Ray Huang (jhuang@UCLA.EDU)
Sun, 7 Feb 1999 13:40:17 -0800
X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.01d) Message-ID: <199902072146.NAA15994@theta2.ben2.ucla.edu> Date: Sun, 7 Feb 1999 13:40:17 -0800 From: Ray Huang <jhuang@UCLA.EDU> Subject: Re: Iris Songs
> beyond me). The way I see this problem is that it's just one of those
> things you just take, no questions asked. Kinda like things in English
> that some teenager from Japan can stump you with. For example, when do
> you use "made of" versus "made from." Both are pretty interchangable,
> but sometimes one sounds better than the other and as a result correct
> (think the Snapple logo: Made FROM the best stuff on Earth).
I think Lance has a very good point. Heck, if it has furigana,
whichever it says it's correct (and sometimes they say 2 different
things). Sorta like the Kouran thing. You can spell it Kohran too.
:P I think the difference here is Washington Apples vs. Fuji Apples
not apples and oranges. (Okay, maybe not the greatest of
analogies.)
> I must admit that Japanese is HELLA confusing and who ever created the
> language in the past just made things hard on everyone learning the
> language, even the Japanese. After all, how many ways do you need to
> count? I was helping young Japanese children with homework and they
> were even confused with reading. They weren't too sure about which
> counter to use for certain items. Also, there are even famous people
> who just make mistakes sometimes when not too careful (like reading
> "tabi" as "do").
I agree. They have too many counters. ^_^;;
> Just in case someone gets mad at me for saying this, some Japanese
> scholars in the past (and probably still) wanted to get rid of the kanji
Why? There are still many Japanese linguists who want to get rid of
kanji. I'd vote to keep kanji in though since it clarifies what word
you're using. There are just too many homonyms/homophones in
Japanese which would make me (the learner) very confused without
kanji.
> system since they saw it unneccessary. After all, having four writing
> systems in use (yes, I count Roman letters since everyone in Japan is
> taught English in schools now) is pretty tiresome. No other country I
> know of has that many writing systems (even my Chinese friend
> complained). When you consider the reasons why all the writing systems
I think Chinese is more complex though. The number of kanji you
need to memorize outweighs the number of characters you need to
know for Japanese. :) IMHO.
> > > Is it "Itoshi" or "Itoshii?" I mean is it shi+i? If it is, then it has to be
> > > read "Itoshii."
>
> "Itoshii" can be used without the "no" (Itoshii hito). With the "no,"
> drop the "i," I just asked my walking dictionary, my mother. :>
I don't think there was ever a question (at least in my mind) about
Itoshii being used without the "no" but thank you Lance for the small
lesson. I didn't no you could drop "i" and add "no" instead. Do you
know if this a general rule or a case by case scenario?
Ray
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