Nihongo Speech Files #2: How I Met Nihongo
October 1st, 2009
aka The Crazy Things You Do For Nihongo
Just added the English version of this as I write this post, with other additional side-comments. So yeah, be forewarned that this is not an exact 1:1 Japanese-english translation.
and in case you’re wondering, this is a scheduled post 
もうご存知かもしれませんが、私はアニメと漫画が大好きです。
…というわけで、日本語を学びました。
でも、最初はそうではない。
By now, I think you already know that I love anime and manga.
In fact, this is what drove me to study the Japanese language, though it wasn’t exactly my motivation at first.
子供の頃から、アニメが大好きです。私が見た物は「アニメ」だということはそのときまだ分かりません。CediとかRemiとかトラップ・一家物語とかセーラームーン。。。
I’ve loved animes ever since I was a kid, back when I didn’t know that they were actually called as such. There’s Cedi, Remi, Princess Sarah, Trapp Ikka Monogatari (Trapp Family Singers), Sailor Moon, among others.
テレビでタガログ語に吹き替えたアニメを見たから日本語を学ぶ必要ないと思った。
All the animes I watched then were dubbed in Tagalog so I never found the need to study Nihongo.
小学生の頃、Star Mandarinという中国語のチャンネルのおかげで、もっとたくさんのアニメを見ました。Ranma1/2やSaint Seiyaや Musashi no Ken や CaptainTsubasa やてっかまんブレイド や エフ。。。
I was able to watch even more animes during my elementary years thanks to the Star Mandarin chinese channel — Ranma 1/2, Saint Seiya (may I suggest Pegasus Fantasy in our next AniOke, pretty please??), Musashi no Ken (Soldier Boy!), Captain Tsubasa, Tekkaman Blade (all I can recall in this anime is D-Boy), F (epic F1 racing), etc.
そのとき、だんだんアニメで聞こえた曲が好きになりました。「この曲を歌いたいなあ！」と思いましたが、残念ながら、私は日本語を読むことができない。AnimeのOpening曲とEnding曲で歌詞があっても、意味ない。
Eventually, I grew fond of the theme songs in the animes I watched, and even wanted to sing along with them (most of the classics have lyrics after all). Unfortunately, I can’t read Nihongo, so even if the opening and ending sequences had lyrics, it’s all for naught.
小学四年生の頃、あるクラスメートが日本語の本を持ち込みました。どうしてその本をもってたのかは覚えられません。
One time during elementary 4th grade, a classmate of mine brought a “Study Japanese” book to school. I couldn’t exactly recall why he brought it with him.
これは日本語を学ぶ機会だと思ったがそれより、これは「好きな人に好印象を与えるチャンス！」だと思いました。
Instead of seeing this as the golden opportunity to study Nihongo however, I thought of it as a chance to show off and make a good impression on my crush.
だって、その本を持ってきたかれは私の好きな人でした。ライバルがあるから好印象を与えるために、彼が持ってきた本を借りて、ひらがなとカタカナを暗記しておきました。若いから、記憶力がいい、今より、ずっと。簡単に言えば、日本語を学んだ理由は最初不純でした。
Why, you ask? Because the guy who brought that book to school was my crush. I had a rival, so in the quest to win his heart (or just get his attention), I borrowed his book and memorized hiragana and katakana. And I did. It was a breeze because I was still young, memory works like a charm and all that jazz. Long story short, my initial motivation to study Nihongo was impure.
言語が利用しなければ簡単に忘れてしまう。だからカタカナをはっきり覚えているために、特別な日記を作りました。日記の記載事項はカタカナで書かれているが実はTaglishですタガログ・English.
It’s easy to forget what you learn from another language if you don’t practice it (katakana in particular for Nihongo, which I don’t often see compared to hiraganas I often see in song lyrics). It’s for this reason that I thought of making a “special diary” where I would write all my entries in katakana (though the idea only came to me during my 1st year high school summer vacation). The syntax is in katakana, but the semantics is in Taglish (Tagalog-English).
たとえば、”Pumunta ako sa Manila”, or “I went to Manila”を書きたいなら、カタカナで、「プムンタ アコ サ マニラ」や「アイ ウエント ツ マニラ」を書いてます。
Say for example I want to say, “Pumunta ako sa Manila” (or “I went to Manila”), I will write “プムンタ アコ サ マニラ” (read as PUMUNTA AKO SA MANIRA) or “アイ ウエント ツ マニラ” (read as AI UENTO TSU MANIRA).
この話をある同僚に話したら、「わ、すごい暗号化アルゴリズムじゃない！」と言いました。日本人が私が書いたものを読めても意味がわからない。外国語みたい。と、Filipino人が私を書いたものは日本語で書いたから、日本語だと思って、いみがわかっても読めないから、結局私のかいたものはわかってない。ま、日本語とTagalogを理解出来る人なら、別の話です。
I shared this katakana diary story to my one colleagues, who gave me the reply “Wow, that’s some awesome encryption algorithm!” Even if a Japanese gets to read my diary, he/she won’t be able to understand a thing. Whatever a wrote will seem foreign. On the other hand, if a Filipino sees what I wrote, he/she will immediately think that it’s Japanese, and will immediately think he can’t read and understand it. Of course it’s a totally different story if the said person knows Japanese and Tagalog.
それは私の日本語の冒険の始まり。もちろん、アニメもね。機会があったら、アニメの話をします。
ありがとうございます。
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how I met Nihongo (how my Nihongo adventure started). You can also say it’s the start of my anime journey. Will talk about anime next time, if I get the chance.
Thank you (for reading)!
Oh, and just to show you a living proof of the said katakana diary (kana memo? *ba dm psh*):
pardon the sucky handwriting
See I didn’t know how to Japanize ‘ed’ lol. This was written back in 2000 btw, during my vacation in Manila, where I was also able to watch a few episodes of Daa! Daa! Daa!, Card Captor Sakura, Boys Be and Gate Keepers live on TV (thank you BS2 and wowow)
In case you’re curious about what’s written in those entries…
[spoiler]
- Finished “Street Fighter II V”. Ganda pero di na pinakita ano nangyari kay ChunLi [Great, but gotta wonder whatever happened to ChunLi]
(lololol) - Nanood “Koko wa Greenwood”, di pa natapos… bukas nlang… + Clamp Gakuen Tanteidan (So KAWAII! & KAKKOI!~ SUPAA!)
Watched “Here is Greenwood”, not yet done… gonna continue tomorrow, also Clamp Campus Detectives (WEEABOO ALERT)
from what I can remember I was watching these in VHS… - Finished “Please Save My Earth” (chikyuu)
Related posts:
- Nihongo Speech Files #1: On ‘Lettting Go’
- Learning Nihongo, One Sense at a Time
- The Best Thing About Being an Otaku?
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