(TikTok screencap)

    • merc@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      I don’t know much Japanese, but the bits I do know suggest it’s a very different language than English. Not just different sounds, but also just a different approach to expressing things. Like, I think instead of saying “I’m hungry”, they just say “hungry!” Presumably though, they do use “I” when it’s needed for disambiguation.

      For, example, if you’re with a friend and someone asks “are you guys college students?” The response would probably be something like “He is but I’m not”, right?

      • I don’t know much Japanese, but the bits I do know suggest it’s a very different language than English. Not just different sounds

        As a Cantonese and Mandarin speaker, sometime I can pick out Japanese words because these languages all have the same roots, so I guess some words decended from a common word in the past, but now sounds different because of geography and separation.

        I remember when I watched Steins;Gate and when the word [第三次世界大戰/Dai san ji se kai tai sen/World War 3] (Cantonese would be like: Dai Saam Ci Sai Gaai Dai Zin) was uttered, I was like: Holy shit, why is it so similar to Cantonese. Like the impact of the line being devlivered actually felt more intense, I felt the emotions of the soon to be billions of fictional deaths was being described

        Also: [電話/Denwa/Telephone] sounds very close to Mandarin’s Dian Hua