My impression is that it’s hard in different ways - namely, grammar
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Replying to @isaiahmschrader
After Chinese, Japanese grammar feels like being machine-gunned at first, just a terrifying hail of syllables. But then it clicks, and it's Lego-like and just beautifully modular and explicit.
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Replying to @samuel_wade @isaiahmschrader
e.g. “I don’t want to be tied down” is shibararetakunai, which at first …


But!
shibaru: to tie down
shibarareru: to be tied down
shibararetai: to want to be tied down
shibararetakunai: to not want to be tied down!!!
I find this just absurdly satisfying.3 replies 0 retweets 13 likes -
Replying to @samuel_wade
You may have a... higher tolerance for difficult grammar than I!
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Replying to @isaiahmschrader
I *hate* grammar. I never know where I am with it. With Chinese, I feel like I'm wafting gas about; with Latin or Russian I could never remember what the hell was going on … but once it clicks, Japanese is just *clear*. Those modules (re, tai, nai) become easy to recognise.
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Replying to @samuel_wade @isaiahmschrader
I will actually co-sign this, and it’s a lot more tolerable in writing than in a conversational context. It’s a different kind of Lego than Chinese grammar and it sticks together in different ways, but it’s manageably modular.
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Replying to @samuel_wade @isaiahmschrader
I’m not in the habit of saying anything positive about Japanese, or at least not without immediately qualifying it with something really damning.
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As someone who came from Japanese to Chinese, I can say the work that goes into expressing the same thought as a non-native speaker is far smaller for the latter because you're not under the same pressure to try and tailor every aspect of each sentence to an exact situation.
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“Wait, is the person I’m talking to better than me, or worse?”
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Chinese: It's Just Easier™
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Replying to @Pinboard @KangHexin and
Unironically, yes! Chinese is just not that hard!
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There are not that many people in the world who would be able to say that!
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