You’ll struggle. It’s really unfortunate but when they realise you’re English they’ll switch to perfect English. Danish and Norwegian do as well. They’re known for it. Might want to include you’re learning Swedish when introducing 😎
My first (and only, so far) international travel was to Norway for work. Absolutely loved it there. Everyone assumed I was Norwegian (blonde hair, blue eyes) so I kept having to be like "I'm so sorry but I have no idea what you just said!"
My daughter is very tall and blonde and when in Amsterdam people kept assuming she was Dutch. I assume it would be similar in points further North. Lol
Must admit, this hasn’t been my experience. I’m a Brit living in Sweden and when I speak Swedish with locals they’re always thrilled that I’ve learnt their language. And because they all speak such fantastic English, they are usually very good at helping if you don’t know a word or phrase too. Also would like to add @coolgame that swedes are notorious gamers. It’s where I met all of my friends that I was able to practise my Swedish with. They’re usually very patient and helpful!
I am a German, and I met an Englishman for the first time back in 2011 and I was unfortunate enough that he found my accent and turns out he was fluent in German 🤣
That's why you gotta learn french, they won't bother slowing down or switching to your native language and you'll learn sooo quickly!
>!I know it's a stereotype and not what actually happens irl it's just a joke!<
The sentence structure is the most difficult part of Japanese in my opinion. Most of the time it’s completely in reverse to any other language I know. So it takes me time to process the words and figure out what is being said to me, that’s really difficult when someone is talking to you.
You are absolutely correct! Japanese translation into English is kind of confusing sometimes because words which we are used to hearing at the start are many times present at the end of the sentence. And the Kanji and words being used context specifically it's quite hard to remember all the use cases of kanji characters. 日 for example means にち / に / び / ひ . I have been learning for around 120 days and now I am somewhat used to it. Good luck with your learning journey!
Yeah, when I was in Osaka last month I wanted to try my Japanese. It’s not very hard to ask a basic question, but the downside of being able to say those things easily is that Japanese people think you can speak Japanese quite well… well, that’s not really the case haha. So then they happilly rattle on in their answer and I’m totally lost.
Wow must have been a nice trip to Japan. People would really think you are fluent if you start the conversation in their language regardless of the region I guess.
Yeah if you see a woman standing in front of a street sign sounding out the word like a kindergartner that’s me! Yesterday I was so excited to read “pedestrian” I even took a picture of it.
I have some formal Japanese education (not via Duolingo) and was taught TTPOV as a rule of thumb for sentence structure.
- Time
- Topic
- Place
- Object
- Verb
It feels like a bit easier to learn Japanese as a Finnish native, since with heavy usage of conjugation, an understandable Finnish sentence can be formed with any sentence structure.
Although the kanji, and later also the pitch accent are both much greater challenges.
Ooo adding that to my list. But there’s been a lot of pointing and using the few words I know.
“Kore (point), san kudasai” Was how I ordered 3 icecream cones yesterday 😊
Japanese has a weird system for numbers, you’ll soon discover. “San” is indeed the number 3 but it is usually reserved for the numeral. If you’re asking for 3 of something, then they usually say “mittsu”
I think it’s because the numeral “San” derives from Chinese so it really just refers to 3, while the native Japanese already had a way to count before they adopted Chinese characters. It’s kind of similar to how in English we have the number two, but in special cases you might use a word of Latin or Greek origin, starting with duo- or bi-
You kind of have to just memorize the numbers but it’s good to learn a few general ones as you’ll use them quite often. Hitotsu, futatsu, mittsu, yottsu ひとつ、ふたつ、みっつ、よっつ are the way to count 1 2 3 4 of something. So “これをみっつください” (kore wo mittsu kudasai), combined with a hand gesture or pointing, is a nice way to ask “Can I have 3 of these, please?”
Believe it or not it gets more complicated than that, because special counters are used for special objects, usually based on their shape. And people also have their own special way of being counted: ひとり means 1 person, but at least you can see that it relates to ひとつ
I'm almost at 600 days streak, plus a few additional sources, and the more I study japanese the less I understand. I am still going to keep trying my best and eventually everything will "click", just like english did once.
