Tonight was the first night of our Conversational Japanese class. Brian, David and I are planning a trip to Japan for later in the year, and thought it'd be cool to enroll in a Japanese class.
Tonight we did basic pronunciations and some common expressions. It was nice to be back in a classroom after [GASP!] four years. I totally felt like one of those obnoxious over-achieving "non-traditional students" though. You know the ones.. the ones that take one class "just for fun," ... who know all the answers to all the questions ... and who prolong the class by asking endless stupid questions we don't need to know for the test. Yeah, I think that's going to be me. I really want to do well in this class.
Brian thinks I'm on crack, but I think knowing Spanish is super-helpful for learning Japanese. Not because there are any similarities in the vocabulary or anything. But just because my mouth is used to pronouncing words that English-only speakers aren't used to pronouncing. So when they say "matte" in Japanese, I just think of how I pronounce "tomate" in Spanish, and it sounds virtually identical. It will be interesting to see if the teacher notices a Spanish accent on my Japanese.
(OH, and gan batte kudesai = Do your best!)
New Roof - Summer 2019
3 years ago
9 comments:
it's true. speaking french helped me learn conversational mandarin and kiswahili.
Ally - I'm not at all saying that the roots are the same. They aren't. Well, except for the words that are just bastardized English words (like happi awa = happy hour & Bussha = Bush).
All I'm saying is that it helps w/ the prononciation & w/ memorizing cuz, presumably, I have a bigger phonetic-pool to draw from.
I bet David, who can pronounce certain Hebrew words I can't even touch, will be better at making certain sounds too.
We are planning on September (after your wedding), but that is subject to change. Ooh, and you're right, all I'd have to do is Italy and maybe Greece and I'd have all the fashion meccas done!
Speaking of, you best be watching Project Runway. Top Model is so last season...
The research supports that people who have learned one foreign language, and therefore know effective strategies for language learning, have an easier time picking up new languages.
Not that you learned Spanish as a foreign language, but your are not completely on crack.
Let's Japanese fun!
I *may* be able to w/ you guys to Japan. Keep me in the loop, man.
Brian prolly thinks your on crack because of all the crack you smoke, not because of you thoughts on learning Japanese.
Well, hey, I get it free at work, alright. What's a girl to do??
Hey! I just found out that Gan batte kudasai really means "Please fuck off." Looks like the joke's on you guys, suckas. Told you studying languages was a waste of time.
so desu ne.
watashi wa Yasmien des.
that means: My name is Yasmien.
I think...
Woops, I think I misspelled that - it probably should be ganbatte kudasai. See what happens when you're blind and sit in the back row?
Hi,
I am a native Spanish speaker and I took an introductory Japanese Class. What I realized was that the pronunciation of vowels in Spanish and Japanese are the same. Also, you read the Japanese the same way you read in Spanish. It's phonetic. Therefore, if you are a Spanish speaker you won't have any difficulty learning Japanese!
Post a Comment