Your Name (equally moronic post)
#61
Posted 29 September 2004 - 08:54 AM
Mines just an abbreviation of my full name on another forum. Yeah.
Less Is More v4
Now resigned to a readership of me, my cat and some fish
#62
Posted 29 September 2004 - 10:48 AM
JM's official press secretary, scientific advisor, diplomat and apparent antagonist?
#63
Posted 29 September 2004 - 01:30 PM
Buy the New LittleHorse CD, Strangers in the Valley!
CD Baby | iTunes | LittleHorse - Flight of the Bumblebee Video
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#64
Posted 29 September 2004 - 01:52 PM
and well that explains it aswell as gives u more info then u aked for
#66
Posted 29 September 2004 - 05:14 PM
sinister grinner in all his majesty
if it worked then there you go jane.
....................shane jerwood. haha , i made a funny.
This post has been edited by sinister grinner: 29 September 2004 - 05:16 PM
Twelve jurors,
one judge,
and half a chance.
#69
Posted 30 September 2004 - 03:35 AM
#71
Posted 30 September 2004 - 07:16 AM
#72
Posted 30 September 2004 - 07:35 AM
So you only started learning Japanese before you went over there - and you speak it fairly well now?
That is amazing. When I worked in Japan, the only westerners I knew who could speak the language had studied Japanese at university. Not that I'm saying it's impossible - just that learning another language takes a lot of time.
In addition to this, all the westerners who spoke Japanese had actually come to Japan earlier and studied Japanese at univerities there. I think it is SO much easier to learn a language in another country when you are going there solely to study it. But when you're working in that other country, and your job involves teaching your own language all day, it's a lot harder.
I guess I'm just saying I'm very impressed, Jariten. And I also read somewhere that you have a Kanji teacher so that means you're taking on the Japanese script. If any foreigner can make headway with that thing, they have my respect.
I learned Hiragana and Katakana while I was there (I think I've forgotten most of it by now) but for the most part, I could read much because they seemed to use Kanji for 90% of all their writing. As for the Kanji themselves, I learned about twenty of them. With "East", I learned both pronunciations... but it was the only one. Strangely enough, I learned most of them from the train stations. But occasionally, I'd learn one for fun just to show off to my students.
Whoa... gotta stop. Sorry for getting off topic. It's just that I'm interested in Jariten's progress with the Japanese language. I lived in Japan for a year but I don't know that many people I can talk to about it - especially in Korea. Most people over here just hate Japan because of the occupation from sometime early last century to 1950. So if I talk about Japan over here, people just say "Man, I hate Japan."
Okay, sorry I hijacked your thread. Back to the topic....
I just chose "Just Your Average Movie Goer" because I wanted a name that was nice and inconspicuous.
#73
Posted 30 September 2004 - 08:13 AM
JM's official press secretary, scientific advisor, diplomat and apparent antagonist?
#74
Posted 30 September 2004 - 08:27 AM
I think we must have experienced the exact same feeling. Hirigana is being used more in Tokyo now. The stations themselves have Hirigana under the Kanji... but still a lot of the station maps only have Kanji. Sure I could take train maps with me but it was still a bit difficult sometimes. So if I was going to a new place, I would memorise the Kanji for that station before setting out.
One good thing though was that station masters generally knew enough English to help foreigners, although my impression was the English skills of the general population were virtually non-existant.
In Korea, the reverse is true. Many people here actually remember the English they learned in high school but the station masters don't speak a word of it.
Fortunately, Korean has a scientifically designed alphabet that they use for virtually everything - and it only takes a day or two to learn it. As a result of this, Korea has one of the highest literacy rates in the world (somewhere around 98% of the population can read and write, by memory). I doubt that Japan would come even close.
Because of this, it's pretty easy to get around on the trains here. One complaint however is that none of the stations have electronic signs or announcements that tell you when the next train is coming... so you don't know if you should stay right where you are or go and get a drink and come back.
#75
Posted 30 September 2004 - 04:30 PM
Twelve jurors,
one judge,
and half a chance.