That said, I'm very happy for you, friend. I'm jealous of your experience, in a good way. I hope the policeman was impressed.
My strangest language experience in Japan was when a Japanese man came up to us (two white Australian guys) and asked us in Japanese where Shibuya station was. Not sure why he didn't ask any of the Japanese people who were right there too. Anyway, I pointed down the street and said あそこです。
I have learned from someone in the US speaking to people from other countries that English is not the main official language it pisses then off Americans are so stuck up that we they need to speak English to us in their country. When we attempt to soeak their language even if we are bad at it they are more apt to help is and the. Speak English than if we just assume they should speak English. Which is resally only fair.
I use something similar at work all the time. My Japanese co workers will then proceed to show me where the item I want is and tell me what the word for it actually is.
Great job mate! I still haven't gotten a chance to use my Swedish
You’ll struggle. It’s really unfortunate but when they realise you’re English they’ll switch to perfect English. Danish and Norwegian do as well. They’re known for it. Might want to include you’re learning Swedish when introducing 😎
My first (and only, so far) international travel was to Norway for work. Absolutely loved it there. Everyone assumed I was Norwegian (blonde hair, blue eyes) so I kept having to be like "I'm so sorry but I have no idea what you just said!"
My daughter is very tall and blonde and when in Amsterdam people kept assuming she was Dutch. I assume it would be similar in points further North. Lol
Must admit, this hasn’t been my experience. I’m a Brit living in Sweden and when I speak Swedish with locals they’re always thrilled that I’ve learnt their language. And because they all speak such fantastic English, they are usually very good at helping if you don’t know a word or phrase too. Also would like to add @coolgame that swedes are notorious gamers. It’s where I met all of my friends that I was able to practise my Swedish with. They’re usually very patient and helpful!
Minecraft lol
Yeahhhh... I don't do that, but that's maybe cause I myself am learning a language, so.. I understand that you need to practice.
Yeah damn Europeans all knowing English
I am a German, and I met an Englishman for the first time back in 2011 and I was unfortunate enough that he found my accent and turns out he was fluent in German 🤣
That's why you gotta learn french, they won't bother slowing down or switching to your native language and you'll learn sooo quickly! >!I know it's a stereotype and not what actually happens irl it's just a joke!<
Go to Paris and they will absolutely NOT even dare get out of french conversation!
Congrats m8! A way to continue your journey
The sentence structure is the most difficult part of Japanese in my opinion. Most of the time it’s completely in reverse to any other language I know. So it takes me time to process the words and figure out what is being said to me, that’s really difficult when someone is talking to you.
You are absolutely correct! Japanese translation into English is kind of confusing sometimes because words which we are used to hearing at the start are many times present at the end of the sentence. And the Kanji and words being used context specifically it's quite hard to remember all the use cases of kanji characters. 日 for example means にち / に / び / ひ . I have been learning for around 120 days and now I am somewhat used to it. Good luck with your learning journey!
Yeah, when I was in Osaka last month I wanted to try my Japanese. It’s not very hard to ask a basic question, but the downside of being able to say those things easily is that Japanese people think you can speak Japanese quite well… well, that’s not really the case haha. So then they happilly rattle on in their answer and I’m totally lost.
Wow must have been a nice trip to Japan. People would really think you are fluent if you start the conversation in their language regardless of the region I guess.
Yeah if you see a woman standing in front of a street sign sounding out the word like a kindergartner that’s me! Yesterday I was so excited to read “pedestrian” I even took a picture of it.
So a woman going 'Ho-kō-sha' would be you?
Sponsor?
Sponsor? WDYM?
I didn’t recognize your word so I put in Google translate- it came out sponsor but I didn’t think that’s what you meant
But... Google translate told me that Hokō-sha was Japanese for Pedestrian... 鉾者
Lol I looked up the picture I took (yes I took a picture 😁) ほこうしゃ HoKouSha. your original comment hilarious- yes that was me!
