/jp/ - Otaku Culture

because it's funny

Why are Americans such failures at Japanese?

Why are barbars such failures at the language of the Gods, Greek?

>>6156385
Japanese are abnormally bad. Go look at something from China. They have a more insane language than Japanese and they can get English into a readable state.

>>6156385
Americans aren't required by law for 8+ years to learn Japanese.

Why are stereotypes so stereotype? I don't understand

Because japanese language based on syllables and their kanji wasn't even their to start on.

I think it's cute when they speak or type in broken English. .-.

so what? where i live, you start learning english in third grade and have to keep at it until college or more. and most people are still failures at it

>>6156411
Exact same situation here. It's pretty much useless for the majority of normal people, so they just skip the classes.

>>6156385
The same reason that they fail at English.

>>6156409
>.-.

>>6156411
>>6156448

Same here. Most people worlwide are required to learn English in school, but out of it they still don't know enough to be able to keep a conversation.

In every country, most people only know their native language. Very few people seriously learn another one.

because they're still "isolated" even in this age

>>6156392
>They have a more insane language than Japanese
yea, no

>>6156399
It's not required in Japan either. They could take German, French, etc. But there aren't as many teachers of those languages.

>>6156519
>Very few people seriously learn another one.

yet they all complain when americans only know english.

>>6156549
After learning Japanese, how hard is it to learn Mandarin Chinese or Corean? I was thinking of doing something like that.

>>6156385

There's a big difference.

There's no reason for an American to learn Japanese and it isn't the most commonly studied language in the US. It probably isn't in the top ten.

There's a very good reason for everyone in the world to learn English and it is the most commonly studied language in Japan.

It's true that Americans are shit at languages, but they have an excuse. It's very unusual that people from Japan, a country with high educational standards, speak worse English than most primary school children in Western Europe, and worse English than a lot of people from third-world countries with languages equally far removed from English.

The reason why the Japanese are so bad is actually the same reason that people from English speaking countries are so bad. They have no motivation, they assume that they will fail and languages are taught in a profoundly retarded way in their country. People from English-speaking countries can get away with this because English is by far the most important language in the world and the only language that you really need to be able to speak. For Japan, this is a big problem.

>>6156575
caveman-like grammar, hanzi are more logical compared to kanji etc.

granted i haven't gotten very far and it's been ages since i've studied, but chinese isn't that hard as people think

>>6156582
it has to do a lot with exposure as well, which isn't so prominent in japan because everything gets dubbed

>>6156582
English isn't needed for anything anywhere in the world. People can live just fine without it and this is why they don't bother learning it. Same with Japan. The only people bothered by it are Americans wishing they could have access to everything Japan makes without having to learn one of the most difficult languages.

Not to mention that Americans can freely browse the internet and understand everything, whilst people from most other countries can't. Not that there isn't internet in XYZ language, just that the English portion is bigger and more is available.

>>6156575
I think the only hard part with Chinese is speaking it with the tones and shit.

They only have one reading for a kanji compared to Japanese which has a shitload of different readings that you have to memorize and change upon context. Also the grammar is kind of similar to English.

>>6156614

But it's useful! Every other person has some knowledge of English. Like if I went to a foreign country I could get by with speaking English to everyone, even if it's not my first language.

>>6156626
The tones concern me somewhat. Is Corean spoken with as much tone or is it about the same as Japanese? Hangul does interest me more than Hanzi.

>>6156626
Also, Corean will be EASY AS FUCK after you learn Japanese. Japanese and Korean grammar is literally exactly the same, you can just replace Japanese words and fill them in with Korean ones and it will be the same.

>>6156582
>It's very unusual that people from Japan, a country with high educational standards, speak worse English than most primary school children in Western Europe
There is a reason English is called a European language and Japanese is not.

>>6156626
>I think the only hard part with Chinese is speaking it with the tones and shit.
And they have a massive vocabulary that isn't related to English at all.

>>6156639
No tones. It's the same as Jap.

>>6156637
Oh. Well shit. I'll have to look that then after I've become satisfied with my Japanese.

>>6156627
>Every other person has some knowledge of English

No, as said above most people in the world don't know more than a few words or sentences. You won't be able to get by with everyone, only a few select people.
But there are other uses for English, business for example, which is why most people will never need to know any English and don't bother to learn it.
I learned English mainly to watch old American movies and read a few English books. Which isn't actually that useful nowadays now that I've seen pretty much everything of interest. So now the only use I make of English is on 4chan (mainly to not forget the language since I never use it in my everyday life), and frankly, I don't think people not being able to post here are missing out a lot.

