Current mood:	thoughtful
Current music:	The Damned - Citadel Zombies

Languages are Magic

It was the  university Japanese Speech Contest today.  I didn't enter, and I'm sort of glad I didn't - really, my ability pales in comparison to the people from my year who performed today.  Maybe next year...

Jay got 1st prize in the Chinese Speech Contest, which was expected :)  Well done Jay!

OK, so I'm not as good at Japanese as I'd like to be, and as good as I thought I would be during my first year (when I somehow managed to come top in the year).  I'm not sure exactly why my Japanese stopped improving after reaching a certain level, but I imagine it's got something to do with lack of inate language ability (many people taking Japanese are born linguists, and are fluent in more than two languages, whereas I'm not), a lack of confidence (or perhaps this is an excuse for a lack of effort to really talk in Japanese when I have the opportunity??), and a lack of Japanese partner (it's true - the best people in the year are always the ones with a Japanese boyfriend/girlfriend).  Not that I mind about the last one :) 

But anyway, I still enjoy it, for my own reasons.  One of the reasons is that languages are one of the closest things to real magic.

The first time I ever spoke Japanese to a Japanese person is a moment I will never forget.  It was before I'd gone to uni, so all my Japanese was self-taught.  I was working in my Dad's shop, when a group of Japanese teenage girls came in.  I think I just said something like "arigatou" or whatever, but they were stunned.  And then they suddenly took notice of me, and we started communicating.  Now, that's how language is magic.  It will forge an immediate link between two people who come from opposite ends of the earth.  A person who speaks a different language to you is an unknown, a foreigner.  When they suddenly speak a language, they become human.  Just think of the scene where speaking English saves a German soldier in Saving Private Ryan, and you'll know what I mean.

And language gives you the power to do just about anything - to influence people, to convey knowledge, to put a detailed image in someone's mind of something you've experienced.  Language is power.

I also remember the first time I saw someone writing a kanji too.  It was when I'd just gone to uni, and before the term started, I met up with a Chinese language student.  We were discussing something, and he drew a kanji on a bit of scrap paper to prove some point or other.  I was just amazed.  He drew it so casually, so gracefully, and so quickly - this magical symbol just appeared beneath his pencil in an instant.  I actually gasped; I thought, I'd never be able to do such a thing.

Well, of course, now I can.  Kanji (well, some of them anyway!) is second nature.  It's no longer a mysterious wonder; it's a functional tool.

But it's still magical.

Japanese of the Day: 入浴剤 - nyuuyokuzai - Bath salts