Why Learing an Asian Language is Hard

A friend sent me a link to an interesting article on how hard it is to learn Chinese. While I'm trying to learn Japanese, most of the points certainly applies. Reading this makes me feel a little better about my progress. if you click on the title of this post, you'll be directed to the full article.

Why Chinese Is So Damn Hard

by David Moser
University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies

The first question any thoughtful person might ask when reading the title of this essay is, "Hard for whom?" A reasonable question. After all, Chinese people seem to learn it just fine. When little Chinese kids go through the "terrible twos", it's Chinese they use to drive their parents crazy, and in a few years the same kids are actually using those impossibly complicated Chinese characters to scribble love notes and shopping lists. So what do I mean by "hard"? Since I know at the outset that the whole tone of this document is going to involve a lot of whining and complaining, I may as well come right out and say exactly what I mean. I mean hard for me, a native English speaker trying to learn Chinese as an adult, going through the whole process with the textbooks, the tapes, the conversation partners, etc., the whole torturous rigmarole. I mean hard for me -- and, of course, for the many other Westerners who have spent years of their lives bashing their heads against the Great Wall of Chinese.

If this were as far as I went, my statement would be a pretty empty one. Of course Chinese is hard for me. After all, any foreign language is hard for a non-native, right? Well, sort of. Not all foreign languages are equally difficult for any learner. It depends on which language you're coming from. A French person can usually learn Italian faster than an American, and an average American could probably master German a lot faster than an average Japanese, and so on. So part of what I'm contending is that Chinese is hard compared to ... well, compared to almost any other language you might care to tackle. What I mean is that Chinese is not only hard for us (English speakers), but it's also hard in absolute terms. Which means that Chinese is also hard for them, for Chinese people.1

If you don't believe this, just ask a Chinese person. Most Chinese people will cheerfully acknowledge that their language is hard, maybe the hardest on earth. (Many are even proud of this, in the same way some New Yorkers are actually proud of living in the most unlivable city in America.) Maybe all Chinese people deserve a medal just for being born Chinese. At any rate, they generally become aware at some point of the Everest-like status of their native language, as they, from their privileged vantage point on the summit, observe foolhardy foreigners huffing and puffing up the steep slopes.

Everyone's heard the supposed fact that if you take the English idiom "It's Greek to me" and search for equivalent idioms in all the world's languages to arrive at a consensus as to which language is the hardest, the results of such a linguistic survey is that Chinese easily wins as the canonical incomprehensible language. (For example, the French have the expression "C'est du chinois", "It's Chinese", i.e., "It's incomprehensible". Other languages have similar sayings.) So then the question arises: What do the Chinese themselves consider to be an impossibly hard language? You then look for the corresponding phrase in Chinese, and you find Gēn tiānshū yíyàng 跟天书一样 meaning "It's like heavenly script."

There is truth in this linguistic yarn; Chinese does deserve its reputation for heartbreaking difficulty. Those who undertake to study the language for any other reason than the sheer joy of it will always be frustrated by the abysmal ratio of effort to effect. Those who are actually attracted to the language precisely because of its daunting complexity and difficulty will never be disappointed. Whatever the reason they started, every single person who has undertaken to study Chinese sooner or later asks themselves "Why in the world am I doing this?" Those who can still remember their original goals will wisely abandon the attempt then and there, since nothing could be worth all that tedious struggle. Those who merely say "I've come this far -- I can't stop now" will have some chance of succeeding, since they have the kind of mindless doggedness and lack of sensible overall perspective that it takes.

Okay, having explained a bit of what I mean by the word, I return to my original question: Why is Chinese so damn hard?

Fudoushin

If you click on the title of this post, you'll be directed to the http://www.answers.com/ page on "Fudoushin" or immovable mind, which is a martial arts concept.

A bit about the three characters which make up this word. The first character, " ", is like "not" or "un." It indicates that you should take the opposite meaning. UNlucky, for example. The second character, " ", is "movement," and in fact is made of two characters meaning "principal or important" and "power." The final character means "heart/mind."

You might have noticed that I've stuck a "u" between the "do" and "shin." This is how the word would be spelled in romaji, the Japanese version of our western alphabet.

From Answers.com:

Fudoshin (Japanese: 不動心) is a state of equanimity or imperturbability (literally and metaphorically "immovable heart" or "immovable mind") - a philosophical/mental dimension to a (commonly Japanese) martial art which contributes to the effectiveness of the advanced practitioner.

Fudoshin: A spirit of unshakable calm and determination, courage without recklessness, rooted stability in both mental and physical realms. Like a willow tree, powerful roots deep in the ground and a soft yielding resistance against the winds that blow through it.

