in a foreign language in my high school. The 3 choices were Spanish, French and Japanese.
I speak fluent Portuguese, and Spanish is too similar, so it would bore me.
I was never interested in French, nor cared.
Japanese was the most interesting out of the 3, and I wanted a challenge.

You live in Florida, I live in Florida
Your school offered Spanish, Portuguese, French, Japanese. My school offers Spanish, and French
WHY? ;.;

My Spanish teacher says that if you want to do good in business you should learn Mandarin Chinese.
I really love China's history and their peoples history. For my AP class we had to memorize the order of all the dynasties since any one of them could come up as an essay question really fun learning about China. Wish i could have learned more.

 

[Zarxrax]

Lots of people, especially within my family, are always saying "why are you learning something you will never use like Japanese?? Why not learn something useful, like Spanish?"

Look, if you are going to dedicate hundreds, nay, thousands of hours of your lifetime towards learning something, then I would damn well hope that its something you enjoy.
The simple fact is, I could never learn Spanish, because I have absolutely zero interest in learning it.
Japanese on the other hand, has an absolutely amazing and interesting culture, and puts out lots of interesting entertainment media. So in my view, the choice was clear.

 

[aronpm]

I really love China's history and their peoples history. For my AP class we had to memorize the order of all the dynasties since any one of them could come up as an essay question really fun learning about China. Wish i could have learned more.

You can teach yourself if you're really interested