Japanese songs with "English" lyrics.

DYRE

One of my cousins wants to go to Japan to be an English teacher.

That's all I know about the subject though.

Chagen

More that the HUGE differences in the languages make learning each other hell.

Completely different orthography, phonology, Japanese uses particles to mark subjects and objects, it has no articles, verbs don't decline for past tense, nouns don't decline for number.....

DYRE

No, Chagen, it's also that English education in Japan sucks.  Though, to be fair, the fact that there's no reason for anyone in Japan to speak English (since very nearly everyone in the country speaks Japanese) certainly doesn't give them much incentive to improve their English education.

TheMightyAnonym

This is going to sound weird, but I find Japanese easier than English. It's simple, it uses implied meanings, it's not boring, and best of all EVERYTHING IS EASY TO PRONOUNCE.

Chagen

Yeah, and each word means up to 7+ different, completely unrelated meanings. So it's not a walk in the park.

Also, implied meanings are one thing I find difficult about other languages, since English doesn't have them. I'm used to having everything explicitly spelled out in each sentence.

snowbull

I'm not sure you're right about that, friend.

Chagen

...Which part of my post are you refuting?

Stormtroper

Japanese verbs do decline for past tense, and unless I'm misunderstanding this declension thing, so do nouns (often) decline for number.

Also, "implied meaning"? If it's exactly what it says on the tin, that post has quite a few.

snowbull

^^I'm not your friend, buddy.

though may we could be

Chagen

Really? As wikipedia says:

"猫 neko can be translated as "cat", "cats", "a cat", "the cat", "some cats" and so forth, depending on context."

Japanese nouns never change for number, they directly place the literal number after it. Saying "two cats" in Japanese would literally translate to "cat-two".

Stormtroper

http://www.jisho.org/words?jap=&eng=pluralizing+suffix&dict=edict

Unless these suffixes don't count for some reason.

Chagen

That doesn't count as declension, though (Declension is when a word directly changes to signify some change in usage. So, "cats" declines into "cats" to mark plurality, for example). Not technically. But it really isn't that different, anyway, so...I guess I'm wrong.

TheMightyAnonym

"Also, "implied meaning"? If it's exactly what it says on the tin, that post has quite a few."

The Japanese usually don't state things directly, instead they communicate more by implying things. This trait exists within the language itself.

"猫 neko can be translated as "cat", "cats", "a cat", "the cat", "some cats" and so forth, depending on context."

 That's not a flaw, it's a *feature*.

Chagen

It's stupidly ambiguous. It's a flaw. I like English for it's tireless spelling out of every single part of the sentence.

Language should not be a guessing game.

TheMightyAnonym

English is stupid, it makes me meet other people halfway.

WALK OVER HEAR AND INTERPRET MY SENTENCE YOU PUSSY!

snowbull

SHUT UP YOU DICK

curiousTraitor

"The lady hit the man with an umbrella."

Guess what this sentence means?

DonZabu

>The Japanese usually don't state things directly, instead they communicate more by implying things. This trait exists within the language itself.

Wow, as if I didn't have enough issues with Japanese culture already.

^ TIHS YM KCIL

CITIRC AIGLATSON

TheMightyAnonym

^I like that trait, actually. It resonates with my inner poetic weirdness.

^^The woman molested the man with a toothbrush.

Obviously.

Stormtroper

The Japanese usually don't state things directly, instead they communicate more by implying things. This trait exists within the language itself.

Yes, but that's something many (most? all?) languages have, even if not to the extent of Japanese. English is no exception.

TheMightyAnonym

The Japanese take it a bit further though. So it is relatively different in that regard.