Vocabulary different than kanji, why bother?

Work hard really? It’s a walk in the park compare to low level programming.
My time is limited, if you cannot understand that and just want to throw your wrong assumptions at me, don’t bother answer in the first place.

Yeah, Aarix, doncha know that anyone can get up to native level in 3 languages before they pick up a single programming language?

10 Likes

By the time I learned Chinese, Arabic, Korean, English, and Japanese I managed to print out “hello world” in cpp.

Others may not even get this far as I have a knack for programming. I am currently learning how to go to the next line after “hello world”, but in the meantime I have begun to acquire the ability to move small objects with my mind and communicate via telepathy with the feral cat that lives down the street. All child’s play compared to low level programming.

all jokes aside, was this a mistype or troll?

10 Likes

This post smelles triggering xD take my energy OP つ ◕_◕ ༽つ .

1 Like

Yeah, maybe I was a bit mean. OP came off as arrogant but I don’t think eng was his first language, so that may be to blame.

Since we’re comparing languages with programming languages, here are my two cents:

A language is something that has developed over centuries and centuries, through culture, trends, war, and whatnot. Languages are used for everything: from stories to laws, and news and weather; and by millions of people… You can’t expect a language to be easy to learn, or even to be sensible. Think about French for a second, it’s a true shitstorm of exceptions and nonsensical rules.

Programming languages, on the other hand, are designed by a handful of people over a very short period of time, and are designed to do very specific tasks. They are meant to be “easy to learn”.

As a sidenote, there are languages designed the same way programming languages are. You might be interested in esperanto or even toki pona.

4 Likes

Shouldn’t that be 「みやこ」?

Just the other day an acquaintance asked me a similar question, about comparing programming and natural languages. And I think the comparison baffled me as much then as it does now.

In brief: computer languages are not languages. Not at least in the same way we use the term when we talk about natural languages. Because when we do, we mean human languages, and human languages have certain characteristics that computer languages do not.

In particular, human languages change through use. That’s what they do. Always. Inevitably. If it’s not changing, it’s not being used. In fact: that’s what it means for a language to be “dead”. That it’s not changing any more. Computer languages, on the other hand, only change from above, and always as the result of a design decision.

Likewise, human languages are ambiguous. The most famous attempt at eliminating this that I can think of is Lojban, which actually only eliminates some sources of ambiguity. Computer languages, on the other hand, are unambiguous (their grammars may be ambiguous in some cases, but they have disambiguating rules that are executed at at runtime or compile time).

So no: learning a computer language is not the same as learning a human language, and while the difficulty of learning both is not directly comparable (since we have evolved to have the skills to do one of those), I’d say learning a human language is orders of magnitude more complex a task, if even just on account of the two features I mentioned above.

3 Likes

Who is arrogant, me or the guy above basically saying i’m a lazy ass?

Japanese is all about memorization, nothing really hard about it, it just takes time that’s all.
I’d say mastering a programming language with all the ecosystem around it takes as much time as being fluent, far from typing hello world mate.

I was just asking about information i cared about, i didn’t ask for random people to come lecture me about not wanting to “put in the work” you know, if all you guys want to do is pissing me off why on earth do you bother commenting?

Japanese grammar is simple mate, where is the complexity in that?
The only thing complex about japanese is the shitload of reading and symbols you have to memorize.

Because when we tell you why, your replies come off as arrogant and disbelieving. It could be miscommunication, but that’s just my view on it.

See, you just did it again. You claim to know nothing about the language, but you are arguing japanese grammar to be simple. This not only is a wildly unpopular opinion that can be insulting to people that find it hard, but its coming from someone who doesnt know japanese grammar.

You are new to the language yet you tell us, some who have been learning for years, that its all easy and youre used to more of a challenge. That comes off as arrogant.

You. He didn’t call you lazy, he just said trying to rush through learning a language is a bad mindset and you need to be prepared to put in time and effort.

Anyways, hopefully this didn’t come off as rude, I’m just a little bothered. I’ll leave you with a quote that I feel sums up language learning. “The more you learn, the more you realize you don’t know” (by socrates I think?). The more and more I learn japanese and read harder texts, the more I realize I have so much more to go.

12 Likes

Oh my god…

First of all, it’s incredibly arrogant (and rude) to claim that a language, used by millions of humans and developed over thousands of years, is… “only about memorization, nothing really hard about it” and that it lacks complexity. :weary:

If that’s your approach to language-learning I’m seriously questioning your world view.

And then second of all, you created a thread in this forum that came across as being arrogant. Perhaps not your intention, but at least acknowledge that’s how it was interpreted. After all, after using this learning platform for only a few days you basically questioned the entire layout of it. It sure sounded like you were criticizing something with zero knowledge about the subject (for example, the fact that there are multiple readings for every kanji should be common knowledge to a Japanese student and thus the need for learning multiple readings should be apparent).

9 Likes

How much grammar have you honestly studied? I could be unfair and ask you about something like the suffering passive, or proper use of keigo (among other concepts that have no direct correlation in English), but why not just start from は and が? There are books written on properly using them. It’s one of the most deceptively simple concepts in the language, and one that can easily give away a speaker as being non-native.

6 Likes

bc the readings actually help you with vocabulary later down the road. you’re on level 1 (i’m assuming) and when you get beyond that, you’ll appreciate learning the kanji for more complicated characters

The learners dictionary of Japanese grammar is three volumes long. https://www.amazon.com/Dictionary-Basic-Japanese-Grammar/dp/4789004546

1 Like

@tirrorex Your choice here is pretty simple - accept the very clear answer to your question provided by several people who have dedicated a great amount of time to learning this language, or continue to believe the completely unfounded assertions you have made in this topic.

Confidence is important when speaking a language, but honesty and self-awareness will take you much further in the process of learning it.

Please observe this chart and consider where you might lie on it, in terms of computer programming and in terms of Japanese language ability.

Dunning Kruger Chart

20 Likes

Not to sound rude here, or commenting “to piss you off” but like many others have said It’s very arrogant of you to say that the Japanese language is extremely simple, and not complex whatsoever when people (Im one of them) actually struggles a lot with the language. It’s even more of a tick of you to say that after you initially posted a question about basic understanding of kanji and Japanese vocabulary.

2 Likes

I’ll go one step easier. If you can’t answer Leebo’s question, do you know how the particle は is pronounced? That was the very first thing I learned when studying grammar 3 years ago, and its not even really a grammar point.

I guess you didn’t understand anything of what I wrote. I’ll let you read it again a couple of times, until it sinks in.

Take your time.

100 * [Like]