Sam (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
l33tminion) wrote2007-04-21 04:15 pm
l33tminion) wrote2007-04-21 04:15 pm
Notes on Language
My advice to language learners:
1. Speak the language. When you can't speak the language, speak pidgin.
2. Use more grammar. When you don't know the grammar, guess.
3. Participate in language creation.
A guide to Romaji (Japanese written in English characters) pronunciation:
1. "a" is pronounced like a soft "a" ("ah")
2. "i" is pronounced like a hard "e" ("ee")
3. "u" is pronounced like a soft "o" ("oo")
4. "e" is pronounced like a soft "e" ("eh")
5. "o" is pronounced like a hard "o" ("oh")
6. "g" is always pronounced as a hard "g" (like "goal", not "generation")
7. "f" is pronounced approximately halfway between "f" and "h"
8. "r" is pronounced approximately halfway between "r" and "l"
9. Each syllable has the same length
10. No syllable has two vowels or two consonants (a double-consonant followed by a vowel takes two syllables); count "sh", "ch", and "ts" as one consonant.
Kyoko-san's neighbor wanted to pay me to teach her daughter English while Kyoko-san was babysitting (I never met the mom, I heard all of this through Kyoko-san). I wasn't comfortable doing that (seems like accepting money for a job I'm not qualified for; namely, I don't feel I know enough Japanese to do a good job teaching English to a young Japanese child (even though Kyoko-san was helping with translation)). However, I think my objections were not understood / misinterpreted as confusion, so I ended up going along with that plan. Maybe I should have objected more strongly, but I'm not sure that would have been polite...
1. Speak the language. When you can't speak the language, speak pidgin.
2. Use more grammar. When you don't know the grammar, guess.
3. Participate in language creation.
A guide to Romaji (Japanese written in English characters) pronunciation:
1. "a" is pronounced like a soft "a" ("ah")
2. "i" is pronounced like a hard "e" ("ee")
3. "u" is pronounced like a soft "o" ("oo")
4. "e" is pronounced like a soft "e" ("eh")
5. "o" is pronounced like a hard "o" ("oh")
6. "g" is always pronounced as a hard "g" (like "goal", not "generation")
7. "f" is pronounced approximately halfway between "f" and "h"
8. "r" is pronounced approximately halfway between "r" and "l"
9. Each syllable has the same length
10. No syllable has two vowels or two consonants (a double-consonant followed by a vowel takes two syllables); count "sh", "ch", and "ts" as one consonant.
Kyoko-san's neighbor wanted to pay me to teach her daughter English while Kyoko-san was babysitting (I never met the mom, I heard all of this through Kyoko-san). I wasn't comfortable doing that (seems like accepting money for a job I'm not qualified for; namely, I don't feel I know enough Japanese to do a good job teaching English to a young Japanese child (even though Kyoko-san was helping with translation)). However, I think my objections were not understood / misinterpreted as confusion, so I ended up going along with that plan. Maybe I should have objected more strongly, but I'm not sure that would have been polite...