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From: michaelm@bcsaic.UUCP (michael b maxwell)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Learn Japanese or bust. (What are we really saying ?)
Message-ID: <417@bcsaic.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 20-Dec-85 13:04:21 EST
Article-I.D.: bcsaic.417
Posted: Fri Dec 20 13:04:21 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 21-Dec-85 06:37:59 EST
References: <1791@uwmacc.UUCP> <839@h-sc1.UUCP> <1809@uwmacc.UUCP> <842@h-sc1.UUCP> <1814@uwmacc.UUCP>
Reply-To: michaelm@bcsaic.UUCP (michael b maxwell)
Organization: Boeing Computer Services AI Center, Seattle
Lines: 17
Summary: 

In article <1814@uwmacc.UUCP> edwards@uwmacc.UUCP (mark edwards) writes:
>  I had 4 years of Japanese classes for the record and use the language
>  practically everyday. To read a Japanese Newspaper I think I will 
>  always need a dictionary, but given equal experience in French or
>  Spanish I think I could fake it better. (Any one out there have
>  4 years of Spanish ? What do you think ?)
From my experience in Spanish (part study, part living in Ecuador), I
would say that one reason that Spanish is easier than languages
unrelated to English is that lots of the vocabulary of Spanish is cognate.  
You can often figure what a word you don't know means, or pretty close, 
because it looks like an English word you know.  I would doubt that this 
happens as much in unrelated languages like Japanese, except presumably in
recent borrowings (such as technical terminology).
-- 
Mike Maxwell
Boeing Artificial Intelligence Center
	...uw-beaver!uw-june!bcsaic!michaelm