ChinesePod
aChinesePod
@ 40555 Studying Japanese
A 啊喲，你這麼用功，在學日語！
āyō, nǐ zhème yònggōng, zài xué rìyǔ!
Wow, you're so hard-working, studying Japanese!
B 嗯，剛開始的。歲月不饒人啊，現在學點東西可真費勁。
ng4, gāng kāishǐ de. suìyuè bù ráorén a, xiànzài xué diǎn dōngxi kě zhēn fèijìn.
Yeah, I just started. Time and tide wait for no man. Studying stuff now is really tiring.
A 日語和漢語不是挺像的嘛。總比學英語容易吧。
rìyǔ hé hànyǔ bù shì tǐng xiàng de ma. zǒng bǐ xué yīngyǔ róngyì ba.
But Japanese and Chinese are really similar, right? It's got to be easier than studying English, anyway.
B 我以前也這麼想。現在發現，日語只是開頭簡單，比如書寫、發音什麼的。可是想學得深一點就難了。
wǒ yǐqián yě zhème xiǎng. xiànzài fāxiàn, rìyǔ zhǐshì kāitóu jiǎndān, bǐrú shūxiě, fāyīn shénme de. kěshì xiǎng xué de shēn yīdiǎn jiù nán le.
I used to think that. Now I find that Japanese is only easy in the beginning, for writing and pronunciation and stuff. But if you want to dig deeper in your studies it's difficult.
A 日語裡不是有很多漢字嗎，我們中國人自己琢磨琢磨就明白了。不過，除了漢字，還有些怪怪的符號。那是什麼呀？
rìyǔ lǐ bù shì yǒu hěn duō hànzì ma, wǒmen zhōngguórén zìjǐ zuómo zuómo jiù míngbai le. bùguò, chúle hànzì, hái yǒuxiē guàiguài de fúhào. nà shì shénme yā?
Doesn't Japanese have lots of Chinese characters? We Chinese can just put some thought into it and then we'll get it. But besides Chinese characters there are also some weird symbols. What are those?
B 你說的是平假名和片假名吧，那是日語的注音符號。在日語中，同一個發音對應著平假名和片假名兩種寫法。平假名是從漢字的草書演化過來的，用於一般的書寫。片假名源於漢字的偏旁部首，主要是用來表示外來語或強調的。
nǐ shuō de shì píngjiǎmíng hé piànjiǎmíng ba, nà shì rìyǔ de zhùyīn fúhào. zài rìyǔ zhōng, tóng yī ge fāyīn duìyìng zhe píngjiǎmíng hé piànjiǎmíng liǎng zhǒng xiěfǎ. píngjiǎmíng shì cóng hànzì de cǎoshū yǎnhuà guòlai de, yòngyú yībān de shūxiě. piànjiǎmíng yuányú hànzì de piānpáng bùshǒu, zhǔyào shì yònglái biǎoshì wàiláiyǔ huò qiángdiào de.
You're talking about hiragana and katakana. They're the phonetic writing system of Japanese. In Japanese, the same sounds correspond to both the written forms of hiragana and of katakana. Hiragana evolved from the grass script form of Chinese characters, and are used in typical writing. Katakana originated from the radicals of Chinese characters, and is mainly used to express foreign loanwords or emphasis.
A 噢，這個我知道，日語裡有好多從英語直接音譯過來的詞。
ō, zhège wǒ zhīdào, rìyǔ lǐ yǒu hǎo duō cóng yīngyǔ zhíjiē yīnyì guòlai de cí.
Oh, I know this: a lot of English words were directly transliterated into Japanese words.
B 嗯，不過它們還是比較有日本特色的，完全聽不出原來是什麼。
ng4, bùguò tāmen háishi bǐjiào yǒu rìběn tèsè de, wánquán tīngbuchū yuánlái shì shénme.
Yeah, but they still have Japanese characteristics. You can't tell at all what they were originally.
A 那日語中的漢字都是繁體字嗎？
nà rìyǔ zhōng de hànzì dōu shì fántǐzì ma?
So are the Chinese characters in Japanese all traditional characters?
B 繁體佔多數，還有一些日式簡體字，和我們簡體字的寫法不太一樣。比如“出発”的“発”。中文裡就沒有這個字。
fántǐ zhàn duōshù, hái yǒu yīxiē rìshì jiǎntǐzì, hé wǒmen jiǎntǐzì de xiěfǎ bùtài yīyàng. bǐrú `` chū" de ``" . Zhōngwén lǐ jiù méiyǒu zhège zì.
Traditional characters comprise the majority, but there are also a few Japanese character simplifications that are somewhat different from our simplified characters. For example, the ``patsu" in ``shuppatsu." This character doesn't exist in Chinese.
A 怎麼聽起來這麼複雜？
zěnme tīng qǐlai zhème fùzá?
Why does it seem so complicated?
B 複雜的還在後面呢。比如一字多音，還有語法。我總結下來，發現和漢語越接近的語言對我們來說反而越難學，因為你會用漢語的思維去解讀。
fùzá de hái zài hòumian ne. bǐrú yī zì duō yīn, háiyǒu yǔfǎ. wǒ zǒngjié xiàlai, fāxiàn hé hànyǔ yuè jiējìn de yǔyán duì wǒmen láishuō fǎnér yuè nánxué, yīnwèi nǐ huì yòng hànyǔ de sīwéi qù jiědú.
The really complicated stuff is still coming. For example, the multiple readings for each character, and the grammar. In the end, I've discovered that languages too similar to Mandarin are actually harder to learn, because you'll be applying your Chinese concepts when deciphering them.
A 哎，我覺得只要是語言，都不好學。你看英語，和咱們中文一點都不相干，我不是也學不好嗎？
āi, wǒ juéde zhǐyào shì yǔyán, dōu bù hǎoxué. nǐ kàn yīngyǔ, hé zánmen Zhōngwén yīdiǎn dōu bù xiānggān, wǒ bù shì yě xuébuhǎo ma?
Ah, I think that as long as it's a language, it's always going to be difficult. Take a look at English. It's not at all similar to Chinese, but I can't even learn it, right?
Key Vocabulary
歲月不饒人 suìyuè bù ráorén
費勁 fèijìn
琢磨 zuómo
平假名 píngjiǎmíng
片假名 piànjiǎmíng
演化 yǎnhuà
外來語 wàiláiyǔ
解讀 jiědú
相干 xiānggān
Supplementary Vocabulary
來源 láiyuán
記憶力 jìyìlì
省力 shěnglì
萬事開頭難 wànshì kāitóu nán
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