The way people pronounce this has always bugged me

[geishaboy]

I honestly think it isn't too difficult reach a somewhat functional level of language proficiency, regardless of the language itself. One aspect of language acquisition that most people seem to ignore is the native language of the learner. This may shock you, but if you are a native English speaker, Mandarin Chinese may be easier for you to learn than other Asian languages such as Japanese or Korean.

I also remember reading that Icelandic is the hardest language in the world to learn for whatever reason.

[Garoth Moulinoski]

I honestly think it isn't too difficult reach a somewhat functional level of language proficiency, regardless of the language itself. One aspect of language acquisition that most people seem to ignore is the native language of the learner. This may shock you, but if you are a native English speaker, Mandarin Chinese may be easier for you to learn than other Asian languages such as Japanese or Korean.

I also remember reading that Icelandic is the hardest language in the world to learn for whatever reason.

Supposedly, if your native language is Spanish, Japanese pronunciation should be simple! Good thing I have two native languages :3

[DarknessSavior]

I honestly think it isn't too difficult reach a somewhat functional level of language proficiency, regardless of the language itself. One aspect of language acquisition that most people seem to ignore is the native language of the learner. This may shock you, but if you are a native English speaker, Mandarin Chinese may be easier for you to learn than other Asian languages such as Japanese or Korean.

I also remember reading that Icelandic is the hardest language in the world to learn for whatever reason.

I don't find Manadarin that easy to learn, despite the fact that the sentence structure is often similar to English (that's the reason it's supposed to be easy, isn't it?). The tone system is what screws me up. I can learn hanzi, and vocab, and grammar. But I can't speak worth a damn. Japanese, on the other hand, was very easy to pick up for me.

~DS

[BRPXQZME]

Manadarin

i see what you did there

[WeebeeGeebee]

Ahhh, the problem of written words and not having heard them spoken.
Not quite the same as "mah-nuh" but when I was a newbie on the net
back in '99, I was still pronouncing "kit-soo-nay" as "kitt-soon."
Then a furry bitch-slapped me and I never said it that way again.

[Validus]

Supposedly, if your native language is Spanish, Japanese pronunciation should be simple! Good thing I have two native languages :3

This is true. Their sentences are even formed similarly if not exactly like one another.


Thus the reason the only Jap-to-Spanish Rom Translation EVER has been CAPTAIN TSUBASA 3 on the SNES.

[Bregalad]

Spanish and japanese huh ?

I think for spanish people, "B" and "V" is the same letter, but for japanese it's "L" and "R" which are the same letter. So it's still probably not the same pronunciation.

I think word order can be important too. For me it was simple to learn word order in english because it's always exactly the countrary of the order in french. For example, in french, you say "voiture rouge" and in english "red car" - the color is always after the words in french and always before in english.

In german it's something horribly complicated I've given up on learning. For example you can say "The cats eats the mouse" or "The mouse eats the cat", both will mean the same thing, it's how you decline the words "cat" and "mouse" that will determine who eats who, not the words order. Also word declination in german is terribly complex and irregular. In this regard english is 100% identical to french so this alone made english 1000 times easier to learn for me.

[DarknessSavior]

Spanish and japanese huh ?

I think for spanish people, "B" and "V" is the same letter, but for japanese it's "L" and "R" which are the same letter. So it's still probably not the same pronunciation.

Japanese has a B and V thing too.

~DS

[Validus]

NO the B and the V just sound SIMILAR

ghetto spanish dialect from countries like Cuba (mine) just the V sounds like a B since their slang of the language is so bad

I will refrain from using an american stereotype as an example to not discriminate. I can make fun of my own race

[mz]

Also, in Latin American Spanish, the S, the Z and C all sound the same.

...But Japanese and Spanish grammar are completely different; they have absolutely nothing in common. I'd say Spanish is pretty much what Bregalad said about French.

[Garoth Moulinoski]

This is true. Their sentences are even formed similarly if not exactly like one another.


Thus the reason the only Jap-to-Spanish Rom Translation EVER has been CAPTAIN TSUBASA 3 on the SNES.

Also, in Latin American Spanish, the S, the Z and C all sound the same.

...But Japanese and Spanish grammar are completely different; they have absolutely nothing in common. I'd say Spanish is pretty much what Bregalad said about French.

Thank you for responding to him for me. :/ Japanese and Spanish grammar are nothing alike. And Spanish B and V do not sound the same (V is softer, as you'd expect).

S, Z, and C seems like it depends on your dialect- Spaniards pronounce Z almost like we pronounce TH. O_O

(Ok, back to hiding my heritage)

[mz]

S, Z, and C seems like it depends on your dialect- Spaniards pronounce Z almost like we pronounce TH. O_O

Yeah, that should be the correct way to pronounce them (and how they teach them to us at school), but we all pronounce the Z and C as if they were S... That's also why most people in Latin America can't write words with those letters correctly: they always mix them up.

[Ryusui]

Japanese is actually more like English than Spanish in one regard: like us, they put the adjective first.

[Garoth Moulinoski]

Japanese is actually more like English than Spanish in one regard: like us, they put the adjective first.

Oh snap, that is true! I never even noticed it either...

僕はゆっくり走っている。
I'm slowly running.
Estoy corriendo lentamente.

Huh. (And yeah, I think this is an adverb example instead, but close enough)

[Ryusui]

It is an adverb example, but the point still stands.

Though for the record, I do have this ugly habit of mixing up Japanese and Spanish vocabulary in my head. It doesn't help that both their verbs for "to see" are dangerously close to one another.

[Garoth Moulinoski]

That it is!

Mirar
見る (Miru)

[zstandig]

Considering no one speaks biblical Hebrew/Aramaic nobody knows for sure how Manna should be pronounced or spelled.

Can't you ignore it?

[BRPXQZME]

Oh yeah, I’m not great at Spanish (only took a year of it), but now I have that problem when trying to form Spanish sentences where only Japanese words come to the fore and I need to scramble for a dictionary....

[LostTemplar]

The same happens to me with French, and I've had that five years in school...

In Japanese, most modifying phrases come before the part modified. In English, on the other hand, for instance relative clauses follow the part modified:

私が食べたリンゴ
The apple that I ate

[Spooniest]

Can't you ignore it?

Can't you ignore that I can't ignore it?