I'm trying to learn Japanese in my free time. As of now, just Hiragana and Romaji (
romanization of Japanese), and later on a bit Kanji. Seeing that Kanji is a bit difficult and a real pain in the a**, it'll probably take me a bit to memorize those nasty characters. (^.^) There's a reading aid called furigana, which is printed next to the Kanji characters, so reading Kanji won't be a problem as long as there are Hiragana characters beside it. :)
So far I memorized almost all of the
Hiragana syllables and its additional sounds. I'm using a program called
JWPce 1.50 (
Japanese Text Editor and Dictionary), to write Hiragana characters. I tried writing down some characters, too, but my handwriting is a mess! I wonder if a native Japanese could ever read what I wrote.
I went to some Japanese sites, or downloaded mangas in its original language, and was astounded that I can read a bit Hiragana now. *
squees* Though I don't understand
what I read because I don't know its meaning. (^.^) So aside learning and memorizing Hiragana I do some vocabularies too, e.g. the adjectives. As a child I've loved eating Japanese snacks called Oishi and I never understood what it meant. Now I know it means "delicious". :) (The image on the side is a manga called "Oishi Kankei". The first few characters
おいしい is [oishi], the same characters I saw on those delicious snacks.)
Other mind-numbing things will be the grammar, knowing the differences between written and spoken Japanese, when and how to apply honorific speech and knowing theーhow do I call it?ーlevel of politeness. There are 3: respectful (
sonkeigo), humble (
kenjōgo), polite (
teineigo)!!! and the verbs and some nouns change respectively. Gawd!!! In addition to that there are
honorifics for addressing and referring to people, depending on who you are speaking to, whether they're older/younger, a close friend/stranger/acquaintance, etc. Thanks goodness I know them already.
So yeah, this'll be fun and I wonder how long I'll be motivated to learn Japanese seeing that I never finish what I once started.
Friday, July 29, 2011
G.Evergreen-priv
