I agree with this. I've come across greek so many times because of many reasons, yet I find it very difficult. Japanese isn't hard at all. And anyone can learn a latin language in less than six months.

Well, I can read ancient Greek nearly fluently (I'm completely fluent in the epic 'dialect' used by Homer, Hesiod, and in many of the Delphic oracles). I can read Latin at an advanced level. I study French, German, and Spanish at university. I can speak, read, and write modern Japanese well enough to carry on a real conversation (as opposed to small talk about the weather and asking for directions). I can also read classical Japanese (文語・古語) .

As for Greek being quite difficult, it is. In terms of grammar, it is ridiculously complex, particularly when it comes to verbs. However, I still think Japanese is a lot harder. Although Japanese grammar is ridiculously minimalist and therefore easy enough to master, there's still the matter of learning 2,000+ Chinese characters which is in itself a massive challenge. Along with the kanji, you have to master the differences between formal and informal vocabulary, verbs, and modes of expression, which is another massive challenge. Also, memorizing Japanese vocabulary is much more difficult than memorizing vocabulary from another Western language. Since a very large amount of the vocabulary in French, German, Spanish, Latin, or Greek, consists of simple variations on English words, it's quite easy to master a large amount of vocabulary effortlessly.
I have no problem remembering that a car in German is ein Auto or that a car in Spanish is un carro. However, remembering the Japanese word jitensha is rather more difficult. Certainly, there are many English words now in use in Japanese, but they're often unrecognizable to a native speaker of English. How many English speakers would recognize that 'rotsu yusu' = 'lost youth', to give just one example?

Anyways, I'm glad to see that so many people here are fellow linguists.

Jeez I feel stupid!

Since most japanese words are formed around kanji related to the actual word, it's not that hard once you learn the typical style of a kanji imo. If you can read the kanji symbolically too it's really easy in some cases. You know that 90% of words beginning with 不 will be something negative for example. Words containing 車 will usually be some sort of vehicle, words containing 論 will involve some kind of argument or (with a negative kanji before) the lack of argument etc... The still limited japanese I know I always read both literally and picturally and it makes it about ten times easier to connect words.

Learning this symbolic and kanji-reading system is basically like associating words to each other within a language, the same way you associate auto and carro to english and other european languages. Kanji is like a root source for words and a very helpful tool for learning. It's harder to learn japanese by memorizing words in kana or romaji because you don't get the symbolic/reading connection which works as a root for the language as a whole.

There are ofc some words where the symbolic meaning is harder to connect to the actual word, but they aren't that common from what I've seen and the fact they stick out usually makes them even easier to memorize because everytime you see them you think "this is one of these tricky ones" etc and immediately recall the meaning.

I've gone back to learning Spanish...

My goal is to leave the (continental)US, and I know that I would never be able to stand living in Japan. So, as I'm already at an intermediate level of Spanish, I figure I might as well master that in the next two years and look for a job in either Spain, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica or perhaps Belize. I would really prefer Spain, but it's the hardest to immigrate(emigrate? bah) to as far as I know.

As for what I'm going to do, I'm just going to go straight to native materials. I might freshen up some grammar, or I might just try and do it by immersion alone. I'm already doing a lot of Spanish internet and whatnot, and I need to stop being so shy and start posting on a Spanish forum which will dramatically improve my writing ability.

Hey, rezu! If you're into anime, there's tons of anime with Spanish subs on the net -- I tend to watch the longer Japanese series -- Inuyasha, Naruto, Bleach, etc. -- with Spanish subs and I also try to get video games with a Spanish language option, like Grand Theft Auto IV -- if you want to learn street Spanish, you can't go wrong with GTAIV -- or Heavy Rain for the PS3. Although my hope is to move to Kyoto, if it turns out to be undoable, I would like to move to a Spanish-speaking country -- my first choice would be to live in Buenos Aires. Good luck with your studies!

I watched anime with Spanish subs before and it made me want to learn Japanese, but I'll probably end up watching it again anyways. I might give Heavy Rain a go, I didn't know they had a lot of ps3 games with Spanish dubs. Or GTA, even if the controls drive me nuts. We already have GTA at least. I was planning on playing FFXII again in Spanish, which should be pretty easy after I spent an insane amount of time fucking with swap disks to make a Free McBoot on my ps2 to play Japanese games.

