Japanese On the Cards?
I've decided I want to learn at least some basic Japanese. Sander and I will be spending a long weekend in Kyoto sometime soon (probably July) so I thought being able to stumble through the basics might somehow enrich our experience there. Also, I'm frankly a bit bored with Chinese and need something to break up the monotony as far as my life (and Dutch study) goes so I thought 'Why not?'.
I guess learning Japanese will be a pretty big challenge, despite having studied Chinese for years. While I might get a certain 'discount' when it comes to the kanji, these are used and pronounced differently in Japanese. Then there are the two kana alphabets to learn (hiragana and katakana) as well as lots of new grammar. The language geek in me is very interested in getting to grips with a brand new language, especially one that isn't entirely 'useless'. Not that I consider any language useless, but I have much less chance of ever using, say, Swahili or Tibetan in my everyday life. Then again, that won't stop me from giving those languages (and others) a go in future...just need to take it one step at a time. ^_^
So yes, my mission for the next 2 months is to get to grips with basic Japanese, at the very least 'survival Japanese' as I'm not sure how far English will get us there. Besides, it'll give me something to do as work is increasingly scarce here these days (the downside of working freelance, I guess).
Wish me luck. ^_^
I guess learning Japanese will be a pretty big challenge, despite having studied Chinese for years. While I might get a certain 'discount' when it comes to the kanji, these are used and pronounced differently in Japanese. Then there are the two kana alphabets to learn (hiragana and katakana) as well as lots of new grammar. The language geek in me is very interested in getting to grips with a brand new language, especially one that isn't entirely 'useless'. Not that I consider any language useless, but I have much less chance of ever using, say, Swahili or Tibetan in my everyday life. Then again, that won't stop me from giving those languages (and others) a go in future...just need to take it one step at a time. ^_^
So yes, my mission for the next 2 months is to get to grips with basic Japanese, at the very least 'survival Japanese' as I'm not sure how far English will get us there. Besides, it'll give me something to do as work is increasingly scarce here these days (the downside of working freelance, I guess).
Wish me luck. ^_^