This morning I was commenting on Eri-san's post on the differences in English spelling and pronunciation and the difficulties that result. (By the way, Eri-san, I meant Noah Webster, not Daniel Webster...silly me.)
This afternoon I was studying katakana for my Japanese class. As I've said before, I don't mind writing katakana, but I hate reading it. The workbook exercise gave the Japanese word in katakana and I was supposed to write the English equivalent. First word, chokoreeto. No problem. I can sightread that. I know it's chocolate. The problem is, I suddenly have forgotten how to spell chocolate in English. I write "chocolet". I know that doesn't look right. But I can't think how it's spelled. I actually have to ask my son! Next word, resutoran. No problem. I begin to write restorant...no that's not right. Okay. Let's think. It's from the French...ah, restaurant.
My son comes over and gives me a pitying look. "When you learn a new language, you're not supposed to wipe out the old one."
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens
September 30, 2002
Comments
Your son is right. While I was studying Italian at college, I forgot English spelling little by little. And vice versa. After having lived in the States, the more my English got improved, the poorer my Italian became. Phew--
Comment by: Eri . Posted September 30, 2002 08:11 PM.
It's interesting, finding out the various ways our brains are wired. I lost what little Korean I knew while studying Japanese. I recall coming home for winter break and trying to speak Korean but only having Japanese come out.
I bet somewhere locked in my brain I still have that Korean language section. It just seems that my language thought process pathways are more heavily grooved towards Japanese than Korean.
Still - I think this indicates how hard you're working at studying Japanese! That you've been working your brain so much that it goes to katakana spelling instead of your native language. =)
-Jason
Comment by: Jason Cha. Posted October 1, 2002 03:46 PM.
Thanks for the encouraging word. I recently watched the movie Iris, and I feared the early onset of Alzheimer's disease. (A beautiful movie, by the way. I couldn't get either of the men in my house to watch it with me. "Too depressing," they said.)
Comment by: M. Posted October 1, 2002 04:50 PM.
When writing (on paper) is replaced by typing (on keyboard) with the advent of email and Internet, we alinate ourselves from our mother tongue unconsciously. And studying a foreign language compounds the problem. This seems to be ievitable in this busy world. If you are (or were) learning Chinese, I can help you. I'm a Chinese :-)
Comment by: Waylan. Posted June 16, 2007 10:15 PM.
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How do you spell that? (t-h-a-t).