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learning japanese...worth it? Anonymous
i wanna visit japan in the future, and i wanna know...
is it worth it, learning japanese? If so what is more important, being able to read it or speak it? Is it okay if i just learn to speak it and not read it? How is rosetta stone Japanese?
>> JAPAN Anonymous
Well i would say get a cheep Japanese study guide and learn how to say the essential stuffs , and learn how to read certain Kanji like for Men and women so u dont go in the wrong restroom >.<
>> Anonymous
It depends on where you want to go.

If you're just going to go to Tokyo and fuck around the Akihabara and the tourist-y areas, don't even bother learning anything more complicated than "Where's the shitter?"

If you're actually going to go and soak up the culture and communicate with the locals, you best be buying books, taking classes, and learning both how to read and speak. Japanese may act impressed at your two-word vocabulary, but they're secretly laughing at you on the inside. If you're not fluent, you're probably a stupid Gaijin to them; even then, you're still an outsider.

tl;dr - Learn every little intricacy of the language that you can if you don't want to be laughed at.

Also, obligatory sage for topic about Japan.
>> Anonymous
Japanese is the easiest language to learn. It'd be worth it so you don't glorify the fact that Americans are dumb asses.
>> Anonymous
>>50173
I'm having trouble believing Japanese is the easiest language to learn. I think for English speaker's it's probably German. Sage because i'm just arguing semantics.
>> Anonymous
>>50187
Dutch. English is closer to Frisian than German, but even then, Modern English is such a batshit amalgam with crazy shit that's happened to it that it's not really like anything useful. Old English, now that was close to Dutch, sort of.
>> Anonymous
i think you should get a japanese textbook, tapes, etc.
>> Anonymous
>>50187
There's this huge myth that Japanese (and Chinese (Mandarin)) is really hard to learn. This applies to the written aspect, but not to the spoken part. Japanese has no plurals, no articles, no genders, and only 2 highly irregular verbs which require effort to memorize. There are actually 5 at best. Compare this to the 178 (not including the verbs which stay the same) irregular verbs in English, 350+ in Dutch, 181 in German, 81 in French, etc. Mandarin is even simpler, with only 1 verb changing, the verb meaning "to have". On top of this, Mandarin's verbs never change depending on who you are talking about. (I Be, You Be, We Be, He Be, She Be, etc).

So anyway OP, the hardest thing about learning Japanese would be reading and writing. It's very easy to speak, especially the basics, so if you're just going for a trip, practice the tourist-type phrases for a while and you'll be fine.
>> Anonymous
[Highjack]

Since there are quite a few dutch fags here (i am one)

How easy is it for a Dutchy to learn Russian?

[/Highjack]
>> Anonymous
>>50606
TONES
>> Anonymous
fucking indo-europeanfags
>> Anonymous
>>50632
very easy to learn, they are not hard.
>> Anonymous
Does anyone know any good books to learn Chinese ?
>> Anonymous
im not american, im mid eastern
>> Anonymous
what are tones?
>> Anonymous
>>50690
Chinese words change meaning depening on how you pronounce them, using different pitches. It's a lot easier than it sounds actually.
>> Anonymous
>>50701
except you should expect to make a mistake or two if your first language is not tonal. a friend of mine made a good one when he tried to refer to someone as a "pretty girl" in the dialect of the region he's in and it came out as "nice cow". apparently the effect was HIRARIOUS.
>> Anonymous
>>50759
xiao jie means pretty girl in chinese. your friend must be a retard