I currently have to use Subtitles, kinda annoying. And I despise dubs since the voice acting is so bad, I mean like the emotions in the voice, its so emotionless in English.
I am a English speaker with some fluency in Cantonese and Mandarin.
How difficult is Japanese? Am I gonna waste a lot of time?
Also what’s the best resource to learn?
I mean, I thought Japanese was super straightforward compared to English. I’ve been speaking English for three goddamn decades and I:
The last point resonates with me! 😭 all other European languages are actually write-as-you-speak. Why, English, why???
Danish has entered the chat. They don’t pronounce anything the way it’s written either. And French consists of 80 percent silent letters or thereabouts. It’s not just English in Europe.
I don’t know Danish, but French is at least consistent in what is pronounced and what is not. So seeing a word will tell you how to pronounce it even if it’s the first time you encounter it.
Edit: I was proven wrong about French.
Incorrect
Can you give me an example?
I can’t think of them off the top of my head but I studied French three years and remember there were plenty of exceptions to pronunciation rules. Here are some:
https://theperfectfrench.com/pronunciation/irregular-plural-nouns/
Scroll down to “Irregular Pronunciation of Plural Nouns”
Ils mangent - intelligent
Same four letters at the end, not the same pronunciation.
I would say, same prononciation different accent
I would say you’re moving your own goalposts here.
The Great Vowel Shift. English writing was sensible in the early 14th century around the time of Chaucer, but then shit got out of whack speaking-wise and the writing system was never adjusted to reconcile the difference. So you can blame the Black Death I guess.
It’s not only vowels, but consonants disappearing or just having a different flavor of sounds in each word. Like word, sword, swan…
In my mind drink is exclusively for liquids, which is why drinking a solid sounds weird to me. Because there’s no chewing involved swallowing pills makes more sense than eating them, but I’ll admit I don’t know why “take” is the usual verb.