Comments by "Gordon Graham" (@gordonbgraham) on "How difficult is traveling Japan with ZERO Japanese?" video.

@smallworldlifters “There’s not that much to do here that isn’t related to food”...clubbing on ecstasy in Tokyo, camping on pristine beaches along the Sasagawa Nagare coastline, co-ed onsen bathing, snowboarding in powder snow in Hokkaido or among the "snow-monsters" in Yamagata, drinking with fishermen on Awashima, hiking the Nakasendo trail, motorcycling along the spectacular coastlines staying at air B&Bs throughout the country...these are just a few of the endless things to do here that aren't related to food.
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@avocado8952 French is compulsory in Canadian schools. Canadians are worse at speaking French than Japanese are at speaking English. The reason being neither English speaking Canadians nor Japanese NEED to learn a 2nd language other than for passing exams. Those who want to acquire the language for future employment etc. become fluent. I've taught at a high school of 1500 students for 30 years and can attest that about 5% of our students are fluent in English. That’s roughly 2 students per class, most of whom have never been abroad. It took me 10 years to become fluent in Japanese while living in Japan. I’d say I’m about average among foreigners who live in Japan.
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@oooow6861 Listening skills take quite a long time to acquire in Japanese for a couple of reasons. First being Japanese is the fastest spoken language on the planet with a rate of 7.84 syllables per second. In daily life, the Japanese don't speak like they do in anime which is limited in its expressions due to the fact that it caters to a wide demographic including children whose vocabulary is limited and due to the fact plot exposition requires clarity. Also, Japanese tend to omit not only vowel sounds but also consonants in unstressed syllables, so words like 雰囲気 sound nothing like their alphabetized transliterations. On top of that, there is very little inflection in Japanese, most of the words are flat and pitch denotes meaning...pitch is very difficult for non native speakers do discern.
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@oooow6861 I would argue that English has more expressions denoting a single concept such as “condition” as English is an amalgam of several languages while Japanese is an amalgam of 2. Japanese is a more nuanced language that relies more on the listener’s ability to perceive things such as deference which are often denoted by tone or omissions rather than words.
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@oooow6861 Yes, in Japanese you can change the syntax and the meaning stays consistent. In English we can say "I relish tennis. I fancy tennis. I take to tennis. I'm fond of tennis. I prize tennis. I value tennis. I'm partial to tennis. etc. In terms of "concepts" like condition, we can say "if it rains~ If it were to rain~ Were it to rain~ Should it rain~ Should there be rain~ Be there any rain~ Providing it rains~ Under the condition that it rains...etc. In English there are more words to express the same thing, than there are in Japanese simply due to the fact that English has a larger vocabulary, because it's an amalgam of several languages.
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@oooow6861 The language with the largest vocabulary in the world is English with 1,025,109.8 words. Here's a list of the top 10 languages with the "most expressions"...meaning phrases to express ideas, concepts etc. 1. English2. Urdu3. Portuguese4. Hindi5. Russian6. French7. Spanish8. Chinese (Mandarin)9. Arabic10. Bengali
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*an
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