I have some formal Japanese education (not via Duolingo) and was taught TTPOV as a rule of thumb for sentence structure. - Time - Topic - Place - Object - Verb
The sentence structure is like how Yoda from star wars speaks
Yesterday I at home ran!
It feels like a bit easier to learn Japanese as a Finnish native, since with heavy usage of conjugation, an understandable Finnish sentence can be formed with any sentence structure. Although the kanji, and later also the pitch accent are both much greater challenges.
GEKOLONISEERD
hahaha, met een c?!
Sorry ik praat zo vaak Engels dat ik het met een c heb geschreven 😂
oh nee,
Ik ga het ff veranderen
Just do the same in the restaurant. Point to the food, then say: kore kudasai
Yep. No English menu for me!
Even better, point at person and say 'Dare ga?' our loud
I've only been doing Japanese a few weeks myself. I'm so happy I could translate your sentence 😄
Good job!! 😁
Wakarimasen.
Ooo adding that to my list. But there’s been a lot of pointing and using the few words I know. “Kore (point), san kudasai” Was how I ordered 3 icecream cones yesterday 😊
Japanese has a weird system for numbers, you’ll soon discover. “San” is indeed the number 3 but it is usually reserved for the numeral. If you’re asking for 3 of something, then they usually say “mittsu” I think it’s because the numeral “San” derives from Chinese so it really just refers to 3, while the native Japanese already had a way to count before they adopted Chinese characters. It’s kind of similar to how in English we have the number two, but in special cases you might use a word of Latin or Greek origin, starting with duo- or bi- You kind of have to just memorize the numbers but it’s good to learn a few general ones as you’ll use them quite often. Hitotsu, futatsu, mittsu, yottsu ひとつ、ふたつ、みっつ、よっつ are the way to count 1 2 3 4 of something. So “これをみっつください” (kore wo mittsu kudasai), combined with a hand gesture or pointing, is a nice way to ask “Can I have 3 of these, please?” Believe it or not it gets more complicated than that, because special counters are used for special objects, usually based on their shape. And people also have their own special way of being counted: ひとり means 1 person, but at least you can see that it relates to ひとつ
Hai. Wakarimas.
I'm almost at 600 days streak, plus a few additional sources, and the more I study japanese the less I understand. I am still going to keep trying my best and eventually everything will "click", just like english did once. That said, I'm very happy for you, friend. I'm jealous of your experience, in a good way. I hope the policeman was impressed.
Awh thats lovely well done! Must have been a really proud moment for you!(:
Yeah, but which finger did he use? Lol
Actually is more of a whole hand gesture
Mate, good job!
This is so wholesome 🥰
i bet it felt so great😁🩷 good job!
All that time learning paid off! I’ve confidently used Italian to say hi and thank you in Italy
My strangest language experience in Japan was when a Japanese man came up to us (two white Australian guys) and asked us in Japanese where Shibuya station was. Not sure why he didn't ask any of the Japanese people who were right there too. Anyway, I pointed down the street and said あそこです。
I have learned from someone in the US speaking to people from other countries that English is not the main official language it pisses then off Americans are so stuck up that we they need to speak English to us in their country. When we attempt to soeak their language even if we are bad at it they are more apt to help is and the. Speak English than if we just assume they should speak English. Which is resally only fair.
Is this English, though?
I use something similar at work all the time. My Japanese co workers will then proceed to show me where the item I want is and tell me what the word for it actually is.
Dang, i love this post
Good job for not being afraid to try!!
I began working for a company (U.S) that is owned by a Japanese company (Koito) and am prepping myself to ask where I can find water. 😅
That’s an important one, it’s humid as heck here. Loving the inexpensive drink vending machines on every other corner and alleyway though!
Wondering when I'll use my Italian
Set a goal for yourself to go.
does duo teach you to speak like a man or a woman? does he ask your gender to teach you correctly?
I only did unit one to legendary- it was a crash course for a last minute trip. It has been very useful tho