Break out in tears of mourning, my dear Internet People, for I may have just told the largest lie of my life. Well, I say the largest lie of my life - in reality I may be being slightly hyperbolic. That is, of course, unless we place a restriction on the statement...Humm...Okay: "I have told the largest lie that I have ever told inside a blog title." That doesn't have nearly the same ring to it - why must being dramatic also be filled with such linguistic atrocities?
Hmm - I appear to have diverged from my intended topic quite rapidly today - woe betide you then, dear reader, for this is only paragraph two, and we all know that there are much worse things to come. Before I do go back to what I wanted to talk about, however, I figure I should tell you just what my lie was (after all, it's so dreadfully unfair to just leave you hanging like that...) You see, dear readers, I am quite the romantic (although my seemingly cold/uncaring exterior may suggest otherwise) and am capable of showing more than my share of affection when I want to.
But that wouldn't have made for a very interesting blog title...Or perhaps it would have simply been too long and unwieldy..."It's not a romance language, but that's okay, because whilst I am quite romantic internally I am also aware that the term 'romance language' refers not to the fact that the language itself sounds romantic, but rather that it is derived from Vulgar Latin." No, I can't see that making it up there at all. Anyway - the reason I speak of the romance languages (which include such delights as Spanish, French, and Italian) is because I want to learn Japanese. How's that for a logic jump?
I have been trying for some time to learn Japanese now, and I have got a bit of it down. I know the basics of sentence structure, I have a (quite limited) vocabulary, and I know how to conjugate verbs into a couple of different forms. I can, for instance, say "boku wa neko wo kuroi desu" - "My cat is black". Not a very useful statement (unless I'm talking to someone about non-existent felines...) I am also capable of the slightly more helpful "anata wa tabetai ka" - "Do you want to eat?" (I think...If anyone could verify that for me, that'd be great - and Google translate does not count!)
In my quest for linguistic perfection I have used many tools and techniques to try and help myself not only learn the grammar of an entirely new language, but also increase my vocabulary at the same time. I have several Japanese language manga which I have tried to read at different times (although I usually give up because I don't have anybody to ask when I'm having troubles), I watch subbed anime and actually listen to it, rather than just read the subtitles, and I have a workbook that I tried going through (but without a teacher, it was kind of useless...)
So it seems that I have learnt a life lesson for myself from this - I really shouldn't try to teach myself a language! Instead, I need someone to help me along the way - and so what I'm proposing to do is have a kind of "penpal" thing going on with a fluent speaker of the language. This way, I not only get to learn something new, but I also get to make a whole new friend! Win-freaking-Win, Baby!! If you decide that you'd like to help me learn Japanese (or if you know someone who could help me [or if you just want to e-mail me to talk anyway]) then my e-mail address is dirtytiger@live.com.au. I look forward to hearing from you ^_^.
The moral of this story is that language is a funny thing, and actually inventing a coherent language is exceptionally difficult. Of the invented languages that I enjoy, my absolute favourite would have to be the Futurama "Alienese" - with Sarus coming a very close second. It is only the fact that Sarus has an exceptionally limited (and, indeed, incomplete) vocabulary that it does not rank number 1. If you have a spare moment, you really should read into it - it's really cool and quite well thought out as a concept. What other language would let me go: "** * * ***" and have it actually mean something?
I'm impressed because I'm pretty sure that Klingon is a complete language. Plus they like drinking
ReplyDeleteTolkien wrote a number of languages and a few of them were almost complete. Especially Elvish, I used to speak it a bit, but i have forgotten it due to lack of use. It would be wonderful to have such an understanding of language to be able to create your own, especially one you could teach your friends.
ReplyDeleteMy sister's speak some Japanese, they both studied it at school, one of them has been over there. Im not so sure they could help you though. Have you thought of buying a DVD to learn some more phrases, or even advertising on the uni forum?? Im sure there would HAVE to be somebody locally who knows how to speak it well that would be willing to teach you. I want to learn German :) lol have since i was quite young, unfortunately i dont think its as common in Australia as Japanese is :(
I think it's "anata wa tabetai desu ka", although I'm a bit rusty on japanese, let me see what google says (lol)
ReplyDelete"Do you want to eat?" translates to "あなたが食べたいですか？", which is what I said.
So yeah, missing a desu~ in there.