Saturday 9 January 2010

Japanese is possible, if perhaps implausible

Some time ago I downloaded some Japanese lessons from the internet called “Japanese is Possible”, and just the other day I got around to looking at them. Well, the first couple of lessons were about how great Japanese was, and then it went into some pretty basic grammar that I already knew.

Impatiently, I skipped forward towards the end of the course and found myself looking at a lesson with some of the most obscure example sentences I’d ever seen.

Akachan no fuusen wo ukabasete iru.
(He) is making the baby's balloon float.

midori sakana ni shinka shita ato, motto utsukushii datta yo.
(It) was much more beautiful after it evolved into a green fish!

daremo korosazu ni, sensou wo owaraseta.
Without killing anyone, he ended the war.

My guess is that in one of the early lessons I’d skipped there was an explanation for this kind of subject matter – perhaps they’re focussing on the sort of sentences you’d find in anime and manga. Certainly that would explain...

zenbu no uchuu seifuku sureba omae wo korosu zo!
If I conquer the whole universe, I'm going to kill you!

Which must be pretty difficult to use in everyday situations.

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