foul language

[kodalai]

Author's note: In order to get the proper flavor of the following rant, the management suggests the following adjustments be made: Insert the phrase "fucking" as either an adverb or an adjective, depending, in front of every verb or noun (i.e, "fucking suck" or "fucking questions.") It may also behoove you to mentally add several exclamation points (i.e, !!!) at every punctuation point, and the phrase "what the fuck" or "fucking shit" at every full stop.

Got that? Okay, now continue.

I hate Japanese. Why? Because I suck at it, that's why. I stayed up until 4 AM last night, the previous night, and the night before, studying, and it didn't do me one bit of good. I sat down at the exam today with absolutely no more understanding of the questions than I would have if I'd sat on my thumbs all that time. Even if I could identify and understand each of the individual words and structures, I was still unable to string them together them in any kind of coherant sequence that didn't come out sounding something like "Cold weather at social prohibitions towards daily habits regarding women whether or not take care." (Me: Buzah?)

I especially hate tests like this because I'm slow. I'm very slow. I stayed in the test for twenty-five minutes past the end of the period and I still couldn't answer all the questions. If I had been less of a idiot, I would have ignored one half of the questions we were given and concentrated on coming up with less than gibberish answers for the other half, but as it is I was unable to give more than half-assed guesses at either of them. If I'd had another hour to work on them, I might have been able to come up with something less than complete and total shit, but as it is, we'll never know.

I wasn't doing too well in this class to begin with, and there just went my final grade.

I hate this language. I hate this language. I hate this class.

I hate myself.

[edit] The final exam continues tomorrow, during which I am sure I will suck just as much, because I cannot for the life of me envision any method of study I could employ that would do me one bit of good.

Comments

[chibi-faolan.livejournal.com]

Meep! I totally understand... I dropped out of Japanese so fast, it was astounding. The language itself wasn't quite as hard for me as the fact that after the first two weeks, I had to know all the hiragana and katakana. It still amazes me how everyone else in the class picked them up well enough to keep up with the lessons. :/

[kodalai.livejournal.com]

I look back with nostalgia on those subjects of study, if only because there was only one meaning apiece, dammit, not this vague, shifting, you-just-have-to-get-a-sense-for-the-language shit.

[chibi-faolan.livejournal.com]

... kanji, huh?

[kodalai.livejournal.com]

Actually, my big bane are particles. Which everyone I talk to swears are quite simple and follow easily understandable rules. And yet we still get conversations like these:

Them: Particles are quite simple, really. First off, 'ni' is used whenever you have a sentence relating to time.
Me: Okay... so in this sentence [insert time related example] you'd use "ni," right?
Them: No, in that example you'd use "de."
Me: ...not "ni?"
Them: Well, normally you'd use ni. But in this case, it's more like a location in time, and for locations, you use "de."
Me: So "de," is used for locations, is it for anything else?
Them: No, it always indications a location. Or a direction. Or a means or method.
Me: I thought "ni" indicated direction?
Them: Yes, that too.
Me: So how do you know when to use "ni" and when to use "de?"
Them: Oh, you just get a sense.
Me: ...

Don't even get me started on "wa" and "ga."

[chibi-faolan.livejournal.com]

... watashushi wa. I don't remember what to use ga for. I usually throw that in if I know that wa isn't right. o_O*

[chibi-faolan.livejournal.com]

*watakushi.

shituree shimashite.

[kodalai.livejournal.com]

See, the trick is like this. Ga is a subject marker. Wa is a topic marker. In any given sentence, these two roles actually fill exactly the same grammatical function. With me so far? So whenever the subject of the sentence and the topic of the sentence are the same, wa replaces ga. Unless it doesn't. Because sometimes the subject and topic aren't the same. And sometimes they are, but you use ga anyway. And there's an extremely vague and unhelpful set of rules governing when and why, all of which are subject to context, formality, and, of course, the you just get a sense.

Oh yeah. And sometimes you use "mo" instead of either of these two.

[darksea.livejournal.com]

In French, the only particles (or the equivalent, really) are à and de, and they mean exactly the same thing. Only way to know the difference? Memorization. Of course, I'm not as far along in Japanese as you are, so it could just be that I haven't run across the Land of Exceptions yet.

Outside of that, you get a sympathy "gwaaa!" and a hug.

[chibi-faolan.livejournal.com]

I have one word for you --

Latin.

*shudders*

[chibi-faolan.livejournal.com]

....

mo ichi do?

*evil chuckle* That's why I like subtitles. XD

[kodalai.livejournal.com]

Me too. And translated manga. Cos I don't speak Japanese.

[chibi-faolan.livejournal.com]

Hear, hear... which reminds me, I picked up the second Tsubasa a few days ago. SQUEE!! And I'm reading the second novel in this series, Tales of the Otori, which is quite good... I'll bring the first one along, and you and Aoi can see if you're interested in it. ^^

[ayelle.livejournal.com]

That really sucks. :-( I have a feeling you're into the territory of things you don't learn in a classroom.

[kodalai.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's really the problem. *sighs* The taecher is trying to expose us to a lot of out-of-classroom stuff -- newspapers, recordings and the like -- but there's a sense in which that can't really be taught to you; you either pick it up or you don't.

[ayelle.livejournal.com]

When you go to Japan, you'll pick up more. It will never be easy for you, though you're better at languages than either Margi or I, none of us have a natural talent for it. But it won't stop you from going to Japan, teaching English, and having an amazing experience -- after all people go without knowing the language at all! So how you do in this class in the long run doesn't really matter. Prolly doesn't help now, though...