kamui Posted July 30, 2003 Report Share Posted July 30, 2003 I presume every Asian language has its own obstacles. For example Japanese is very easy to pronounce, for me its much easier than French for example. In contrary, Thai seems to me much harder to pronounce (correct me if I am wrong, I had only a few hours lesson last year) and if pronounced the wrong way it can cause a lot of misunderstanding. This nearly never happens in Japanese. Unfortunately this is the only part in learning Japanese which is easy. The rest is a real tough job and in the moment you stop to use and to train it you will forget many parts especially the use of the signs (Kanji). I had a very embarrassing experience recently when I tried to write a simple word "Photography" on the board in front of my students (currently I teach art history part time at an university) and could not remember the second letter . Even I read this word nearly every day, I could not remember how to write it. Now I started to repeat Kanji from lecture one :: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gobbledonk Posted July 30, 2003 Author Report Share Posted July 30, 2003 Lol Kamui - I thought your story was going to take a different turn I thought you were going to say something like 'the Kanji for photography and pornography are remarkably similar' - lol ! I dont know any Kanji, but thats the way my warped mind works, I'm afraid. As you will know only too well, the difference between 'art' and 'pornography', at least in the west, is lighting. Personally, I prefer my subjects well-lit and over-exposed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lazyphil Posted July 30, 2003 Report Share Posted July 30, 2003 <<As you will know only too well, the difference between 'art' and 'pornography', at least in the west, is lighting. Personally, I prefer my subjects well-lit and over-exposed>> Seems you're hyjacking your own thread Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kamui Posted July 30, 2003 Report Share Posted July 30, 2003 Says artiew: Lol Kamui - I thought your story was going to take a different turn I thought you were going to say something like 'the Kanji for photography and pornography are remarkably similar' - lol ! I dont know any Kanji, but thats the way my warped mind works, I'm afraid. As you will know only too well, the difference between 'art' and 'pornography', at least in the west, is lighting. Personally, I prefer my subjects well-lit and over-exposed This reminds of the day when I searched for "art photography" books in Kanda/Tokyo some years ago. Kanda is a famous area for second hand book shops and the shops publish a flyer collectifly (in Japanese only Artiew ) in order to inform the costumers about their specialized area of interests. I marked all shops with photography books, only to find out that in this case photography never meant art photography but pornography and nude photography. :: Now I know all second hand shops with pornographic photography in famous Kanda. :hubba: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jp1 Posted July 31, 2003 Report Share Posted July 31, 2003 Kamui, For Germans Japanese is easy to pronounce because they?ve more or less the same pronunciation rules. For native English speakers it?s much harder. You?re right, even if you pronounce a word in the wrong way it?s still understood. That?s the big difference to a tonal language, such as Thai. I really admire all the guys on the board who can speak Thai fluently. To learn written Japanese is very difficult. The combination of the 2 Kana alphabets with the Chinese characters (Kanji) makes it hard to learn and remember. It needs constant practice. I guess the written part is more difficult to learn than Chinese. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gobbledonk Posted July 31, 2003 Author Report Share Posted July 31, 2003 Seems you're hyjacking your own thread Please try not to let it ruin your whole day, Phil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markle Posted July 31, 2003 Report Share Posted July 31, 2003 A Comment if I may. I've learnt at some stage Bahasa (notice the similarity to the word Pasa), Thai and Japanese. I would have to say that Bahasa is the 'easiest' to learn but there is one little catch - it's a language native to nowhere. Bahasa was the language adopted by the state of Indonesia and later Malaysia but that was because they couldn't choose between Javanese, Sumatran, Baliniese, Malay, and the other dozen or so languages spoken in the Archipeligo. So although you might speak Bahasa well there is no guarantee that you would be understand by everyone especially as you move further away from the major cities. Before the Dutch introduced the Roman script what did the Indonesians use as a script What was it similar too? Answers tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samak Posted August 2, 2003 Report Share Posted August 2, 2003 arabic! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markle Posted August 2, 2003 Report Share Posted August 2, 2003 No. Older than that. Islam has only been in the Archipelago for about 500 years. Another clue: What is the dominant religion in Bali? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jp1 Posted August 2, 2003 Report Share Posted August 2, 2003 It certainly wasn't Hindi, was it? How about Sanskrit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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