Fudo Myo is a Buddhist guardian deity (and patron of martial arts) who is portrayed as carrying a sword in one hand (to cut through delusions and ignorance), and a rope in the other (to bind 'evil forces', and violent or uncontrolled passions and emotions). Despite a fearsome appearance, his aspects of benevolence and servitude to living beings are symbolized by a hairstyle associated with the servant class.

Nihongo: Ten Thousand Things

The character shown is pronounced "man" in Japanese. It means "ten thousand."

In their way of counting, the Japanese (and Chinese) have a ten thousand's unit. "man" is never used alone, it's always used with another number to indicate how many groups of ten thousand. So, 10,000 of something is ichi man ( 一万 ), 20,000 of something is ni man ( 二万 ), and 100,000 of something is juu man ( 十万 ). This can sometimes cause some confusion when translating numbers.

In ancient times, "ten thousand things" referred to a bewilderingly large number. Ichi man no koto. 一万の事。

Cook Ding's Kitchen has just recently had it's 10,000th hit.

Japanese Language Study

If you click on the title of this post, you'll be directed to a website entitled Tim's Takamatsu.

Once there, you'll find all sorts of resources for Japanese Language Study. The owner, Tim Matheson, has written a book, Japanese Verbs: Saying What You Mean, which is available at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/4938236923/ref=wl_it_dp/002-7707312-9666402?ie=UTF8&coliid=I1C4GXHIDSZZW7&colid=3LT9O1ZF7Z9W

Cardinal at my Window

I live in Michigan. It's snowing.





My office is on the second floor of our building, an the treetops come up to the level of my windows.





Sitting outside is a cardinal, just sitting; watching. For myself, I could sit and watch him all day.



まどの外はこうかんちょうにまっています。
雪ふってありまうｓ。
じむじょのうちは見ています。。。

mado no soto wa koukanchou ni matte imasu.
yuki futte arimasu.
jimujo no uchi wa mite imasu...

A cardinal waits outside the window.
Snow is falling.
Inside my office, I watch...

松

The Waiting Pinetree

Further adventures in the study of Japanese.

Previously, I've mentioned that my Japanese collegues pronounce my last name, Matz, as Ma-tsu. Matsu means "Pinetree" (松). It turns out that Matsu also is the verb, "to wait" (待つ).

Matsu matte imasu. (松　待って　います。) means "The waiting pinetree."

Matte, matsu ...
待って、松。。。
Waiting, the pinetree...

Japanese Language Study: Trust - A Man and His Words

I've been busy. This week there was a trade show in town, at which I had to work. I also had to take various bigshots from out of town (many of them from Japan) to various customer meetings.

It was a good opportunity to see how my Japanese Language skills have come along. The bottom line is, that I'm doing ok.

At full speed, I found that I couldn't keep up with my Japanese visitors, but I COULD catch some words, and I could generally get the gist of what they were talking about. My own vocabulary was limited, but again, I could generally get across what I wanted to say. So in the end, I could hold simple, but meaningful conversations.

Right now, I can understand the meaning of about 250 kanji, in addition to being able to read both hiragana and katakana. From labels and markings, I was surprised how much I could make out. Perhaps not the exact wording of something, but the basic meaning.

My Japanese collegue at work will be moving back to Japan early next year. I met his replacement during the show. He'll move here in January some time. His English is a little better (but not much) than my Japanese, but we were able to get by. We agreed to help each other with our language skills after his move. I'm looking forward to it.

My Japanese visitors, most of them being upper management, are very pleased and appreciative of my efforts. In this time of tight travel budgets, one of them extended his invitation for me to come and visit him in Japan; so I'm sure my management will take advantage to send me there sometime next year.

This particular bigshot took quite a bit of enjoyment in teaching me some new kanji. One of them was a component of his name. The kanji is: 信. The character on the left means 'person.' The one on the right means 'words.' The meaning is: trust, faith, fidelity, etc.

A man and his words.

Diving into Fall

Butterfly or leaf?
Early twilight fools my eyes
Moving into fall.
- Pinetree

Fall is my favorite time of year. I look forward to having a campfire in the backyard, while enjoying the cooler evenings. I enjoy the change of colors, with which Michigan is particularly blessed.

I'm rereading the Baroque Cycle, a trilogy by Neal Stephenson, which is historical fiction about a fascinating time in history.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=br_ss_hs/102-4051305-2994513?platform=gurupa&url=index%3Dstripbooks%3Arelevance-above&keywords=baroque+cycle

Reading about the baroque period in the fall, brings to mind the story of the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow. The movie, Sleepy Hollow, with Winona Ryder and Johnny Depp is usually on cable around this time of year, at least as we approach Halloween.

Halloween wouldn't be complete without one of the greatest horror movies of all time, Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi. The scene where Dracula and Van Helsing simply face off against each other, without a word being said, has got to be one of the best moments in movie history.

