Loosing Japanese language

[Elgin]

Losing Japanese language

I've notice allot of Japanese are using more and more English and thinking its kool and all even in their music that's great. But aren't you afraid of losing your language? This might sound impossible and stupid for some but where I come from there's two languages spoken French and English. Every where there's both languages listed on milk labels, stop signs, TV stations.. etc. Both sides are required to be able to speak both languages for a good job but for some reason most French speakers speak English fluently like myself but the English speakers might only know a couple of sentences. For some reason the French speakers are using more and more English for example: when you go a store or a bank what ever, the clerk might not always speak French even if he's supposed to, hell I just start speaking in English from the start I guess its a bad habit of always hearing "sorry I don't speak French". Also I guess with all the Hollywood movies, and TV having way more channels in English then French, most music channels are also in English. This has caused my language French to change, I will use both French and English in sentences while I talk I don't do this for fun it comes naturally and its not just me every one does it. Now I'm worried that in the future my child will learn weird French from me and later on French won't even be used in my city.

If some are confused here's a example of a French sentence I might
say:

-Mon computer est sur le desk près de mon phone.
-Hey man, j'ai mangé trop de food ce midi mais c'étais great!

 

[Elizabeth]

You might be interested in this thread from a while back, Luc, echoing some of your perceptions on Japanese if not French.

Is Japanese going to way of the dodo? | Japan Forum

 

[Arashi]

I know this is going to come off a bit... ah, what the hell. It's 'lose', man. 'Lose'! To 'loose' is to set free, like 'loose the hounds!' or something. Sounds a little archaic too. To 'lose' is to misplace or not have something anymore.

As to your point... I don't think they'll go completely to English. I mean, they were able to successfully integrate Chinese into their language without losing it, so why should English be any different? Besides, I think it's just a fad.

 

[Elgin]

Oh sorry about that

 

[Elgin]

Sure this sounds like it would never happened since there's not enough foreigners in Japan right now but that might change.

 

[Glenn]

Also of interest might be this thread, this thread, or this one. There is also 鈍化する思考力, which is written in Japanese and is about the dulling of mental power and loss of Sino-Japanese words (熟語).

 

[its_me_the_shinigami]

i understand your point completely
recently i started learning jappanese. i had watched old movies and stuff as well as anime in japanese with subtitles and i thought it was a beautiful language. when i got this course in the mail over half the vocabulary learned in the course were borrowed and or modified english words and that was not what i wanted to learn i wanted to lear a beautiful and unique foreign language my intention was not to learn how to fit english words into a new word order and this really bummed me out

 

[Uncle Frank]

Seemed Funny!

My friend Ryoko would panic everytime she had to return to Japan.
She did not want to lose her English speaking ability and felt just a week of having to speak Japanese would set her back. She really panicked to have to speak her native language.

Frank

 

[The Gentleman Carp]

Ohayou Gozaimasu!

I feal your fear! Though my french is hardly conversational I have made it my new years resolution to brush it up. I frequently hear people refer to french as the second national language and have made a point of calling it "our national language" instead. Most of my friends don't care that they don't speak it, and some even claim to hate the language. Outrageous.

I felt the same disapointment when I started to learn katakana and imported words. I thought, "English would never betray me by bringing in foreigne words like Sushi, weird, impossible, or pizza."

Most languages import loads of words, and especially now when there is so much that needs to be named. In France there is a long rigorous process that a word has to go through before becoming french, but I don't know if many other languages share that protection. In Germany they use the phrase "up to date", even though they have a perfectly good german word.

I don't think you have much to fear. Not only that, but most of a languages interesting quirks come from how it has changed over time.

- A Carp

 

[TZed9]

Very interesting symptons. Quite worrying how the two lanuages of French and English are being slightly blended.....

One wonders, will we have less lanuages in a say.. a hundfred years time..?