Japanese Begins with a Whimper

I am sick with a cold, so Japanese did not start off too energetically. To launch my first day, I did about 50 minutes of Pimsleur Japanese lessons. It went okay, but I am not highly functional.

Rosetta Stone for Japanese

The word order seems similar to Korean. Subject-object-verb. In other words, rather than the subject-verb-object structure of English, exemplified by “The girl blew her nose,” you would have something like “The girl her nose blew.” Except I don’t know that there are articles in Japanese; more on that later.

I know I said I didn’t want to eat my way through this project, but I wish I could go to every sushi restaurant in the city during my Japanese studies. Nope, wait, I take that back. There are many sushi restaurants I wouldn’t eat in; if you’re not particular about who handles your raw fish, you will pay.

“Yes” in Japanese sounds like a sudden, energetic hi. That could be a problem. Every time I said it in response to a Pimsleur cue, Brandt looked up.

I got out Rosetta Stone, but felt too feeble to install it.

I like the sounds of Japanese. It’s pretty.