Did you know that while they were shooting this movie, they were also shooting, at the same time, a Spanish version? When the English speaking crew left the studio at the end of the day, the Spanish crew arrived. They had the benefit of the rushes of the day's shoot to improve their own product, and some critics believe the Spanish version is actually the superior one. I would like to see it one day.

The movie of course, isn't enough. I have to reread Dracula, by Bram Stoker before Halloween.

http://www.amazon.com/Dracula-Penguin-Classics-Bram-Stoker/dp/014143984X/sr=1-3/qid=1158979120/ref=pd_bbs_3/102-4051305-2994513?ie=UTF8&s=books

Another newer classic is Bram Stoker's Dracula, starring Winona Ryder (again), Gary Oldfield, and Anthony Hopkins. I like it almost as much as the original.

Halloween. We take the portable firepit out to the driveway, put some music on the radio in the garage, stock a cooler with beer, and pass out the candy. A couple of neighbors have adopted this practice. When the kids stop coming, we gather around whoever's fire is still going the strongest, and have our own little get together.

My Japanese Language study has progressed. This is the character for autumn: 秋. It is a compound of two characters. The one on the left is a plant (specifically a rice plant), while the one on the right is 'fire'. Interesting, huh?

I've finished the online course I was taking. While I was grinding through the course, I was paying attention mostly to grammar and sentence patterns. I didn't pay so much attention to vocabulary or conjugating verbs or adjectives. I reasoned that I could always look things up, and what I looked up a lot, I'd remember.

Right now, I'm doing a thorough review, at a leisurely pace; paying a lot more attention to the vocabulary, verbs and adjectives.

I also have learned 240 kanji. I'm doing a very thorough review of them. Once I review the ones I know, I'll start grinding through the other 2000+ a literate person would know.

I have a couple of "learn Japanese" books. I intend to study these soon. It'll be the same information I've already received through the course, but it'll be presented a little differently. I think if I go over the same information, but in a slightly different way, I'm likely to understand and retain it better.

What I'm going to do soon, is to start to read Japanese literature. I've picked up two books: Breaking into Japanese Literature by Giles Murray

http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/4770028997/ref=s9_asin_title_1/102-4051305-2994513

And Read Real Japanese by Janet Ashby

http://www.amazon.com/Read-Real-Japanese-Contemporary-Writers/dp/4770029365/ref=pd_sim_b_1/102-4051305-2994513?ie=UTF8

Each of these books is a collection of short stories. The beginning ones are easier, and the later ones are harder. Each has the original Japanese text on one page, the translation on the facing page, and a running dictionary for the kanji and less than common words along the bottom.

One of the stories I'm looking forward to reading is "The Grove" which was the story that inspired the movie Rashomon, by Akira Kurosawa. The story is interesting. A samurai is killed, and a suspect is apprehended. The suspect describes what happened from his point of view. The samurai's wife then gives her description, through the use of a medium, the victim tells his story, then finally a previously unknown eye witness describes what he saw happen.

Japanese Language Study

I've just completed #60 of 64 lessons in the Japanese language course I'm taking. Over all I think my retention of new material is between 70 and 80%. Material I've reviewed could be over 80 or 90%. I'm not really trying to memorize vocabulary, as much as recognize sentence patterns and grammar. I can look up what I don't remember, and if I look something up enough times, I'll remember it. I'll let word frequency drive my vocabulary.

In theory, I should be pretty conversational. In practice, it's tough to think fast enough when speaking, but I do better with writing, which is as expected. For speaking, I am better than survival level, but not quite conversational. As with most things, it's a matter of practice.

As far as writing goes, I know the meanings of over 200 kanji, even if I can always remember how they sound. I know I have a long way to go before I even reach high school level, but I'm making progress. I'm grinding right through them.

In emailing an engineering manager in Japan, I manage to make small talk with him in Japanese, using kanji as well.

The end of the course is in sight. I'll be doing a major review when I'm done. Then I'll begin working on other material. Among them is the bilingual magazine I've found and a number of independant books on the Japanese language, or aspects or it.

The self paced, on line course I'm using is: http://www.yesjapan.com/
There is a free downloadable Japanese-English-Chinese dictionary, with LOTS of features at: http://wakan.manga.cz/
The bilingual magazine I alluded to is Hiragana Times, and is located at: http://www.hiraganatimes.com/

Hotel decor

I'm travelling for work.

The hotel I stayed in last night had a couple of pictures hanging on the wall. They are supposed to be Asian. Red background, leaves, and some writing.

They're hung upside down.

Japanese Language Study: Sound from the Heart

I've been learning kanji, Chinese characters. I've learned the meaning of a little over 100 characters. I may not always remember their names, but I've learned their meaning.

I see them all over the place. Actually, I see them as parts of other characters.

