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Nihongo ga totemo muzukashii desu yo!

persil

先輩
3 Jul 2006
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If this sentence is even correct!!!

Well, I just had to say it... I'm trying to learn it and started getting into it about a year ago. Okay, I took a long break in between, but now I'm back with a vengeance...

I read a lot about the language and the culture and I have to say it's immensely interesting and enlightening, but... BUT! Damn it's difficult. I see I'm not the only one thinking/stating that as I've read that in a lot of websites, including this forum. I know the language itself is not utterly difficult, but it's so different (different is good though!!!).

Anyway, I say this because I know I learned English 1/4 at school and 3/4 by simply watching TV and letting my brain do the rest, and now I may not be an expert, but I'm considered a pretty good English speaker (my native language is French), yet I have discovered that for Japanese, this is a big no-no.

So, am I just judging too quickly, or am I right?
 
Your sentence is gramatically correct, but you would say "nihongo ga totemo muzukashii desu yo" if someone asked you "nan no kotoba ga muzukashii desu ka" ("what language is difficult?"). You use 'yo' when you're giving new information to people.
 
From my experience the learning curve should be the steepest during the period from beginner to intermediate. At that point, it would just seem as if the more you learn, the more you don't know. There are also going to be struggles with hard to translate words like nante, nanto and kanji (if you don't already know chinese characters in advance). But after you've gotten past that point, the curve becomes much flatter.
 
Bucko said:
Your sentence is gramatically correct, but you would say "nihongo ga totemo muzukashii desu yo" if someone asked you "nan no kotoba ga muzukashii desu ka" ("what language is difficult?"). You use 'yo' when you're giving new information to people.
It's attached for a slightly emphatic ending, not always for giving new information.

As Bucko alluded to, here isn't any reason here for 'ga' so I would change the sentence to make it "Nihongo wa totemo muzukashii desu yo" which is the much preferred structure.
 
nhk9 said:
From my experience the learning curve should be the steepest during the period from beginner to intermediate. At that point, it would just seem as if the more you learn, the more you don't know.... But after you've gotten past that point, the curve becomes much flatter.
Funny, it always seemed to me that no matter how much you've learned, the more you know, the more you realize that you don't have a clue about anything. (Just my personal opinion.)
 
Thanks all.

I indeed thought I could use yo just to gather attention. In fact, from what I've read, I thought many ending particles (not the one used for grammatical purpose) could be interchangeable, and that just the tone of voice used could change the meaning, even though in written form, this cannot be conveyed.

About wa, okay, I guess it is the topic and not the focus in this forum, hehehe, or does it have anything to do with that?

Okay, nhk, so I at least have some hope that it'll get easier sometime :) About kanji and writing, I'm slowly realizing that I might have to dwelve into it sooner or later if I want to progress... I'm starting to understand the gist of sentences when written in romaji, but everything out there is not, so I'm still as lost when reading japanese...
 
persil said:
About wa, okay, I guess it is the topic and not the focus in this forum, hehehe, or does it have anything to do with that?

It doesn't have anything to do with the forum, if that's what you're asking.
 
persil said:
Thanks all.
I indeed thought I could use yo just to gather attention. In fact, from what I've read, I thought many ending particles (not the one used for grammatical purpose) could be interchangeable, and that just the tone of voice used could change the meaning, even though in written form, this cannot be conveyed.
About wa, okay, I guess it is the topic and not the focus in this forum, hehehe, or does it have anything to do with that?
Okay, nhk, so I at least have some hope that it'll get easier sometime :) About kanji and writing, I'm slowly realizing that I might have to dwelve into it sooner or later if I want to progress... I'm starting to understand the gist of sentences when written in romaji, but everything out there is not, so I'm still as lost when reading japanese...

Good luck on your endeavor. To make your life easier, you may wanna search some GOOD books. These books should give you what is most useful in terms of getting your message across. I find books by Japan Times and 3A to be particularly useful.
 
Glenn: ah, hemmmmm, sorry, I think I'm not sure it was :) I was just thinking about the wa an ga being focus or topics in sentence, I'm sure I read that terminology somewhere. Focus being new information and topics being known information.

nhk: thanks for the encouragement. As for books, I've already ordered a book about conjugating verbs, but for learnign writing, I'll have to do with what I've found on the net. I'm using the guide on nihongoresources website, which seems good.
 
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