I love Kanji and you should too
I’ve started to study like mad for my placement exam that I’ll surely be taking when I arrive in Japan this August (if all goes as planned) and I’m wondering what it’ll be like since I’m sure we’re all coming from different backgrounds and different kinds of learning settings. So, we all have our varying degrees of strength and weakness. If anyone has been on the IES Nagoya or Tokyo programs before it wouldn’t hurt to maybe leave a comment explaining some of your experience or whatever.
My main weakness is speaking so I have nothing to worry about on this exam but it doesn’t mean I shouldn’t really study for it. That would be foolish, and quite frankly now that the semester is over I can start studying more on Japanese which I enjoy. I’m planning on starting to exchange emails with friends in Japanese just so we all can get some practice and it might be fun.
One of my strengths is reading. I know a lot of Kanji and not just those we learned in class. It’s probably from the games I’ve played and the flashcards I’ve used in the past. I like Kanji and I don’t know why people get so hung up on it saying, “It’s the worst!” I don’t know if they teach the make up of Kanji in Japan but that would be something I would be interested in learning about. Like, I guess in English we have those borrowed words, prefixes, and suffixes and what not, but in Japanese it’s different.
When people ask me about Japanese or when I want to try and explain how Kanji works to them. I seem to find myself repeating that one statement Oosaka says in episode 5 of Azumanga Daioh. The one about if you write ocean and leopard next to each other you get seal. I think it’s a pretty interesting example to just show the peculiar(?) use of Kanji to someone who speaks English. Although, I’m going to bet Japanese people don’t really think about these things I’m bring up right now, but it’s something I have an interest in.
One day I’m just going to wake up and be like, “Whoa I can understand this.” Well, I can to a degree, I suppose. I still have this hurting feeling from way back in December which springs up occasionally in the back of my mind. Even though I love Japanese it wasn’t the culture or history that attracted me to it. Instead it was anime and games, and that can’t help but make me feel so dirty even if my interests have expanded outside those areas.
I like kanji a lot too. Have you memorized the radicals? I find that helps.
And don’t worry about where you interests began. Most of the kids in my Japanese class were there because of anime or manga. I think that a lot of people, particularly teens, don’t have the patience for cultural aspects that are seen as being too academic. Pop culture is a great way to get them interested.
Are you sure you want to go to japan? will it be only a vacation? or will you stay there? are you aware of the strict immigration policy there? and how difficult is to get a residency?
Some people always study japanese so “they will live in japan” but when reality strikes them in the face they realesed that the life in japan isn’t as expected or they can’t live there for various reasons and they realesed all the time and money they wasted that could have used for a better living in their native country.
Mauru: To a certain extent I’ll agree that life in Japan is something that will shock the hell out of those who aren’t prepared for it – and it’s something that’s rather impossible to prepare for, but that shouldn’t be an actual deterrent to those who are keen on the idea – assuming they give it some extent of rational thought and keep themselves open to new surroundings and such…
And for the record, kanji is giving me hell, but I find that I actually ‘hate’ it less the more I(‘m forced to) study it actually, which is a good thing I guess :P
Caitlin@ Thanks for the reassurance. All I’ve heard is I am a failure and I should change my major just because I like anime and games and I’m studying Japanese.
I am familiar with some of them but I was never really taught how to look for them especially on the more complex Kanji.
Mauru@ Well, I’m a Japanese major so it’s required by the department to study abroad. So, I really don’t have a choice. Strangely enough it is the only language at my college that requires you to study abroad. For every other one it is optional.
issa-sa@ I try to look at it as the more you know the better you’ll become at understanding Japanese.
I am trying to figure out how to write June 16,2008 in Kanji any chance you can help me??????
Thanks,
i have a friend that thinks she can learn Japanese just by watching anime in the origional language. i happen to believe, based on a program i watched not too long ago, that there is more to learning Japanese than just listening and imitating. the phrase that was used in this program was ‘ta toki ni’. i havent gotten a chance to ask her if she knows how to correctly use this phrase, but i have a fealing she doesnt.
once, she told me that she was talking to some Japanese people in Japanese and they looked at her like she was crazy. i thought, ‘well, maybe thats because you dont even know how to pronounce the words your trying to say.’ ive learned most pronounciation from the ‘bonous features’ in the back of manga, but she doesnt seem to have the ability to do that. like, she still thinks that vowels have more than one sound, like they do in English, even though she printed off a pronounciation key from the internet.
so i have two questions: (1) do you have any tips for helping her to understand? (2) i still cant figure out how to pronounce a word when it has a vowel thats been doubled. like yuukaku for instance. is it (yu-u-ka-ku) or (YU-ka-ku)?