日本語のクラス、さようなら

[bloodyrosemccoy]

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So today Japanese and I had a long, serious talk, and after some soul-searching we decided that we should take a break in our relationship.

 

Neither of us are getting what we want out of it. I’ve been abusing it to the point that it’s unrecognizable, and it doesn’t seem to make its needs known to me so I don’t understand it as well as I’d like, even when I try to. Then I accuse it of hiding its true meanings from me, and make it feel unloved when I curse at its kanji. Also, it cannot fathom my bizarro metaphors.

 

Previously in this blog I have confessed to a dislike of the popular sushi. I now need to further this and confess to an indifference to Japanese itself.

 

I’m not sure why. It’s linguistically interesting, and I’m glad I studied it. I think the writing system’s cool. The inflections, the syntax, they’re a lot of fun to play with. I made a serious good-faith effort to learn it, under the theory that I must be open-minded. But the crucial interest in the language is absent. I never had it like I did with Spanish or Swahili.

 

It could be the sound itself. It could work with the synesthesia, which does apply to whole languages.* Spanish and Swahili are colorful and vibrant; Japanese seems greyish and a little anemic.

 

I know it has some to do with the writing system. I am a pretty good reader and find writing systems fascinating, and I try to go with the point of view that all languages are equally valid, but deep down I, along with everyone else, firmly believe that my own is the most correct. The syllabary is fine, but down in the depths of my psyche, past my reaction that the combining logograms with that is cool, is a conviction that they are also ridiculous, because having to memorize almost 2000 characters seems like overkill. I know that English has some weird spellings, but at least you can bloody well look them up in a dictionary, which is hard to do with kanji. And since I learn a lot from reading, this becomes an obstacle that I don’t feel like working on in class.

 

I think I’ll still study it when I can—I need to make a list of Teach Yourself >Language< books that I want. But it’s gonna have to take a back seat to Hawaiian, because I’ve decided to see other languages.

 

 

*I actually have an aversion to French for possibly this reason. I know that a couple of my friends are native speakers, and that many more find it beautiful, and I would like to assure them that my dislike is completely irrational and reflects nothing upon what I think of people who speak, or even like French.

Comments

[viizou.livejournal.com]

I know that a couple of my friends are native speakers, and that many more find it beautiful, and I would like to assure them that my dislike is completely irrational and reflects nothing upon what I think of people who speak, or even like French.

No offense taken. :-) I myself tend to wince when I hear certain French accents...

Affinity with a language is a very personal thing. People are always surprised when I tell them I love German. I don't know, it has a reputation for being such a harsh language (largely because of WWII movies), but to me, it just rolls off the tongue.

I had a year of Japanese classes and am trying to continue on my own, but I definetely agree that, unless one really, really wants to learn the language, the amount of effort is just not worth it.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Well, I have a bizarre aesthetic sense when it comes to languages. While I do like the famously euphonious ones like Hawaiian and Italian, I also have a real aesthetic affinity for English, which is a pretty klutzy language all around and isn't exactly lilting. I think German is ugly, but it's a lot of fun to speak anyway. I also dislike Tolkien's Elven languages, which he made to sound beautiful.

You and Mark Twain have something in common, though. Have you read "The Awful German Language"? You can tell he really liked learning it, and I don't think he's joking when he says it sounds pretty.

Good luck with your Japanese.