Thursday, September 22, 2011
Why study 日本語。。。
There are various reasons why I chose to study Japanese over other languages (I happen to think its has a very charismatic ring to it), but it mostly has to do with my academic interests. As a だいがくいんせい, I study ちゅごく（中國）のとにほん（日本）の仏教 (Buddhism), and a great number of primary sources on the subject that survive today are only in Japanese, as some original texts were lost in China during the Cultural Revolution (and prior to it) while their Japanese translations remain. It is therefore crucially important for any Historian/Buddhologist of East Asia to be able to read and write both languages. Thank you for reading!どうもありがとうございます！
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I wondered where your blog was! I'm glad you found mine, at least :)
ReplyDeleteOn a note entirely unrelated to studying Japanese: your background here is quite intriguing. What is it?
Hey Kaan,
ReplyDelete(So I found your blog :-) ).
Yeah, there are enough of us giving "interest in Chinese history" as at least one reason for studying Japanese that I almost wish we could have a modified language track (like heritage students have). Ah well, we have to start somewhere and I suppose we still need to be able to ask where the library and the restrooms are when we go to Japan to find all these primary sources. Not to mention, holidays (next lesson) and Japanese-cultural things are fun to learn, too!