Reflection

Looking back on my research, I think my study of Japanese has supported my language beliefs. I really think it’s interesting that there are several different alphabets used for different things, and that there are so many more characters in their alphabet than there are in ours. It’s also interesting to see the languages that have influenced Japanese from trade routes.  I still wish I could look  up more about the different variations and dialects.

 

Recommendations

Based off what I have found, I would like to research more of what the different variations of Japanese look like. Also, if I had the sources, I would record someone speaking in Tokyo dialect and someone speaking with an Osaka dialect so that I could look at the difference between the 2 and try to decipher how they are different. I would still like to study the origin of Japanese and more about what religions or beliefs could have shaped it. 

 

Conclusions

I learned many things from this project that I have been wondering about. I also answer some of the questions that people wanted to know from my survey, when I asked: “what do you know about Japanese/ what would you like to learn?”
This is what I’ve concluded:
Japanese is very original, and only has traces of other languages—primarily Chinese. It also has some traces of western Languages in it’ s numbers and such; though Japanese also has it’s own characters that can be used for numbers. The separate islands also have dialects of their own, though they speak the same languages. Westerners normally can’t tell the difference, but to the natives it makes a world of difference. There are many variations/alphabets of Japanese. These are kanji, hiragana, katakana, Romaji. Kanji is modified Chinese, while Romaji is mainly only used to type on computers or for company logos.

Audio recordings

I am planning on doing 3 voice recordings of phrases: One in Japanese, one in Chinese, and a third in English. The phrases will all the same, and the english will act as the control while the Chinese and Japanese recordings can show the difference between the 2 languages, so that people can hear how they both sound. 

The phrases are:

How are you today?

My dog has four legs. 

Only the Chinese and english have been recorded so far. 

Chinese:

English:

Survey Data:

This is some of the data I collected from my survey of 25 ninth graders. One of the questions was if they have been exposed to Japanese, and how. Most people have been exposed to Japanese in some way-- Only 4 people answered that they have never been exposed at all. My second graph shows that 13 people have been exposed through Television, 8 people have been exposed through their friends, 2 people through celebrities, 2 people through music, and 2 people through books. 

Primary research plans

My subjects for my survey will be around 25-60 9th graders at decatur high school. I will hand out a written questionnaire. Shown below. 

Japanese Language survey-

• Have you been exposed to Japanese? in what way? (TV show, family member, friend, trip,etc...)
  
• Would you be able to tell the difference between japanese and other languages (such as chinese, korean,etc..) from hearing it? from seeing the written characters? 
  
• Would you be interested in learning more about the japanese language and it's history?
  
• What would you like to know?
  
• What sort of prior knowledge do you have about Japanese? If any, please list some information. 

Sources

"Japanese Language - MSN Encarta." MSN Encarta : Online Encyclopedia, Dictionary, Atlas, and Homework. 2 Oct. 2008 .

"Japanese language - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 8 Oct. 2008 .

Research article summary

from:

"Japanese language - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 8 Oct. 2008 .

Japanese is a widely spoken language, originating in japan, that consists of characters much unlike those of western languages. there are 4 different main styles:

kanji- modified chinese characters

hiragana- 2 syllable scripts made up of modern chinese characters

katakana- 2 syllable scripts made up of modern chinese characters

Romaji- Latin alphabet (also used in modern japanese for company logos and advertising, and for typing on computers)

Japanese uses western style characters as their numbers, (1, 2, 3,...) but they also have their own characters for numbers. 

While japanese was very isolated when it was developing, and therefore very unique, it has traces of chinese and Indo-European languages. German, Dutch, and Portuguese have also influenced Japanese words. This is because of trade routes between Japan and first portugal in the 16th century, and then between japan and the Netherlands in the 17th century. 

Japanese is still sometimes spoken elsewhere, primarily where there are japanese immigrants. Japanese is also spoken in many countries because in WWII, when Japan occupied Korea, Taiwan, parts of China, the Philippines, and many islands in the pacific islands, citizens were forced to learn the language in empire-building programs. 

Research questions

These are the questions I want to answer with my research:

• How did the japanese language originate? From another culture? if so, which one?  
• What are the different variations of the Japanese language? Slang, more formal, everyday? What are they, and how are they different?
• How has Japanese evolved over time?
  

Research Goal

I would really like to know more about the Japanese language (hence the title). I want to know the history, because I'm completely intrigued with how different it is. I wonder if it is based off any other languages, or completely on it's own. I want to know how old it is, who created it, how it has evolved over time, everything. I want to know the different variations too. So, I have a lot to work on. 

My language beliefs

I believe that language can both be all-powerful and completely useless and untruthful at the same time. Language can be used to trick people into liking you or to trick people into doing something stupid-- which in a way gives you power over people. But sometimes when you have a feeling or thought, language can't help you explain it. Language can help with getting power or lying, but when you really want to be truthful and talk to someone, sometimes language can't help you. It's useless.

Class discussions and  Ms. Lewis visiting really got me thinking about how in some situations, both of the above examples are present. Like when I'm talking to my friends, you can get a complete opposite point across than you mean. Then, when the misunderstanding is all cleared up, it's really sort of interesting to know what they thought. I love moments when some one's real language comes out and you can get to know them better.