Slightly OT... who here speaks chinese and or Japanese?

[Zebedee]

I spent a few months living in Japan and play a lot of online games with Japanese gamers, so I know odds and ends of Japanese. Certainly wouldn't consider myself anywhere near fluent.

My gf is Chinese (ethnic minority Manchurian to be precise) so it was only fair that I learnt the language. To be honest, her English is still far better than my Chinese though.

[BossGnome]

ah yes that was my question: what do you call your ideogrammes in chinese?

The word Kanji in japanese actually means chinese ideogrammes which have been "japanified" and are slightly different from their original chinese form. But yes kanjis are originally chinese and not japanese.

So ahh! you explain the pronounciation in Romanized script! See, japanese explains the pronounciation in their own phonetic scripts, hiragana or katakana!

And you only have to learn 1000 characters to communicate fluently in written chinese? Amazing! For Japanese the Japanese government has designated 2000 kanjis as everyday use, and that is on top of their two phonetic scripts!

about the japanese forum, I am not sure how well a game like WITP would take up in japan. Although I have been living in Saitama (1 hour north of tokyo) for the past 6 months, I have only seen one WW2 game in a store so far... the japanese are not very proud of that part of their history, and they prefer not to talk about it. In fact that is one part of the japanese character i do not like; they seem incapable to accept, like germany, grave mistakes like WW2. Whenever they make a WW2 movie or television series or such, it always focuses upon the suffering of a few individuals, and gives us the impression that "all war is bad", period, and not that a war (like WW2, could possibly be justified.

And heh, four tones? 6 tones? Japanese has only 2! Of course that language's pronounciation is dreadfully easy! I actually recommend to anyone who wants, to try to learn japanese. Its not a language as hard as you'd imagine. Exept for the writing it is quite a bit easier than, say, french for example.

[DuckofTindalos]

Thanks, BG. Very informative![&o]

[RUPD3658]

My Japanese is limited to what I had to know for my black belt test. If the converstaion is limited to body parts or names of kicks/punches/blocks/stances/commands I am fine. Can't talk about much else without falling back on English or a bit of German. [;)]

[patrickl]

Hi, I am estimating as 1,000 - I think that will do for basic conversation and writing. Certainly I don't expect my 12 years old daughter who is sitting for her primary 6 exams next month to know more than 1,000 for her punishing exams.[:@] And she writes better chinese than me. Ahh, let's see : one, two, three,...me, you, they...[:D]

[patrickl]

ORIGINAL: BossGnome

ah yes that was my question: what do you call your ideogrammes in chinese?

The word Kanji in japanese actually means chinese ideogrammes which have been "japanified" and are slightly different from their original chinese form. But yes kanjis are originally chinese and not japanese.

So ahh! you explain the pronounciation in Romanized script! See, japanese explains the pronounciation in their own phonetic scripts, hiragana or katakana!

And you only have to learn 1000 characters to communicate fluently in written chinese? Amazing! For Japanese the Japanese government has designated 2000 kanjis as everyday use, and that is on top of their two phonetic scripts!

about the japanese forum, I am not sure how well a game like WITP would take up in japan. Although I have been living in Saitama (1 hour north of tokyo) for the past 6 months, I have only seen one WW2 game in a store so far... the japanese are not very proud of that part of their history, and they prefer not to talk about it. In fact that is one part of the japanese character i do not like; they seem incapable to accept, like germany, grave mistakes like WW2. Whenever they make a WW2 movie or television series or such, it always focuses upon the suffering of a few individuals, and gives us the impression that "all war is bad", period, and not that a war (like WW2, could possibly be justified.

And heh, four tones? 6 tones? Japanese has only 2! Of course that language's pronounciation is dreadfully easy! I actually recommend to anyone who wants, to try to learn japanese. Its not a language as hard as you'd imagine. Exept for the writing it is quite a bit easier than, say, french for example.

1st question - don't know. Just call chinese[;)]

Kanji - originally chinese[&:]. That is interesting[X(]

Jap WITP - just a suggestion[:D]. But japanese PBEM players are always in short supply[;)]

Japanese 2 tones? Heh, Japanese is easy![:D][:D]

Glad you started this thread - helps promote mutual understanding[;)]
Cheers
Patrick Lim

[ChezDaJez]

Languages have always fascinated me, but I've never had the time to study any properly (at least, not since it was required in high school -- BTW, lapsing into Spanish doesn't work when trying to communicate with a hotel desk clerk in Nagoya!).

I took 3rd year Spanish and 1st year German at the same time in high school. Major mistake... "Jawohl, senor! no, no that's not it.... Si, mein Herr!, no, that's not it either.... eins, zwei, tres, cuatro, funf... Is that it?"

Ten years later, when I was stationed in Spain I got passably good at speaking basic Spanish. I went on a "show the flag" trip to Nimes Garon in southern France. The hotel manager didn't speak English, I didn't speak French but we both spoke some Spanish. We had many a hilarious conversation!! I'm sure he's still wondering why that crazy American thought there was a donkey is his soup!

Chez

[DuckofTindalos]

Possibly it was donkey soup?

[patrickl]

Hi

ORIGINAL: ChezDaJez

I'm sure he's still wondering why that crazy American thought there was a donkey is his soup!

Chez

ROTFLMAO

You have just invented a new soup. Who knows, it might be delicious! [:D]

[ChezDaJez]

Possibly it was donkey soup

Gawd, I hope not!!! I had ordered the soup of the day at the hotel's restaurant and didn't recognize some of the contents so I tried to ask what was in it and the manager thought I was asking about a donkey in the soup.

My wife still kids me about it whenever I ask what kind of soup she's making. She always says "donkey soup!" I never should have told her about it!

You have just invented a new soup. Who knows, it might be delicious

Actually, Patrick, it was quite good!

Chez

[ilovestrategy]

I speak Tagalog(national language of the Philippines)! Ok, I know it's not chinese or japanese but I still had to throw in that bit of personal trivia. Plus it ups my post count by one more! [:D][:D][:D]

[patrickl]

Yo, you know Filopino![:D] At the rate we are going, there is going to be a UN here!

[DuckofTindalos]

I think there already is, if you start counting the total number of languages spoken. Not all of us have English as first language.

[ilovestrategy]

ya, I was the unit translater over there. Even though I've heard of some, I have never met another non Filipino that speaks besides myself lol.

[patrickl]

Hi,

ORIGINAL: Terminus

I think there already is, if you start counting the total number of languages spoken. Not all of us have English as first language.

How about some Danish? Like good morning and thank you.[:D]

[patrickl]

Hi,

ORIGINAL: ilovestrategy

ya, I was the unit translater over there. Even though I've heard of some, I have never met another non Filipino that speaks besides myself lol.

Yo ,translator.. C3PO. Remind me of Windtalkers. [:D]

[DuckofTindalos]

Good Morning -> Godmorgen
Thank You -> Tak
My name is -> Jeg hedder
See you later -> Vi ses

Actually, Danish is considered a very difficult language to learn, because the same word or sentence can have multiple meanings based on which syllable you put the emphasis on. We also have a huuuuuuge array of colloquialisms that have a tendency to confuse foreigners mightily.

[patrickl]

So I greet you now.. Godmorgen Herr Terminus. Jeg hedder Patrick. You play WITP? Tak and vi ses.[:D]

[DuckofTindalos]

Not bad...[8D]

[kaleun]

Well my only oriental language is "Mandarin for the obstetrician" I can say "Push" , Take a deep breath", "Did you break your water bag?" And a few other questions related to bodily functions that we won't get into here.

My Japanese doens't even get that far....[8|]