The martial art I study is called Yi Quan (in Chinese), and is commonly translated as "intention boxing."

The second character is quan (拳), or ken in Japanese. The lower part is the character for "hand." The upper part indicates the hand is closed, making a fist. The fist can also indicate boxing, pugilism, etc.

The first character is Yi (意) or shin in Japanese, meaning intention. The lower part is mind/heart. That's a combination of rational thought, emotion, and instinct. The upper part is sound, so intention is "Sound of the Heart."

These characters are fascinating.

Japanese Language Study

Today at work, I was trying to get out early. This weekend my youngest daughter has a volleyball tournament, and we're leaving in the morning. But that's another story.

Predictably, I was busier than 3 cats in a sack today. I had to put together a spreadsheet describing a number of new parts my company is coming out with for a customer who has a new program starting up. Of course these are parts that I'm not very familiar with.

I sent the spreadsheet off to my boss (who is on the other side of the country) to check out. He calls me up telling me that he has the latest information on these parts from Japan, and it needs to be included, but he's headed off to a meeting. Fine. Give me the information, and I'll put it in the spreadsheet. No big deal.

The trouble is that the information was in a short presentation, in Japanese. I gave it a go. Most of the technical stuff was either in romaji (roman characters), or katakana (a phonetic type of writing). In addition, there is about 100 or so kanji (Chinese characters) that I know.

I figured out what I needed. The study of Japanese is coming along.

Japanese Language Study

I've been learning kanji, Chinese characters, lately. I can recognize the meaning of about 100 of them, even if I can't always remember how they are pronounced. To put 100 kanji in perspective, a Japanese high school student will know just under 2000. However, the proverbial journey of 1000 miles ...

Since the kanji I've learned are very basic ones, they turn up all of the time. Also, since this is something I've been working on recently, I tend to notice kanji when I run across them more now than I ever did before. Do I know a given kanji, do I recognize any of the elements, and so on.

Right now I'm reading a book entitled Hiding the World in the World. It's a collection of essays about the Zhuang Zi. Throughout the book, the authors have included some chinese characters when they are making specific points.

The character for 'zi' (master, sage, something like that) stood out when I came across it. It was a character I knew. I looked up the Chinese for Laozi, Sunzi, Mozi, and many others. The 'zi' character was a constant.

The meaning I learned for it was ... child. Can it be a coincidence that the character for child and for master are one and the same?

Calligraphy

I've always heard that calligraphy is a high art. I've never really understood it, but I've accepted it. I've sort of filed "calligraphy as art" in the category of things I don't know enough about to have an opinion.

Now I'm learning to read and write kanji. Now I'm starting to get it.

It's quite a task to write a character well; one that is well proportioned and balanced. You really have to slow down and think about what you're doing.

If you've ever golfed you might know the feeling of hitting a ball really well. It feels a special way as your hands grip the club, and the sound of the striking the ball has a certain tone. I'm more familiar with what it feels like to hit a ball not so well (it feels like hitting a rock), and that sound is also distinctive. Writing Kanji is like this.

Calligraphy as art is something I am just now beginning to appreciate.

Japanese Language Study

The Japanese Language studies are going well. I’m about halfway through the course I’m taking. A few weeks ago, after a big push ahead, I was just beginning to study the Kanji; the Chinese characters adopted by the Japanese.

I could see that learning Kanji was going to take a lot of effort. I decided to stop my forward progress for a time and do a big review of everything I’ve learned so far; while considering how I wanted to tackle the Kanji

While I was at it, I came across a very interesting program entitled Wakan. It’s available as a free download as long as it’s not put to any commercial use. Wakan translates between Japan and English, and between Chinese and English. It’s a very handy way to look up words and characters. Even if you have no intention of studying either Japanese or Chinese, but may want to look up a word or character from time to time, I think you would find it useful.

Wakan can be found at http://waken.manga.cz/

I was fooling around with Wakan one day. I input the phonetic rendering of my last name: mattsu (マッツ) and nothing came of it. Then I decided to try matsu (マツ), and what it spit out was “pine tree.”

I decided to put Rick (riku) in. Riku gives “shore.” 　陸 has a lot of things going on in it’s composition.

A shore pine is a type of pine tree.

In researching the sumbol of a pine, this is what I've got so far (http://www.chinesepaintings.com/chinese-symbols.html ):

Pine
The favorite tree of Chinese painters, the pine symbolizes longevity and steadfastness. Pine trees rank above all other trees and epitomize self-discipline. Pine, bamboos and plum-trees are the "Three Friends in Winter."

The Kanji for pine tree is : 松 (matsu is the Kunyomi or Japanese reading; Sho is the Onyomi or “Chinese” reading; the Kanji is made of the characters for ‘tree’, and ‘public’).