Lichtrausch's Log: The Sinosphere and Indoeuropean

[lichtrausch]

I'll use this log to share what I'm reading, language-related experiences, and whatever else I find interesting.

German
Heritage language. Strong passive skills but I don't have anyone to speak it regularly with anymore. I read the news and watch Youtube videos, and read at least a book a year in the language.

Japanese
I learned this language in my 20s for reasons such as wanting to read Murakami in the original, but also because I intended to permanently move to Japan. Right around the time I passed JLPT Level 1, I was gradually realizing that my native country had some attractive places to live afterall (the city I grew up in was terrible), and that Japan wasn't a good long-term fit for me. That doesn't mean I regret learning it though. I use the language for work, get a lot of enjoyment out of reading Japanese, and the language provided that all important foot in the door of the Sinosphere.

Mandarin
I actually started this language in high school, but I was a bad student and learned very little. Even once I had Japanese in my quiver, the required time investment for Mandarin always prevented me from committing. Now and then I would indulge in a burst of study, but sanity would prevail and I would return it to the back burner. The "problem" is that I constantly run into this language in my environment. A few years ago my frustration of daily encounters with incomprehensible Mandarin broke through the dam and I committed myself to learning the language. After spending more time on the task than I care to admit (tones were a nightmare for me), I can now read novels in the language and my listening is no longer terrible (still a long way to go). I plan to take the HSK proficiency test later this year.

Korean
The culture has appealed to me for a long time. Korean food is my favorite cuisine, Seoul is one of my favorite places on Earth, and I love the sound of the language. I first seriously engaged with Korean during a stint working in South Korea. Similarly to Mandarin, I am constantly running into Korean in my current environment, so at some point I committed myself to the language. I can get by in Korea and read novels in the language, but it's currently on the back burner as I try to "complete" Mandarin.

French
A side project because it's (relatively) easy and will open the door to the rest of the Romance languages. I would love to read French, Italian, and Spanish works in the original. I've worked through a couple readers and gotten a fair amount of input, but the language is going to require a burst of concentrated study in order to truly make it functional.

Russian
Russian hits a sweet spot for me as far as being similar enough to my known languages that I always have something to latch onto, but different enough that it's always fascinating. I've dabbled in the language so heavily that it's a bit of a stretch to still call it "dabbling". In the process I've developed some very basic reading skills, but my dream of reading Russian literature in the original is still a long way off.

Persian
Hits the same sweet spot as Russian. I've so far only dabbled, but I will return to it one day without a doubt.

Future Plans and Dreams
I intend to "complete" Mandarin and Korean over the next couple years. I also think it would be cool to know at least one language from each of the four major global civilizations (Eurosphere, Sinosphere, Islamosphere, Indosphere), so Persian and Hindi are very desirable to me. I'd also like to gradually build up passive competency in a number of European languages, time and energy permitting. Assuming a normal lifespan and having a life outside of language learning, the painful truth is that I'm never going to have the time to reach any sort of proficiency in any non Indo-European languages not listed above.

[MorkTheFiddle]

Any special pleasures or surprises reading Murakami in Japanese?

[lichtrausch]

Any special pleasures or surprises reading Murakami in Japanese?

I've enjoyed getting acquainted with the "voices" of the characters in Japanese. There's a lot of texture there that gets lost in translation. It's also fun to see how Murakami and other Japanese authors play with the creative possibilities of the writing system through idiosyncratic use of kanji and katakana.

[vonPeterhof]

I've enjoyed getting acquainted with the "voices" of the characters in Japanese. There's a lot of texture there that gets lost in translation. It's also fun to see how Murakami and other Japanese authors play with the creative possibilities of the writing system through idiosyncratic use of kanji and katakana.

Interesting to hear this in relation to Murakami, considering that a common criticism of his writing is that he seems to go out of his way to minimize what gets lost in translation, to the point where many people don't consider him part of the Japanese literary tradition at all.

[lichtrausch]

Interesting to hear this in relation to Murakami, considering that a common criticism of his writing is that he seems to go out of his way to minimize what gets lost in translation, to the point where many people don't consider him part of the Japanese literary tradition at all.

There's undeniably some truth to that criticism, but for me he's still very much a Japanese author writing in the Japanese literary tradition. Japanese is just too different for it to be any other way without reinventing the language, which I don't think he has done. I do have Minae Mizumura's 日本語が亡びるとき (The Fall of Language in the Age of English) waiting on my bookshelf, so I'll report back after I read it.

