How Spelling Keeps Kids From Learning

Re:How Spelling Keeps Kids From Learning by paulsutter on Tuesday February 10, 2015 @07:49AM (#9026774)

Actually in Japanese the kanji makes it much easier to guess meanings, especially with place names which look bland and empty in romanji.

It's pronunciation that's hard to guess from kanji.

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Re:How Spelling Keeps Kids From Learning by kyllo on Tuesday February 10, 2015 @10:33AM (#9027692)

I like how there are two ways to say "I have a headache" in Japanese, and they are written with the exact same Chinese characters, but are pronounced completely differently:

頭が痛い (atama ga itai)

頭痛がする (zutsuu ga suru)

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Re:How Spelling Keeps Kids From Learning by iopq on Wednesday February 11, 2015 @01:13AM (#9031752)

you think that's cute?

harakiri (腹切) is seppuku (切腹) backwards

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Re:How Spelling Keeps Kids From Learning by vorg on Tuesday February 10, 2015 @04:49PM (#9030158)

Also in Chinese, "我有頭痛", tho "我有头疼" is often used in mainland speech.

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Re:How Spelling Keeps Kids From Learning by kyllo on Tuesday February 10, 2015 @05:19PM (#9030301)

"我有頭痛" sounds very Taiwanese. This usage of 有 is an artifact of Taiwanese / Minnan dialect. The Standard Mandarin （普通话） way to phrase that sentence is just "我头疼" or "我头很疼". Also like you said, 疼 sounds a little more mainland and 痛 sounds a little more Taiwanese. A general word for "pain" is 疼痛, they are really synonymous.

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