SGP'S Coming Closer To Nihongo (Japanese) Log

langmon
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SGP'S Coming Closer To Nihongo (Japanese) Log

Postby langmon » 2018-11-06, 13:05

This is log is about coming closer to Japanese which is a language that I already know at a very basic level, so I am not starting it from scratch.

Now some might wonder why I am making a dedicated Nihongo log when there already is the older one about several languages that even includes the one of Japan in its title, too. My motivation for beginning this particular log is that as the time went on, something that I already knew became even more clear to me. This is about the fact that not everyone of those who are interested in Japanese would always even read the updates in the other (multi-language) log. This is understandable of course, because they wouldn't even be able to know whether the current post is about a language they are especially interested in, or if it is about, for example, French or Dutch.

Currently I am still learning Hiragana and Katakana, there only are a few characters that I can recognize without thinking too much.

                                   

Recently I was listening to the very same audio clip several times while also reading its transcript. This was a listening exercise which I repeated on a few occasions. It is about practicing to understand spoken Japanese.

When I did this exercise (like maybe three times, then three times again after some hours, and so on), I noticed a spaced repetition effect and an increase in understanding that wouldn't be possible if I listened to the same audio clip ten times in one single session.

And yes, I do know that Romaji (Japanese written with the Latin alphabet) has its limits. Still, I am using it as a kind of a bridge. If I wouldn't have used it in the past, I wouldn't even know basic level Japanese today.

                                   

In Swahili (which is an agglutinative/Word Building Blocks language like Japanese), a verb can consist of several parts, for example:

unaniona which means "you (singular) see me".

u: you (singular)
na: tense marker for the present tense
ni: object pronoun "me"
ona: verb stem of "to see"

Now I wonder how many possible parts Japanese verbs can have.
this is a reboot

pennybright
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Joined:2018-10-27, 17:38

Re: SGP'S Coming Closer To Nihongo (Japanese) Log

Postby pennybright » 2018-11-07, 18:00

Agglutination is fairy common in Japanese verbs, and is used to indicate passive, causative, volition, politeness level, and so on. Most of these are accomplished by stacking suffixes onto a verb stem. For example:

行きたくないのに無理やり行かせられるのは嫌です。
Ikitaku nai no ni muriyari ikaserareru no wa iya desu.
I hate being forced to go when I don't want to go.

行きたくない = "to go" stem + volitional たい + negative + imperfective conjugation
行かせられる = "to go" stem (different form) + causative させ + passive られ + imperfective conjugation

langmon
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Re: SGP'S Coming Closer To Nihongo (Japanese) Log

Postby langmon » 2018-11-07, 18:11

pennybright wrote:Agglutination is fairy common in Japanese verbs, and is used to indicate passive, causative, volition, politeness level, and so on.


This hint served as something like another mental preparation for the Japanese verbs.
Because up to now, the agglutinative language I am most advanced with (but still didn't leave beginner's level yet) still is Swahili. :) So when I hear something about the Japanese agglutination, I mentally connect it to the language I already know better. Although I realize that there are some major differences between them too.
this is a reboot

langmon
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Re: SGP'S Coming Closer To Nihongo (Japanese) Log

Postby langmon » 2018-11-09, 7:20

SomehowGeekyPolyglot wrote:Currently I am still learning Hiragana and Katakana, there only are a few characters that I can recognize without thinking too much.


Pausing learning them entirely for now, because my current JP focus is on advancing with my (very basic) spoken Nihongo only for now.

Japanese used to be the most difficult language on my list to me, although not labelling it as Genuinely Difficult to Learn even at that time. But now, I only call it the list's language that I was able to advance with the least, nothing more.

Took a short but refreshening look at some words and phrases, and I also have been writing them down, only including the translation in a few cases.
this is a reboot

langmon
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Re: SGP'S Coming Closer To Nihongo (Japanese) Log

Postby langmon » 2018-11-24, 22:29

This log now has been re-merged with the main multi-language log.

https://forum.unilang.org/viewtopic.php?f=119&t=56093
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