Me and Japanese!

I've been wanted to write for a while now, about my progress with the language. Maybe I've been putting it off because to be honest - it hasn't become significantly amazing. But I will hand you a few excuse as to why this might be difficult even when you're immersed in the rural parts of a foreign country.

I definately understand Japanese better than when I came over - somedays I have good days, and some days I have bad days. Japanese is a very different language to English - which means the kids have a lot of difficulty learning it, and I have a lot of difficulty learning Japanese.

I will enlighten you about some of the differences between Japanese and English.

1.) - Japanese has no plurals or articles like 'a/an/the'. You don't know whether one thing is being spoken about or many things.

2.) - Japanese doesn't really use pronouns. The pronoun for 'I' (Watashi) is generally OK - but they don't seem to need to use it - you can just work it out from the context (easier said than done!). They never really use 'you' (anata). Only in special circumstances, for emphasis or other such situations - otherwise it is a bit rude and direct. Even though they tend not to use 'I' and 'You' - they have several different words for each. 'Watakushi' - is the very polite I, 'Watashi' - is the polite and common I, 'Boku' is not as polite and generally used by males, then their are others which are not as polite and others that are only used by women.

'You' also has many words, 'anata' being the most polite (even though its still considered rude) and the rest being more impolite and disrespectful than the last!


3). - Japanese sentence structure is very different - Typical English sentences follow Subject Verb Object, but Japanese goes Subject, Object, Verb. No matter what goes after the subject, the verb is always last, which can be a little bit tricky to work out, but you do start to get used to it! The verb position is not quite as bad as....

4). - Japanese particles. In English we have things like 'at, to, the, in, from' and so on. Japanese has a slightly similiar system, but unfortunately it is annoyingly different. In Japanese - 'Joshi' 助詞 literally means 'helping words' - and they are a system of post-positional particles. These are things like 'で, に, は, を, か, が, と' (de, ni, wa, o, ka, ga, to). They help to tell you more information about what is being said. Using the wrong particle can significantly change a sentence, subtly change a sentence, or just make a sentence sound wrong.

For example 'Watashi wa (subject particle) ringo o (object marker) tabemasu.'

Means 'I eat apple'.

'Watashi no (possession particle) ringo o (object marker) tabemasu.'

'I eat my apple'

'Watashi ni (time/direction particles) ringo o (object marker) tabemasu.'

Is just stupid and makes no sense whatsoever.

You can't really consider English too much when you're trying to work out what is being said in Japanese! Like using the 'ni' particle

'Doyoubi ni Tokyo ni ikimasu' - On Saturday I go to Tokyo. 'ni' works twice to highlight to the listener that time is involved in the statement, and the fact that the speaker is moving to somewhere. To consider 'on' or 'to' when thinking about the Japanese is irrelevant and unneccessary - it only makes sound grammatical English when you have to translate it.

It's a very brief and basic explanation of particles, but they are very VERY difficult - to listen to and translate, and also to use when you speak. When Japanese children are learning to speak, they often use the wrong particles themselves!

5.) Cultural differences - Alot of the time I'm never sure what to say in Japanese, because they have such a precise system of etttiquette and conduct. Whilst I say 'sayonara' to everyone when I leave work, nobody else really uses it! Apparently its more commonly used for more permanent/formal goodbyes - instead people just seem to mumble some undecipherable 'ursshhh' or 'dommsshhh' when they leave! I get a little bit conscious about using it, but nobody will correct me or tell me any better....which is another thing....

6) The Japanese are too shy or too polite! - They will either tolerate my improper use of particles or maybe unnatural sentence structure or wording. (The better situation), or they will hardly acknowledge I exist and avoid speaking to me at all costs! (The worst situation). In daily-life I can use my Japanese to full effect - a lot of the local restaurants know me now and have begun to talk to me, or have let me start talking to them, which I really enjoy!

But at work some teachers are perhaps too embarrased about my Japanese skills and just assume I won't understand them!

7) Japanese is often spoken very fast and because of the limited sounds in their vocabulary, a lot of words have more than one meaning - you have to work out what word is what from the context!

8) Reading is very difficult - it is a lot harder to learn new words and understand the grammer easily because of all the Chinese characters that I can't read! Road signs typically have English translations underneath them, which is great, because I've been able to learn a few Kanji from those signs. Unfortunately newspapers, letters, bulletins - I have difficulty understanding because I am pretty much illiterate in this country!

So it is difficult - but I am trying to study regularly and I can get by in daily-life and have basic conversations with people. Somedays, when I visit Elementary schools - nobody can speak English and I am forced to speak Japanese - often for a whole day!

However, my reading has improved a lot - probably because I studied more reading back at Uni with my French. So, just to show off and impress you a bit - I'll show you an example of the emails I often receive now!

Hi! クリス
お元気ですか？
金曜日にソロプチミスト（女性団体）の人が来て
クリスにイギリスの女性の生き方について話して
もらいたいとのことでした。
２月２８日12:00〜13:00まで。
　宮内のお店で食事しながら
イギリスのことについて何でもいいから話してください。
イギリスから日本に来て感じたことでもいいです。
沖郷中のスケジュールはＯＫです。
細川

A hearty pat on the back for anybody who can understand this email. In response to it - it's a little strange why they asked me!?..........