It appears that my Japanese studies have come to a halt for various reasons. However, I am expecting to continue next year, so I cannot get rusty... I must rely on the aid and support of my followers! (I'm done for -.-) Interestingly, it seems that my Japanese is taking a slightly different turn from my Latin, which is I remember more of the vocab than the grammar. Strange.
My hope originally was to keep pace and try learning it on my own. I laugh at how naive I was. The semester has been busy, and its hard to find time for learning new things (new juggling tricks, instruments, languages, blog posts, etc.). Luckily, I still have my workbook, so let's see if I can't dish some new, fun stuff out. Here goes nothing:
私は ロック と クラシック すきです。
I missed favorite things! NOoooooooOOooOooOOOOoooo! Anyway, how very strange that like is an adjective. It's probably more like 'liked': The banana is liked. Makes some sense. still though: I am liking rock and classical music? That's really weird. I guess 'is' in the abstract isn't a good translation for です. It is more of a 'these two things are connected, here connect them in your head' type thing.
すき means like
きらい means dislike
Monday, March 5, 2012
Sunday, November 20, 2011
English と Latin と 日本語
You wouldn't think that learning Latin would be any sorts of helpful in learning a language as different as Japanese, but it does. It's been surprisingly helpful as far as Japanese grammar goes (of course how could it help in memorizing kanji). Basically, this is what I've noticed:
The thing about Latin is basically that you have to conjugate nearly everything. If you want you use a noun as a subject, the ending may be different from that of a direct object. There are noun conjugations, adjective conjugations, and verb conjugations. The only thing you don't have to conjugate is adverbs. How does this relate to Japanese? Basically, I sometimes like to think of the different particles as merely endings for the different words. therefore, としょかんは would be like a subject or topic, としょかんを would be a direct object, としょかんで is like the Latin Ablative place where, which denotes exact location, etc.
As far as the verbs go, Latin is a pain. Every verb has at least 20 different forms (most have around 60, all according to patterns of course) it could take, depending on the tense, mood, and voice that you intend to use (I'll explain it more if you are really interested, but this isn't a Latin lecture). Basically, I was somewhat relived to learn that verbs don't sound to complicated in Japanese. They still have their stems which you would build endings off of. Also, the て form of verbs sounds a lot like it would fill the role of infinitives, which I have had experience with in both English and Latin.
Aside from these more specific points, Latin has caused me to start thinking about something else concerning Japanese. It took me only 2 years to learn the entirety of Latin grammar, which makes it really easy for me to break down English sentences into different grammar and verb parts that allow for complex structure so I can translate into Latin and back. Therefore, I know the complex sentences that I want to say in Japanese, such as the conditional sentence (if ___, then ____), the causal sentence (because _____, so and so _____), and what is called indirect discourse in Latin (so and so thought/knew/asked/said/etc. that [verb]. (sorry that's really confusing, but I know what I'm talking about so I'll leave it)). This basically frustrates me because right now, the most complex our Japanese sentences can get is a semi-causal/conjunction sentence with a bunch of prepositional phrases (I took a shower, then I went to the dining hall at 1 to eat breakfast.......シャワーを あびて、いちじに がくしょくに あさごはんを たべに いきました。). I feel that more complex sentences could arise from our understanding of infinitives and causal relationships. I basically want to say a sentence like this:
I want to learn the most difficult kanji in order to more fully understand that learning kanji is also difficult for someone who is Japanese.
In Latin, I would break the sentence down like this:
I [subject] want [main verb] to learn [complementary infinitive] the most difficult [superlative adjective] kanji [direct object] in order to [preposition introducing purpose clause] more fully [comparative adverb] understand [subjunctive verb - used for purposed clauses] that [] learning [subjective infinitive - a verb acting as a noun] kanji [object of infinitive] is [infinitive working with understand (Indirect discourse, see above)] also [adverb] difficult [adjective describing learning] for someone [Indirect object] who [interrogative pronoun] is [verb of interrogative clause] Japanese [adjective describing who]
......okay I just realized that that was really dry and long you probably didn't read or understand any of that. You probably got lost and either moved to a different page or looked to the end of the post to see if I put anything interesting at the end.... don't worry, it's around here somewhere... please be happy.
