Why does Satō Shio hate me so much?

[flemmings]

I determined to tackle my manga shelves and see if the books that simply made no sense five years ago have gained in clarity since. Also to decrease the pile of Bookoff-potluck manga so they could no longer reproach me as they do.

I was going great guns--a 長岡良子 in an hour or so, a 神谷悠 that left me blinking in '04 but which was at least coherent now, the fourth volume of an obscure something about multiple personalities in Bakumatsu. So in the flush of hubris I had another stab at この貧しき地上に (On this impoverished earth). And I finished it, but it took three evenings of steady plod and I don't know why. Am relieved to see wikipedia believes "Satō's works are considered more literary and thought-provoking than most mainstream manga" but I'm not sure it's just that.

And alas, there are two more on the shelf, waiting for me to bang my forehead on them. To say nothing of fifteen volumes of Sanbanchou Hagiwara-ya no Bijin, a work that I find an unending plod. As between Satou and Nishi Keiko, in fact, I think I'll take Satou. My work at least has some reward.

Comments

[sodzilla.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry if this is rude to ask, but how long have you been studying Japanese? I know from your posts that you used to live there for a while... how long would you say it took to build up a working knowledge of the language, and would it be at all possible even if one doesn't have the chance to live/work in Japan?

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Twenty years, on and off, but I have a bad memory generally, no visual memory to speak of, and am lazy on top of it. How long it takes varies wildly from person to person, and depends on whether you want speaking fluency or reading.

I got the grammar basics down in a summer, working through a grammar text, but I'm still looking up the same kanji and words I was looking up in 1993. OTOH I know people who were reading manga easily after two years. Really, it varies, depending on strengths and, I fancy, age.

Speaking is easier than reading in some ways, but for that you do need to be in a Japanese environment. Or I did. But I met a Chinese woman in Japan whose fluent and heartbreaking Japanese was acquired while she lived in Beijing.

[sodzilla.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the advice!

I've been trying to learn Japanese off and on for the last couple of years, but it seems for every encouraging word I get two "no Westerner can really learn Japanese" or "you're too old to become really good at a new language" or stuff like that. So it's heartening to know that one CAN reach a decent level of reading comprehension within a few years... that's really all I'm after.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

If your user info is correct and not adjusted-for-lj-filters, you're a decade younger than I was when I started. *Too old*, for heaven's sake. People.

It's true that to *speak* like a Japanese you have to grow up in the society. It's a question of judging the level you ought to be talking at: even the Japanese have said they have trouble knowing how polite they should be when first meeting someone. OTOH no one expects a westerner to understand those gradations. They do cut us slack in that area.

[sodzilla.livejournal.com]

I didn't REALLY believe I was too old... but at the same time, I've been in a frame of mind in recent years where discouraging words are all too easy to take to heart. Plus which, it's not as though I HAVE ten years of daily study to commit to this - at least not if all that's going to leave me with is the ability to order food and read kiddie books, which is what some people have implied.

I'm not all that concerned by not being able to speak like a native. I WOULD like to be able to make myself understood in a basic way, for travelling and such, but reading comprehension is the priority by far.