Oh I see o.o

Learning kanji isn't a problem for me since I know Cantonese and the Chinese sounds of the kanjis are similar to Cantonese. Does knowing Bisaya helps with Japanese? Lol cuz some words are in Japanese, like "pan" (means bread in Bisaya and also Japanese)

@Ivana: The word 'pan' is actually from Portugal. The Japanese picked it up from the Portugese travellers. ^^

Mm, Kanji is hate (for me), but without kanji everything is soo hard to read, once you're used to seeing those words in Kanji. (I hope this makes sense, lol)

I don't know much about Chinese, we have to study the grammar of Classic Chinese though. Which is awesome as the meaning of the characters are most of the time still the same in Japanese (while in Chinese they have sometimes changed ^^).

The only thing I hate about kanji is when to speak which sounds. I mean, you see two kanjis and you wonder if you're supposed to speak the chinese or the japanese one.


Do you mean Chinese literature? o_O I HATE chinese literature! It's the reason why I always fail my chinese tests lol x)

When it's two kanji, you most of the time read it in the on-yomi way (Chinese way). Although there are exceptions as always T.T

Umm, I think so. Not really sure what the correct term is in English for the course, but yes I guess it's that. ^^

The exceptions are a pain. 3 kanjis are even worse. The only 3 kanji 'chinese' one I remember is "Hokkaido" Most of the 3 kanjis are probably japanese ones, which you'll also need to choose which one to use (since the japanese ones have more than one sound).

But three kanji is (I think) always on-yomi (='Chinese' way). They might not resemble the real Chinese pronounciation, but they are most definitely taken from it.
For example: 大学生 (daigakusei). The kun-yomi (=original Japanese) way would be: oo/mana/nama, but that's not a word at all

I've looked more japanese videos and 'fu' definitely sounds more like 'hu' than 'fu'. I'm sure the person saying (or singing) it doesn't have an accent. I don't care if people say it's 'supposed' to be 'fu' (saying it's 'fu' isn't even entirely correct), I'm not deaf, so I'll just say it as 'hu'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5ZWY3Ab1wY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87uXH100EGo

There. Doesn't sound like 'fu' at all.

And I just hear fu. You're Chinese, right? Maybe, it's because you're used to hearing small differences and all, you hear hu instead of fu?
But all I can hear is fu, fu, fu.

I definitely hear it more as "hu" than "fu", but it is a very strong h sound, so it does almost sound like an f sound.
It's like fogging up a window with your breath and then adding an "ooo" to it.

Anyway, Japanese pronounciation is not such a big deal as it is in other languages. It's fu, but maybe not a clear fu? It's kind like the ra/ri/ru/re/ro, which in many ears sound like la/li/lu/le/lo. It's just something you will have to get over
Just pronounce it as you hear it or as Argoyle says if you're unsure.

@Ivana, English has complicated grammar? Since WHEN?! o____o I've always thought it's the easiest one, though I've only studied English (10yrs), German (8yrs), Swedish (6yrs) and French (3yrs). The reason might be that we hear a lot of English here in Finland, because there are so many tv shows in English so...

Funny thing about grammar in German, Swedish and French. As far as we got in school the basic grammar is identical except for one or two little things so you don't have to study the grammar as a whole again and again, only the small tricky parts

That's because we're probably learning English at a young age. We're not looking at their point of view. Example, like my Chinese classmates, they're puzzled why we must have singular/plural form, "a", "an", "the", the change in tenses etc. We don't have that in Chinese. If we want to say "books", we'll just add 'many' or say the number specifically. If we want to say we did said thing a while ago, we just add 'a while ago' and don't change the verbs.

@leelah: say what? English is simple? Than what's up with all the exceptions, and exceptions to exceptions, and exceptions to exceptions to exceptions

English is my first language and I still don't know how or why it works the way it works. "Gut Feeling" for grammar isn't exactly reliable (meaning, I'd fail any grammar test given to me yet I can write an okay article) XD

English isn't simple as you think. Just so you know, there are varieties of English. To wit, Philippine English, British English, American English, etc. Each variety has certain linguistic features though certain rules are still to be followed (which I find it so inconvenient to discuss here).

Huh? Doesn't Philippines just follow American English? o_O

@KTC
I agree with what you say about English.

English is also my first language and I still have a lot to learn.

I normally go with gut feeling and never really paid a lot of attention to the rulings until I actually had to teach them when I worked as a teaching assistant in Kumon.

Growing up in a country with many "multi-s" -- multiracial, multicultural, multilingual society, I (speaking for myself)am lost in all the language rulings. Thus it wouldn't be surprised to hear us "blend in" our local language and thus giving rise to "new versions of English", such as Manglish: (unofficial)Malaysian English & Singlish: (unofficial) Singaporean English.

In unofficial settings where casual conversations between speakers of multiple langauges get together, I "blend in" several languages and dialect into the conversation so if you're not familiar with several languages or the way I speak, it can sound really strange and confusing

It's a bad habit in a way but sometimes, some things will be lost in translation and doesn't give it the full impact of the expression the expressed phrase intended to make.

Quote:

Philippine English somehow resembles American English, but there are noticeable distinctions between the two:

1) Speakers of Philippine English do not have the American Twang/Accent
2) Some words in Philippine English is not in the American vocabulary (like presidentiable, senatoriable, etc.)
3) Other distinctions which is hard to discuss without drawing diagrams. I certainly won't do it here. I'd do it in a classroom, or in my research cubicle.

"American Twang/Accent"
^what does this mean?

Seriously, get someone from boston, a californian, and a texan. We don't sound alike >.>

I'm talking about the Standard American English. (I will edit this one later on.)

Re: American accent
My idea of an American accent is what you'd typically hear on mainstream American television shows.

Of course, there are regional variations but you'd get that in any part of the world.