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Originally Posted by blacknomi Sensei, gen-ki-de-su-ga?! |
genki desu ga... (Psst. The above question is asked when someone has (a) been in the hospital and is now out or (b) has or had a cold or an illness. So my response, genki desu ga... means, Yes, I'm feeling energetic/better/up to par, but....
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Originally Posted by blacknomi |
You are, really? or are you just pretending to be by using Men's speech?
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Originally Posted by blacknomi I wish I had time to learn Japanese. How long have you learned it?  |
Going on 5 years, and it's a
difficult language to acquire, for two reasons: xenophobia ('xeno' stranger, 'phobia' fear) and 'silence is golden' being a cultural norm! That is, you sort of have to be very good friends with someone before they feel comfortable enough to speak beyond the so-called niceties, so in general, it's hard to (a) practice and (b) pick up usages.
In my opinion, Japan is a case study waiting to happen re: JSL learners in a JFL environment. One of the main problems EFL learners face is not having the opportunity to be situated in a native English language environment.
ESL learners, though, tend to pick up the language much more quickly because they have opportunity. In Japan, however, and even though I am situated in a native Japanese language environment, I feel like an JFL learner because the opportunity to use Japanese is limited to greetings, speak when spoken to, do not offend: do not ask questions the answers to which the listener does not know (hahaha, which is kind of funny in a way because a conversation has to be about what the other person knows. That is, you need to know if the person will know the answer before you even ask the question. Given that limitation on topics, a conversation is usually about the weather or something insanely odd like, what's your favorite ____?. I tell ya, I am fluent in that area!
If you do happen to ask a question the answer to which the listener does not know, you'll be standing there waiting for a reply that won't be forthcoming, because if one answers what one doesn't know it may get one in trouble. You see, silence is golden.
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Originally Posted by blacknomi One Japanese friend finds my name, Sabrina, difficult to pornounce. So she called me sh a- ba-sha-bu. |
That's the coolest pronunciation! Where I live, in Shizuoka, the Mt Fuji prefecture, your name would be pronounced Sha-bu-ri-na.
I love Japanese.