Basically all I'm saying is that I'm upset that I don't know everything about Japanese after only half a year (in my book). The only other thing I have left to say is that Latin has not prepared me for actually speaking another language (no big surprise there). So, I guess I understand the pace, since speaking is important to the language too.
If you have any questions or comments about Latin, Japanese, this post, or anything completely irrelevant, please leave a comment.
しつもん means those things that you should be asking asking me (i.e. questions [by the way i.e. means "id est", which is Latin for "that is"])
The thing about Latin is basically that you have to conjugate nearly everything. If you want you use a noun as a subject, the ending may be different from that of a direct object. There are noun conjugations, adjective conjugations, and verb conjugations. The only thing you don't have to conjugate is adverbs. How does this relate to Japanese? Basically, I sometimes like to think of the different particles as merely endings for the different words. therefore, としょかんは would be like a subject or topic, としょかんを would be a direct object, としょかんで is like the Latin Ablative place where, which denotes exact location, etc.
As far as the verbs go, Latin is a pain. Every verb has at least 20 different forms (most have around 60, all according to patterns of course) it could take, depending on the tense, mood, and voice that you intend to use (I'll explain it more if you are really interested, but this isn't a Latin lecture). Basically, I was somewhat relived to learn that verbs don't sound to complicated in Japanese. They still have their stems which you would build endings off of. Also, the て form of verbs sounds a lot like it would fill the role of infinitives, which I have had experience with in both English and Latin.
Aside from these more specific points, Latin has caused me to start thinking about something else concerning Japanese. It took me only 2 years to learn the entirety of Latin grammar, which makes it really easy for me to break down English sentences into different grammar and verb parts that allow for complex structure so I can translate into Latin and back. Therefore, I know the complex sentences that I want to say in Japanese, such as the conditional sentence (if ___, then ____), the causal sentence (because _____, so and so _____), and what is called indirect discourse in Latin (so and so thought/knew/asked/said/etc. that [verb]. (sorry that's really confusing, but I know what I'm talking about so I'll leave it)). This basically frustrates me because right now, the most complex our Japanese sentences can get is a semi-causal/conjunction sentence with a bunch of prepositional phrases (I took a shower, then I went to the dining hall at 1 to eat breakfast.......シャワーを あびて、いちじに がくしょくに あさごはんを たべに いきました。). I feel that more complex sentences could arise from our understanding of infinitives and causal relationships. I basically want to say a sentence like this:
I want to learn the most difficult kanji in order to more fully understand that learning kanji is also difficult for someone who is Japanese.
In Latin, I would break the sentence down like this:
I [subject] want [main verb] to learn [complementary infinitive] the most difficult [superlative adjective] kanji [direct object] in order to [preposition introducing purpose clause] more fully [comparative adverb] understand [subjunctive verb - used for purposed clauses] that [] learning [subjective infinitive - a verb acting as a noun] kanji [object of infinitive] is [infinitive working with understand (Indirect discourse, see above)] also [adverb] difficult [adjective describing learning] for someone [Indirect object] who [interrogative pronoun] is [verb of interrogative clause] Japanese [adjective describing who]
......okay I just realized that that was really dry and long you probably didn't read or understand any of that. You probably got lost and either moved to a different page or looked to the end of the post to see if I put anything interesting at the end.... don't worry, it's around here somewhere... please be happy.
Basically all I'm saying is that I'm upset that I don't know everything about Japanese after only half a year (in my book). The only other thing I have left to say is that Latin has not prepared me for actually speaking another language (no big surprise there). So, I guess I understand the pace, since speaking is important to the language too.
If you have any questions or comments about Latin, Japanese, this post, or anything completely irrelevant, please leave a comment.
しつもん means those things that you should be asking asking me (i.e. questions [by the way i.e. means "id est", which is Latin for "that is"])
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