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The Random Topic; Come... be Random!
Topic Started: Dec 5 2007, 06:29 PM (35,840 Views)
Snofox Kari
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may it be a grand adventure! :>
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TheDeepDark
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What little of Tokyo I've seen (finally got here this, Tues, afternoon) has already given me lots to look at, more-over photograph.
Beyond that... We'll just have to see what happens.

Edit: currently in the Minato district just a few stops away from Shinjuku in Tokyo proper in case anyone might be curious for a more specific idea where I was.
Edited by TheDeepDark, Jun 10 2014, 12:29 PM.
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TheDeepDark
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So.
Tokyo is definitely 'big modern city' but what I've seen of it so far (including especially the subways) is far superior to NYC when it comes to cleanliness and just generally feeling like maybe I can walk around safely most places and just... I'm a fan. The language thing is a bit rough but otherwise... And I'd like to learn Japanese anyway, so there you go.
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Elystriana
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I commend you on that. I love languages, but I'm not sure I'd want to tackle Japanese.
...though, that might just be because I'm much more interested in Europe than East Asia...
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towr
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Well, it's a lot easier than Chinese, I think. At least Japanese is not tonal; which is very hard to learn (as a baby you 'forget' how to make distinctions between sounds that are irrelevant to your native tongue).
I had once started trying to learn, but I haven't kept at it. Still got the book though, so maybe I'll find the motivation again one of these days.
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TheDeepDark
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I've been carrying my book around with me, even though I haven't actually opened it but once since getting here.

I dunno. My brain keeps wanting to jump to Chinese when I try to not use English, and Japanese' use of phonemes strung together to make words throws me off (what's worse is when I find myself identifying places or things because of kanji used in the signs. I have to stop myself thinking I know how to say things like 'hotel' because I don't here. I just know what it looks like).
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Snofox Kari
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so, you can read it...but you can't speak it

sounds fun!

hard enough for me to read characters i recognize (meaning roman alphabet) even if i don't know what it means...but to read a symbol that means nothing, not even a sound is tough in terms of language...at least you are able to recognize its meaning, that's a start!

knowing what it's referring to is better than being able to say it without a clue, i say >w<
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towr
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Quote:
 
so, you can read it...but you can't speak it
Not even that, because the Japanese use multiple character sets, simultaneously. There's the characters inherited form Chinese, kanji, and then two syllable based sets, hiragana and katakana, and to top it off they sometimes use the roman alphabet (e.g. for abbreviations).
And I'm actually not even sure the Chinese characters always mean the same thing in both languages; they may well have grown apart.
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TheDeepDark
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That's the Chinese characters/Kanji. Many of the characters have two meanings (as well as pronunciations, if I'm understanding it right); one being generally close to what the Chinese use it for, and the other which is totally unrelated. And then you usually only see Kanji as single words or ideas in the middle of a string of hiragana and katakana. So there are certain things that I have learned to identify but it's still a rather limited subset.
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Elystriana
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*is completely lost* :huh:
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towr
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*offers GPS*
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TheDeepDark
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towr, the true friend here on the forums. ;P
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Elystriana
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Hmm...can you use a GPS to navigate around the confusing world of Asian language characters? It would be a very interesting GPS. B)
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Snofox Kari
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especially if it came with a personal translator/tutor lol
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towr
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You can probably find mobile phones with apps for translation/help with Asian characters and GPS
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