>>6156637
Korean grammar is a lot more difficult than Japanese, but yeah they are really similar.

It's not "easy as fuck" in the way as it is for a Spanish speaker to learn Italian or something. It's the easiest language for Japanese speakers to learn, but it's still bullshit-level difficult like all isolated languages.

>>6156657
Your English is superior to most "native speakers" from the US who post on 4chan.

Enjoy gloating.

>>6156657
Well, yes. I guess I just meant that if I was traveling I'd need to converse with tour guides and such and they would have to know English (and they do most of the time).

I have few real uses for English in my everyday life as well, but do need it for the internet and I talk with rl friends in English because it's easier for me. It's also hard to talk about a lot of stuff when there's no equivalent for it. Such as... The word 'cute'. It doesn't exist in my language.

>>6156627
>Like if I went to a foreign country I could get by with speaking English to everyone
Hardly with everyone. Tour guides, airport personal, hotel staff. People with professions that actually need English. Even in a country like France the typical pencil pusher will have serious problems with trying to understand you and the dialog will look similar to japanese anime with tourists. It's even worse in rural areas.
Tour guides exist not only to give you information about area, but also to solve the communication problems, you know.

>>6156678
>Such as... The word 'cute'. It doesn't exist in my language.
What the hell is your language?

>>6156657

English is becoming basically a lingua-franca though.. French used to be the diplomat's language like 50 years ago, but that's changed.

It'd be pretty spiffy if people who normally could never communicate with each other can at least get some things through to each other via whatever English they know.. a world language would truly be a magnificent stride in understanding and inter-cultural affairs.

Of course, this is all superseded by the fact that in most countries you rarely ever see foreigners who are basically mute in the country's native language with no help besides English. Although, in parts of America you see a LOT of foreigners. I was at Ikea in the South Bay Area (near San Francisco) today and I swear the ethnic make-up of that store was only like 10% white. Chinese, Flips, Indians, Japanese EVERYWHERE. All of those dudes speak English to some capacity and hence they can get by around here, and typically live way better than how they were doing before they moved. Of course if you grew up in a first-world country you don't really have the impetus to move anyway. But most countries are not first-world.

>>6156687
Latvian. It's impossible to call something cute without any romantic implications. The closest you can get is 'pretty'.

>>6156702
How do you describe teddy bears, puppies, and kittens?

>>6156645
Japanese has tones, or pitches.

>>6156750
pitches aren't the same as tone. They're just pitches, like how English has "accent" (the the dialect accent, the way of pronouncing words accent)

>>6156750
So does English, every language has their own intonation. It's just not a vital part of the language like it is with Chinese, it's never really taught to foreigners and it varies considerably between dialects.

I've been looking for a Japanese dictionary with pitch information for years, though.

>>6156774
I don't think a dictionary can even say that. They change depending on what the next word is sometimes. It's one of those weird mysteries of Japanese, like why words change sound sometimes (fun/pun)

>>6156787
That's not a mystery.

>>6156795
Then explain to me when words should change sound cause I don't get that shit at all.

>>6156774
Tones or pitches in Japanese are not like intonations. If you don't know them you can't distinguish 'a bridge' from 'chopsticks' or 'fire' from 'day' (when a particle is attached after them).

>>6156803
>If you don't know them you can't distinguish 'a bridge' from 'chopsticks' or 'fire' from 'day' (when a particle is attached after them).
You distinguish those from context.

I'm Dutch and I was good at English at age 12 without a single lesson due to subtitled cartoons and untranslated games.

I blame dubbing.

Probably because english makes little sense past the alphabet, and all the foreign sounds.

Unless you're an anglophile, chances are you are also a failure at English, because nearly everyone is(including myself) We have a horrible language which makes no sense and no one knows the difference between your and you're anymore.

>>6156847
>I blame dubbing.
Yup. Despite being a Germanic language, Germans are terrible at English because they insist on dubbing EVERYTHING.

>>6156821
It could be enough if you think making yourself understood is the primary purpose, but that will make your Japanese sound unnatural like Engrish spoken by the Japanese.

>>6156736
"Sweet and pretty little things" I guess. Alright, there are words that may be somewhat close but the meaning is not the same, still.

>>6156876
Ahh I grew up on German dubbed anime and still love a lot of them (mostly the voices) for non-nostalgia-related reasons.