Edit: By the way, have you read Murakami in Japanese or in translation? What's your take on the issue?

[vonPeterhof]

By the way, have you read Murakami in Japanese or in translation? What's your take on the issue?

I've only read Norwegian Wood in Japanese. Granted, my perspective was likely influenced by having read the article I linked to beforehand (the fact that the person who lent me the book pretty much roped me into it didn't help either), it did strike me that nearly all the food, music or literature referred to in the book is Western, and I do feel like I had to do noticeably fewer dictionary lookups than with most other novels I read in Japanese. At the same time it didn't literally read like a back-translation from English, which is a good thing I guess

[lichtrausch]

I watched a vlog by a Chinese traveller in Aleppo, which is gradually being rebuilt after its destruction in the Battle of Aleppo.

New words:
填充墙 tian2chong1qiang2 infill wall
说不过去 shuo1buguo4qu4 inexcusable (I had a general idea of what this meant, but now I finally looked up its exact definition)
斑鸠 ban1jiu1 turtledove
豇豆 jiang1dou4 black-eyed bean

[lichtrausch]

My book collection was getting out of hand, so I bought a Kindle Paperwhite to encourage myself to buy fewer physical books. The first thing I read on it was Geschichte der Ukraine by Kerstin Jobst, which plugged a lot of gaps in my historical knowledge. Significant parts of Ukraine have belonged to many different polities so I ended up learning new things about Kievan Rus', Poland-Lithuania, Austria-Hungary, the Soviet Union, etc. The book was good, but I would have preferred less historiography and more history.

I'm currently reading 乳と卵 (Breasts and Eggs) by Mieko Kawakami. She was supposed to be in town this week to promote the newly released translation of her book すべて真夜中の恋人たち (All the Lovers in the Night), but she had to cancel because of Covid. I also read the first part of 玉米 (Three Sisters) by Bi Feiyu, which is rather depressing like so much literary fiction.

For Russian I worked through an article about the recent death of journalist Vira Hyrych in a Russian missile attack.

В Киеве погибла журналистка Вера Гирич. В ее дом попала российская ракета

[DaveAgain]

My book collection was getting out of hand, so I bought a Kindle Paperwhite to encourage myself to buy fewer physical books.

I tried to establish a rule where I'm only allowed to buy non-fiction, fiction has to be borrowed or out-of-copyright ebooks. It's not the immovable object intended though

The first thing I read on it was Geschichte der Ukraine by Kerstin Jobst, which plugged a lot of gaps in my historical knowledge. Significant parts of Ukraine have belonged to many different polities so I ended up learning new things about Kievan Rus', Poland-Lithuania, Austria-Hungary, the Soviet Union, etc. The book was good, but I would have preferred less historiography and more history.

All my understanding of the history of the region comes from James Mitchener's novelisation of Polish history, I wanted to read Adam Zamoyski's history of Poland, but it wasnt' available in a French translation, and of course it had to be in French!

[lichtrausch]

I finally finished 玉米, which became quite a bit easier by the end of the book. Not just because I grew accustomed to the author's writing, but because it took me four long months to finish, during which time I was studying Chinese pretty intensively. There was a passage of linguistic interest near the end:

"高红海在第二天的上午做了一件惊天动地的事。在他的文选课上。文选老师正在讲授苏东坡的《念奴娇·赤壁怀古》。文选老师五十开外了，操着一口南方口音的普通话。“N”“L”不分，“ZH、CH、SH”和“Z、C、S”不分。"

"The following morning Gao did something utterly shocking in his classical essay class when the teacher was explicating Su Dongpo’s “Red Cliff Lament.” The teacher, a man in his fifties, spoke with a southern accent that made his “n” indistinguishable from his “l,” and his “zh,” “ch,” and “sh” indistinguishable from his “z,” “c,” and “s.”" (translation by Howard Goldblatt and Sylvia Li-chun Lin)

I also read Algorithms by Panos Louridas, which was informative, especially the parts about deep learning and the math behind it.

For Russian I've continued with Duolingo and BBC Russian. Today I read an article about the protests in Karakalpakstan, a huge autonomous republic in Uzbekistan (the entire northwestern part of the country) which I had never even heard of before today. Embarrassing for a geography enthusiast like myself. Incidentally, the name of the republic and its people derives from "kara" (black) and "kalpak".

All my understanding of the history of the region comes from James Mitchener's novelisation of Polish history, I wanted to read Adam Zamoyski's history of Poland, but it wasnt' available in a French translation, and of course it had to be in French!

I would definitely like to read a single volume history of Poland too!