I have been wanting to learn a second language for a long time (Spanish from high school does not count). I had been holding off on deciding on a specific language for so long as I had not come across a language I was interested in learning that didn't seem to have some rather silly part to its design.
This includes Japanese which has two issues. One knock against the language is that it has a high level of formality to it in terms of specific words and forms you must use with different people based on their status compared to you. The other problem is that there is three separate writing systems, one of which is based on Chinese idiograms.
But Japanese has the motivating factor of being from one of my girlfriend's background. Granted Meesh does not speak Japanese (had a bad experience in Japanese school as a child), but it would be nice if one of us spoke the language. This is especially true if we ever make a trip to Japan to visit her relatives there who really want to meet her.
2 comments:
I know a few "fluent" Japanese speakers/readers/writers (teach Japanese classes in America, have lived in Japan, are writing a graduate thesis about Japanese culture from untranslated source material, etc.), and some not quite so fluent (not teaching classes, but watch unsubbed/undubbed film and anime), but the sentiment from all of them is fairly universal: don't learn Japanese unless you are good with natural languages and are masochistic. Azrael over at Gaijin Smash has a few words about learning Japanese (posted a couple days ago).
@Josiah:
So no on the natural language bit and no on the masochism (unless it is for the good of Python).
Starting to sound like I should look for another language. Time for another blog post!
Post a Comment