Whoa~ Long!! XD *nods nods* Coz most of them are just "sounds" and there's no (logical) meaning to the words. :D Not just for words that have some English influence or related to English. Like 料理 for example. What the hell does that got to do with cooking!? Well, there used to be, but words have evolved since and most of them have lost their original meanings/sounds and so they do not make much sense anymore. ^^;
Exactly! :D 米 just happened to be the kanji assigned to the word me~ It's actually not that hard to figure your way through kanji by listening to it. Most Chinese-speakers know by instinct how certain kanji is pronounced and all. Once you figure out the trick, you'll be able to read/understand/speak the language pretty quickly. Except there are a lot of words that sound similar but written differently in Japanese, so listening might be tricky at times. Like, 高校、航行、孝行、港口、公行 are all "koukou"! So you have to figure it out by the context and by its accent/intonation. :D
Oh yeah, isn't that funny? It's surprising to find out the origin of some words! Humans aren't the only ones traveling apparently. XD
Yeah, sorry - it was a bit long! I've fiddled with quite a lot of languages (dead and alive! Er - that's the languages, not me) so it's also interesting to see what someone's native linguistic experience gives them in terms of insights and stumbling blocks. (I've never tried Dutch but have learned German but can see that there's likely to be a "deutsch" connexion somewhere in the history).
I'm grateful for your reassurance about Japanese being possible -one of my problems with speaking is that I try to give "tones" (variable pitch) to kanji where I know the Cantonese pronunciation. I expect the Japanese are used to Chinese-speakers abusing their language like this!
Because my Chinese reading translates to Cantonese but the Japanese pronunciaton is more allied to pinyin (mandarin), I may have more of a problem e.g. with the "kou kou" examples, I can hear instantly "goh" (high) and "hau" (mouth) although I know, if I think about it, that the pinyin is "gao" and "kou" (more similar sounds). Because Cantonese has more tones than mandarin, the differences in pronunciation are more distinct. At least European languages are simpler in this respect!
I'm all the more impressed with the time you give to the Gackt translations when you must have a lot of study translations to do for your course anyway. Gackt is lucky to have such committed and clever fans!
Haha, no that's okay. It was interesting reading all that! You don't meet another language freak lover very often after all! xD
Ahaha, I love languages too, more for the sake of learning than actually doing research them. I've dabbled in a few, too few though in my opinion. XD But they are mostly Asian languages. What about you? :D I've never tried German, only French from the European languages. Thinking of giving Italian and Spain a try next year tho~ As far as dead goes, did Latin and Ancient Greek. :D *shudders* XD
Ooh, I know... three people from Hong Kong. ^^ And yeah, I must agree they do have a strong accent, maybe because they try to add "tones" to it? I'll try to listen to their Japanese more carefully next time. xD That's interesting about Cantonese tho~~~ :D I don't speak it myself, but my mom LOVES Cantonese drama, so I used to watch it with her when I was young. I can pick up some words and if you speak slow enough, I might even be able to guess what you are talking about. XD The only word I can think of that has the same pronunciation as Cantonese is kantan (easy). ^^
Aww, thanks. x3 But it's just my interest, coz I love translating. Plus it's good practice~!
If you still remember your latin and greek, you'll find lots of cognates in Italian and Spanish so I think you will make very quick progress with either.
Spanish is about the quickest language to learn (there are significant variants in pronunciation between the European/Castilian Spanish and South American Spanish - in many ways the South American pronunciation is easier but is considered less elegant) but, personally, I find Italian more rewarding. That may be because I studied classical music which uses Italian as its lingua franca; it's certainly the most musical rhythmically of the European languages. Spanish is of more practical use because of the huge number of Hispanic speakers in the Americas. It depends on your motivation for learning: for speed and use go for Spanish, for literary/artistic satisfaction head for Italian, and, if you can, try both!
I'm with your mum on Cantonese drama (well, action in my case - it's the martial arts and car bug!) and I also adore the classic era (1980s/1990s) Canto-pop (Jacky Cheung Hok Yau, Beyond, Eason Chan etc). I'm sure you would be OK to understand Cantonese if you had the opportunity to listen more. I find that the older generations have much clearer diction (particularly a wider variation of tones - i.e. the high tones are higher and the low tones are lower) than the lazy youngsters who flatten all the syllables into a Western style drawl! I never thought about the Cantonese accent in Japanese speaking but learning Japanese is certainly very popular in HK - and, yes, I bet they do put the tones in!
Oh yes, yes - translating Gackt stuff is very very good practice for you! (no self interest on my part there!) And you are very good at it. "Lei ho ye!" I look forward to more when you have time and to reading more of your translation thoughts (I enjoy the comments you include with the translation so please don't be shy with them!)
Sorry for not replying earlier! I'm away in Hokkaido right now and had no internet access for the past few days. ^^;
Ooooh, I see. That's interesting. Haha, yeah, I think I'm gonna try for both actually. ^^ Thanks for all that info tho~ Wow, you really do know a lot about languages huh? Where are you from actually? I'm guessing Chinese race but born and raised elsewhere? It will be great if I can learn Cantonese too, but there's really no one to speak it with. XD At least with Hokkien, my family uses it back home so I can listen to it sometimes and have more contact with the language.