Good luck to you too. To be honest, I think you're a pretty epic guy. I'm envious of you and your damn languages. x.x

Thanks, Rezu! Now I'm blushing !

A couple of Japanese words I'm wondering about. Not completely sure of the spelling.

Temei - subbed as "Asshole" as an insult

Onegai - subbed as "Please" as far as I know please is "kudasai" and it can only follow a verb

Hey, Dr. Toxicophilous!

'teme' is one of many ways that a japanese person can say the word 'you'; however, because it is extremely rude and insulting, it is usually translated as 'asshole' or some such thing. You'll often hear anime characters also saying 'kisama', which is exactly the same as 'teme'.

'o-negai' -- a 'negai' is a desire, request, or wish, while the 'o' is added to make the noun more polite; 'o-negai shimasu' = 'I request that you do X'

'kudasai' is 'please' as you thought, but it can be used with nouns as well; for example, "Kohi (coffee) o ippai (one cup) kudasai" = pleasae give me a cup of coffee.

For me Russian and good English (writing/understanding/speaking/listening) is pretty enough.

Doumo!
So what's more rude, Teme or Omae?

'teme' is ruder.

Another Japanese question: In some hentai I was looking at a lot of words seem to end with a small "tsu". I know it's supposed to lengthen the consonant that comes after it but how does it work at the end of a word?

It's a short stop of the sound.

Woops, got distracted and couldn't edit my post.

For instance... Maybe if the speaker gets cut off, or to add a little emphasis to the sound. Like　あっ = ah!.

BACK OFF REZU, that's MY pookie buddy!



'teme' is often translated as "damn" or "damn you" in Inuyasha, iirc. Kinda a strange choice, I think, but whatever. Why I remember that suddenly, I dunno.

thanks

"Damn you" is close enough. It depends alot on the context; I suspect it was the character's response to some frustration caused by another in that case. Alot of Japanese words don't have English words which exactly reflect their usage. So several terms can be acceptable or not depending on the situation.
I wouldn't expect to see 'temee' translated to just damn though, it's certainly directed towards a person. Damn would be more like 'chikusho'.

What does Chikusho mean literally? Shinto doesn't have a hell so is it more like "curse you" or something?

It means beast but I had to look that up ><; I hadn't really thought about its literal meaning. Excuse my mispelling too, chikushou is the correct way.

畜生 (chikishou/chikushou) - Beast (i.e. any animal other than man); person reborn into animal realm; brute(i.e a contemptible human being); son of a bitch; for Christ's sakes; damn it. (Definition from rikaichan)

When it is used an expletive I don't think it's written in kanji, just kana to show that it isn't the technical definition.

I attempted to learn Japanese when I was around fourteen. I knew a lot about the grammar and sentence structure, I could read hiragana, katakana and a few Kanji but I didn't know much vocab.
I've forgotten most of it now.

I've recently developed an interest in Germany and want to start learning the language.

I love speaking different languages, but I'm too lazy and stupid to actually learn any. I always get bored halfway through and move onto something else.

I enjoyed learning German at school. But, once I started truanting regularly it became really frustrating. There's nothing worse than sitting through a class where you've fallen hopelessly behind with little hope of catching up again.

It is easy to get bored of study though. The best way for me is not to always focus on studying from text books or a language program and instead do something else. Like read in the language, join a discussion board that uses the language, watch television and so on. You'll be picking up new pieces of vocabulary without boring yourself and at the same time reinforcing the things you already know, so you won't forget them. It can be a little intimidating at first when you hardly know anything, but that will pass as you get used to it. And, you can always look for things at your proficiency level, like children's books or programmes.

It's good that you learned grammar first. I did everything backwards and started learning some phrases and memorizing kanji and didn't really try to understand grammar till later. I've obviously still got alot to learn.

In the 'foreign slang' thread that you started, I explained the precise meaning of chikushou and its origin in Buddhist thinking. Look there if you want to know.

Ah thanks I missed that one.