I found this super interesting and really excellent. A lot of it was different, but whole tons of it applies to Japanese as well, especially when it comes to learning kanji (the Chinese characters used in addition to the two other alphabets).
My friend and I talked about one of the big differences we see in English and Japanese. In English, if you don't know what a word means, you can usually sound it out and pronounce it (like confront an elementary school kid with "triskadecaphobia" and they can work their way through the pronunciation but still be in the dark as to the meaning). In Japanese, however, you can discern the meaning of a word written entirely in kanji, but not be able to say it. Each kanji has between 1 and 5 different pronunciations based on where in the word it is, if you're using the Chinese or Japanese pronunciation, what other sounds surround it, and more.
Example on this - my town is called Sanda, and written 三田, meaning "three fields." The town over is called Miki, written 三木, meaning "three trees," but uses the same first character. Maddeningly, there is a part of Tokyo also written 三田... but pronounced "Mita." ACK.
my co-worker nathaniel, who was engaged to a japanese girl, always claimed japanese was harder in that who were you speaking to changed how you said things. like-- like i guess when he spoke to his girlfriend's parents, he had to use a different vocabulary? i don't know:) you probably know what i mean more than i do.
but the town name/pronunciation thing... that's crazy.
My friend and I talked about one of the big differences we see in English and Japanese. In English, if you don't know what a word means, you can usually sound it out and pronounce it (like confront an elementary school kid with "triskadecaphobia" and they can work their way through the pronunciation but still be in the dark as to the meaning). In Japanese, however, you can discern the meaning of a word written entirely in kanji, but not be able to say it. Each kanji has between 1 and 5 different pronunciations based on where in the word it is, if you're using the Chinese or Japanese pronunciation, what other sounds surround it, and more.
Example on this - my town is called Sanda, and written 三田, meaning "three fields." The town over is called Miki, written 三木, meaning "three trees," but uses the same first character. Maddeningly, there is a part of Tokyo also written 三田... but pronounced "Mita." ACK.
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but the town name/pronunciation thing... that's crazy.
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