HAHAHAHA XDDD Nah, I'm nowhere good~ I still have a loooong way to go. *sighs* Hehe, I love writing my own comments too, coz it keeps the interaction between me and the other fans, you know? So it's not like an impersonal thing, where I just dish out translations and people read it. And I enjoy reading other people's thoughts too, so yeap, goes both ways~
Exactly! :D 米 just happened to be the kanji assigned to the word me~ It's actually not that hard to figure your way through kanji by listening to it. Most Chinese-speakers know by instinct how certain kanji is pronounced and all. Once you figure out the trick, you'll be able to read/understand/speak the language pretty quickly. Except there are a lot of words that sound similar but written differently in Japanese, so listening might be tricky at times. Like, 高校、航行、孝行、港口、公行 are all "koukou"! So you have to figure it out by the context and by its accent/intonation. :D
Oh yeah, isn't that funny? It's surprising to find out the origin of some words! Humans aren't the only ones traveling apparently. XD
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I'm grateful for your reassurance about Japanese being possible -one of my problems with speaking is that I try to give "tones" (variable pitch) to kanji where I know the Cantonese pronunciation. I expect the Japanese are used to Chinese-speakers abusing their language like this!
Because my Chinese reading translates to Cantonese but the Japanese pronunciaton is more allied to pinyin (mandarin), I may have more of a problem e.g. with the "kou kou" examples, I can hear instantly "goh" (high) and "hau" (mouth) although I know, if I think about it, that the pinyin is "gao" and "kou" (more similar sounds). Because Cantonese has more tones than mandarin, the differences in pronunciation are more distinct. At least European languages are simpler in this respect!
I'm all the more impressed with the time you give to the Gackt translations when you must have a lot of study translations to do for your course anyway. Gackt is lucky to have such committed and clever fans!
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Ahaha, I love languages too, more for the sake of learning than actually doing research them. I've dabbled in a few, too few though in my opinion. XD But they are mostly Asian languages. What about you? :D I've never tried German, only French from the European languages. Thinking of giving Italian and Spain a try next year tho~ As far as dead goes, did Latin and Ancient Greek. :D *shudders* XD
Ooh, I know... three people from Hong Kong. ^^ And yeah, I must agree they do have a strong accent, maybe because they try to add "tones" to it? I'll try to listen to their Japanese more carefully next time. xD That's interesting about Cantonese tho~~~ :D I don't speak it myself, but my mom LOVES Cantonese drama, so I used to watch it with her when I was young. I can pick up some words and if you speak slow enough, I might even be able to guess what you are talking about. XD The only word I can think of that has the same pronunciation as Cantonese is kantan (easy). ^^
Aww, thanks. x3 But it's just my interest, coz I love translating. Plus it's good practice~!
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Spanish is about the quickest language to learn (there are significant variants in pronunciation between the European/Castilian Spanish and South American Spanish - in many ways the South American pronunciation is easier but is considered less elegant) but, personally, I find Italian more rewarding. That may be because I studied classical music which uses Italian as its lingua franca; it's certainly the most musical rhythmically of the European languages. Spanish is of more practical use because of the huge number of Hispanic speakers in the Americas. It depends on your motivation for learning: for speed and use go for Spanish, for literary/artistic satisfaction head for Italian, and, if you can, try both!
I'm with your mum on Cantonese drama (well, action in my case - it's the martial arts and car bug!) and I also adore the classic era (1980s/1990s) Canto-pop (Jacky Cheung Hok Yau, Beyond, Eason Chan etc). I'm sure you would be OK to understand Cantonese if you had the opportunity to listen more. I find that the older generations have much clearer diction (particularly a wider variation of tones - i.e. the high tones are higher and the low tones are lower) than the lazy youngsters who flatten all the syllables into a Western style drawl! I never thought about the Cantonese accent in Japanese speaking but learning Japanese is certainly very popular in HK - and, yes, I bet they do put the tones in!
Oh yes, yes - translating Gackt stuff is very very good practice for you! (no self interest on my part there!) And you are very good at it. "Lei ho ye!" I look forward to more when you have time and to reading more of your translation thoughts (I enjoy the comments you include with the translation so please don't be shy with them!)
Reply
Ooooh, I see. That's interesting. Haha, yeah, I think I'm gonna try for both actually. ^^ Thanks for all that info tho~ Wow, you really do know a lot about languages huh? Where are you from actually? I'm guessing Chinese race but born and raised elsewhere? It will be great if I can learn Cantonese too, but there's really no one to speak it with. XD At least with Hokkien, my family uses it back home so I can listen to it sometimes and have more contact with the language.
HAHAHAHA XDDD Nah, I'm nowhere good~ I still have a loooong way to go. *sighs* Hehe, I love writing my own comments too, coz it keeps the interaction between me and the other fans, you know? So it's not like an impersonal thing, where I just dish out translations and people read it. And I enjoy reading other people's thoughts too, so yeap, goes both ways~
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