I am currently struggling to learn the Japanese language. Some people say it’s easy, but I am finding it quite difficult. Maybe I am just not that bright.
In these struggles I was thinking of all the stupid things languages do, like gender everything, have words that are unnecessary, or just generally mess up otherwise simple things, like numbers. English, the language I am most familiar with is no exception. So I am not placing judgement on any language per se.
I was thinking about what would you change or do to make language clearer or easier to understand?
Numbers
Numbers should come from Chinese. There is a theory that Chinese people are good at math, because math for them isn’t a complete fucking mess like it is in English. Take the number “thirteen” for example. You do not encounter it again in the English language until 113, “One hundred and thirteen“
Chinese in contrast counts 1 to 10 with individual words just like English. Think “one, two, three…ten. Eleven however is Shíyī , “ten one”, twelve is Shí’èr, “ten two”. Thirty six is is Sānshíliù, “three ten six” and so on…
This makes counting and arithmetic much more straight forward.
Pronouns
Pronouns are something I am on the fence about. Me, you, us, them are all good but when we speak about a 3rd person, how important is gender?
In Chinese, the third person is “Ta” for males and females. For example if you take the sentence “she is a bus driver”, it would be “Tā shì gōnggòng qìchē sījī”. 她是公共汽车司机 in kanji. “He is a bus driver is the same, “Tā shì gōnggòng qìchē sījī” but the kanji is different; 他是公共汽车司机.
This can lead to issues when learning English. My husband will mix up “he” and “she” even though he knows perfectly well the gender of the person he’s speaking about. I suspect this is because of his Chinese upbringing.
On the flip side, I remember my first trip to China and noting that there seemed to be greater equality in job roles. I noticed more female bus drivers than in Canada. I couldn’t help but wonder if the lack of gender identity in pronouns had some affect. Language shapes our reality. In fact, some science confirms that language tenses affect people’s ability to save money.
Other researchers found that the people who used futureless language put about 31% more money into savings each year and had 39% more money saved for retirement than the people who used a language with specific future words . It is also interesting to note that people who speak futureless languages also tend to have less addictions to nicotine, practice safer sex and are less obese!
These are just the first things that jump out at me, I am sure I will think of more as my learning progresses. What would you change about language to make it better.