What if someone practiced writing sentences in Japanese syntax of subject object verb syntax in their native language, would be English for me, in addition to learning grammar and vocabulary before practicing speaking?
Now that I think about it, I actually used to do that In Japanese 101 in college. I think there was some doing that in the early coursework and then I also used to do it a lot in my head. Maybe I need to relearn the old habit I haven’t used in a decade? Maybe I need to better organize my time and brain power to be able to do that?
4 comments
I don’t think it’s a good idea in the long run. I firmly believe the languages and the cultures are far too different. Trying to mould English to fit into a Japanese logical construct is just awkward. Also the fact that Japanese is a SOV never sat well with me, because often times things are left out for a lot of reasons. The idea that sentences and ideas are constructed around predicates is much more in-line with how the language is pragmatically used, in speaking and in writing. So you should look to get a “feel” of the language rather than interpolate into English what Japanese is like.
This is best served by reading example sentences, and if needed using English reference, then internalizing the loose meanings and concepts. In other words, you need two brains. One for Japanese and one for English. Practice writing Japanese sentences by imitating native material and understand the context it’s used in so you get an intuitive feel for when it’s used.
It doesn’t have to be complex at first, you can start with singular words. See someone attractive? “かっこいい”、”かわいい” -> “あの子がかわいいとおもう”
Sounds like the perfect plan to get yourself too reliant on translating your thoughts rather than just plain learning to use Japanese in the context of Japanese.
If it’s not a “skill” that stuck around, be grateful. I can pretty much guarantee if you get good at it again, you’ll be required to expend more effort unlearning it to get to the whole “Japanese in the context of Japanese” bit.
The syntax is one of the first problems to be solved when you start reading Japanese materials. After you’ve read a ton of sentences, trying to use English word order in your Japanese sentences will not even make sense to you.
Just learn German first. It’s SOV in subordinate clauses and as a bonus it can also do OVS and VSO (as long as something else comes before the verb) in main clauses in addition to SVO. It has almost no kanji so it should be really easy and you’ll be a lot more flexible when learning more difficult languages in the future. /s