Japanese Language Usage in Kodomo no Jikan - Page 3

Kikiskeeter · 06-08-2009, 08:43 PM

A lot of languages use gender specific wording and spelling (Senor, Senora) Using suffixes and prefixes to determine gender. I know that kanji have very specific meanings that usually are associated male or female. I guess the best way to state what I mean is using the old saying: " Men sweat. Women perspire." The Idea here that sweat would only be used in a male gender association: "George was sweating hard after his workout. Susan, his girlfriend only perspired a bit." Japan the usage of the two words would be set in such as to be gender specific to the point you would only write sweat with males and a different kanji for perspire for use with female.

I don't know a lot about Japanese but the linguistic concepts seems the same as a few others I have come across.

Ugetsu · 06-08-2009, 08:46 PM

I know what @kiki means but it's different in Japanese. As Nitrogen mentioned, men can say "boku-wa" for "I" but girls can say "atashi-wa." More formally everyone can say "Watashi-wa" or at the maximum formality "watakushi-wa." In Spanish you say "Yo" no matter who you are, and in French "Je" and German "Ich." Mercifully Japanese does NOT have genders for every noun, with matching gender endings for the related adjectives.

Here is my question for you guys. Am I right to assume that everyone has KnJ in paper manga format? Do you all have access to the raws? That was my underlying reason for getting into all this, because when you pick up a few kanji (like the ones for Sensei or Doutei or the girls' names) you can start to eke out a little meaning from the raws on your own.

@Newno... As I mentioned, I have a Mac, and any Mac with OS-X can type in Arabic or Hebrew or Russian or Korean (Hangul) or Japanese just using the system software. You go to the System Preferences, go to International, and turn on Kotoeri for Japanese. You then have a little American flag at the top of the screen. You click on that and get a drop-down menu, Romaji, Hiragana, Katakana. Pick what you want and type the sounds you want and it comes out in Japanese. And to go from the hiragana to kanji, if you have typed it in right, you just hit the space bar and you get a selection of kanji to choose from. Look.

Romaji: sensei
Hiragana: せんせい　
Katakana: センセイ　　
Hiragana followed by space bar: 先生
And just to show off, here it is in Korean: ㄴ둔댜

This may be one of the best reasons to buy a Macintosh IMO.

Newnonimous · 06-08-2009, 08:46 PM

okay i see now, thanks for the explination Kikiskeeter.

@ugetsu: I do have a few RAWS of KNJ but never got around to trying to learn it's symbols and no i don't own a Mac i have a pc, mac has many disadvantages compare to pc.(i don't buy any of Mac's BS about being better than pc). Otherwise, i may get a rosetta stone program perhaps may be better.

Lowrider · 06-09-2009, 04:47 PM

what i meant was that changing the whole word for the gender sucks. changing some letters isnt so bad.

Kikiskeeter · 06-09-2009, 04:53 PM

I know. Just think about casually talking in Japanese and getting punched out because you use a word of the wrong gender to describe your host or insulted your girlfriend's father.

SylverScaile · 06-09-2009, 05:02 PM

That wouldn't be much of a worry, Kiki, unless you were talking about someone ina very general term. Typically you would use their actual name when talking about a person, specifically (IIRC). (also, self, studying japanese, here. thanks to several different PC programs and books. )

Besides that, if you're a foreigner, they 'expect' some flops in your handling of their language.

Someone mentioned just kanji and having gender specific words? Well, there's kanji, hirigana, and katakana. Each having their own times to be used. Half wish I had been born, or atleast raised, over there. There may be alot more characters to memorise, but the rules for all the words are alot more 'strict' than say.. english. Things are only pronounced one way, to mean one thing, and spelled one way. If it sounds different, then it's spelled differently, and means something different

Once you get past the difference, it's one of the easier ones to learn as a second language (though easier still, for kids, since it's the initial language they're learning as they grow up and learn to 'mean' (as one of my books puts it).

Newnonimous · 06-09-2009, 06:24 PM

Doesn't anyone read mangas that are not lolicon/ecchi related? Because while were waiting for the next chapter we should discuss about other mangas to keep us talking. It's just a suggestion guys.

SylverScaile · 06-09-2009, 06:40 PM

Well this *is* the KnJ section.

That subject, in general, though, would be better suited to a general discussion section. Or perhaps SaHa could make a new section for 'translation lessons; or some such.

Ugetsu · 06-09-2009, 06:47 PM

Houin as Saint Rose

Manga Fox: Kodomo no Jikan Vol.04 Ch.027 Online Manga Scans

"Soldier of Love" uses AI 愛　for love

@Sylver, you bring up a good point. It would be nice if, learning Kanji, one could learn the character, the meaning and A pronunciation. In fact there are always at least 2 pronunciations and sometimes a dozen, with shades of meaning. Makes things difficult. Even the Prime Minister of Japan got into trouble by pronouncing his Kanji wrong in speeches.

SylverScaile · 06-09-2009, 07:12 PM

Que? Really? I guess I need to brush up on individual kanji then. I've only done the, basic, charts (a,ka,sa,ta, etc. in both sets), and proper pronounciations of romanji and haven't yet moved onto more complex symbols.

(brain is too tired to remember proper chart names ATM.

)

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06-09-2009, 05:02 PM		#26 (permalink)
SylverScaile Junior Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 15		That wouldn't be much of a worry, Kiki, unless you were talking about someone ina very general term. Typically you would use their actual name when talking about a person, specifically (IIRC). (also, self, studying japanese, here. thanks to several different PC programs and books. ) Besides that, if you're a foreigner, they 'expect' some flops in your handling of their language. Someone mentioned just kanji and having gender specific words? Well, there's kanji, hirigana, and katakana. Each having their own times to be used. Half wish I had been born, or atleast raised, over there. There may be alot more characters to memorise, but the rules for all the words are alot more 'strict' than say.. english. Things are only pronounced one way, to mean one thing, and spelled one way. If it sounds different, then it's spelled differently, and means something different Once you get past the difference, it's one of the easier ones to learn as a second language (though easier still, for kids, since it's the initial language they're learning as they grow up and learn to 'mean' (as one of my books puts it).

06-09-2009, 06:40 PM		#28 (permalink)
SylverScaile Junior Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 15		Well this is the KnJ section. That subject, in general, though, would be better suited to a general discussion section. Or perhaps SaHa could make a new section for 'translation lessons; or some such.

06-09-2009, 07:12 PM		#30 (permalink)
SylverScaile Junior Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 15		Que? Really? I guess I need to brush up on individual kanji then. I've only done the, basic, charts (a,ka,sa,ta, etc. in both sets), and proper pronounciations of romanji and haven't yet moved onto more complex symbols. (brain is too tired to remember proper chart names ATM. )