gah!

社会 =/= 会社

that gets me every time

習慣　and　慣習

also 階段 and 段階

Yeah, they're impossible

How popular is the Jindai moji theory amongst ordinary Japanese people (not linguists)? Someone listening to a practice of my talk on Japanese thought some Japanese people might get offended by me saying that Japanese got its writing system from Chinese.

Hm, Japanese people are always impressed by my mediocre Japanese skills.. I'm wondering if they're just being nice or if they're too used to the hordes of people who never learn much beyond "kawai des ne".. (or maybe a combination of the two)

@gibbon I think a lot of Japanese people think (correctly) that their language is very hard to learn. I also think they think that they think (incorrectly) that that applies to every single lesson, starting with day one. That coupled with being super polite.

Also, I secretly wonder if they're trying to judge your reaction to praise (American = oh wow, thanks very much! VS Japaneses = oh no, it's too hard for me)

"think they think that they think that that" - did you do this on purpose?

oh, no

too many t-words

th, actually

@gibbon Are you talking about in Japan, or outside of Japan? Outside of Japan, I think Japanese people would be surprised by a non-Japanese person even knowing "kawai desu ne".

@silvermaple A crazy Russian (actually Ukranian) reckons that Japanese people try to find some complement about a person when they first meet them, even if it's just saying that they have a big briefcase. And that speaking Japanese would be a suitable complement.

I have a theory that Japanese people have fairly low expectations of foreigners (both in terms of speaking English, and politeness), and are pleasantly surprised when we know any Japanese and any manners.

@silvermaple I've heard of people saying that Japanese is really difficult, but hadn't really encountered that. That could explain things for me (I'm still a beginner)

@silvermaple What responses do you usually use? (There's a couple suggested in Lonely Planet's phrasebook, but I keep on forgetting them)

i want to go ask a linguist that

about what real scientific truth is behind the claim that japanese is more difficult than other languages to learn

@taylor linguistics.stackexchange.com/questions/2183/… is the closest question I could find on linguistics.SE on the topic

cool

meh that answer points out the obvious

ill prolly have to just wait until ive studied enough to get at an answer

but i suspect its a pragmatic thing

more a statement about culture, teachers, and texbooks

and less about inherent linguistic features

@taylor I'd agree a lot with that.

I'd like to learn a little Ainu. But hardly anyone speaks it, and just learning from a written source without speaking with anyone sounds kind of pointless, especially considering that Ainu isn't a written language.

guess you will just have to live and speak with the ainu to learn it

lolz this stanford prof is eating while giving a lecture youtube.com/…

thats bad ass

@AndrewGrimm Yeah, that's what I was trying to say

I usually just deny it, or say "nihongo wa muzukasii desune" (apologies, this computer doesn't have Japanese IME)

@AndrewGrimm I've heard that in terms of official hours of study required, it's one of the worlds hardest languages, up with Arabic.

i would take that with a grain of sand though

mmm, yeah, I don't even know what they considered "having learned a language"

@taylor grain of salt?

a grain of rice

"I don't like eating rice, because I think eating thousands of something is too much"

well then you arent counting molecules

that's a mitch headburg line

"I hate arrows. They're just a line, with two thirds of a triangle that tell you which direction to go. Imagine being shot with an arrow? That would be awful. The police would show up and go 'hey, look, it's an arrow. let's go that way!' "

"I was walking down the street with my friends, and he said 'hey, I hear music' and I said 'of course you do, that's the only way you can take it in.' "