Japanese counting

[Mux213]

Widar,

I can't bring my self to spend the proper time to learn this language although I was well on my way before I met my girlfriend and had to switch to Cantonese.

Now the thing with asian language like cantonese, manderin and japanese is that the grammer is the simplest around!! Japanese is most likely the most easy language to learn grammer wise.

What makes these languages difficult is that you have all these different tones that change similar words and for a europian its very hard to hear the differences. Als offcourse not using an alfabet means you have to learn all the signs. In this respect Japanese again is the easiest because there is an alfabet form of japanese that is great if you want to learn to understand and speak japanese and dont care about being able to write/read it and that in japanese there are only 3 tones, not 7 like in cantonese.

Some nice things about cantonese to realize:
To buy something or to sell something is the word maai but you either say it with the tone going up or down. I still get them wrong so cantonese people will not figure out if I am selling something or buying it
The same way is that 9, dog and dick are all forms of the word gau or however you'd spell it

But what these languages all have in common is there serious simplicity of grammer.

In japanese the difference between saying something and asking something is a single word (if I remember correctly its ka)
So:
Bastiaan des -> my name is bastiaan
Bastiaan des ka -> is your name bastiaan?
(I think its fully something like watashi wa bastiaan des or something similar, and then when you turn it into a question you need to use you instead of I offcourse )

In cantonese its also fun, when you ask something you basically give the two options
I want something -> ngor yieuw jat jek miauw
Do you want or not want something -> nee yieuw m yieuw jat jek miauw
(basically you want not want 1 cat, the jek is just something you place between the number and the object, dont ask em why, cantonese sometimes stuff words in their sentences )

I dont know about japanese but in cantonese you have no difference between he or she. Also you dont have any difference between single or multiple.
he/she has a cat -> keui jou jat jek miauw
he/she has two cats -> keui jou leung jek miauw
Here is somethign strange though, 2 is ji, but in this sentence you use leung for 2.. something to do with ji being a number and leung being an amount, awell..

There is also no difference in verbs
I have a cat -> ngor jou jat jek miauw
he has a cat -> keui jou jat jek miauw
you have a cat -> nee jou jat jek miauw

I'm not sure how that compares to japanese though and dont forget I'm just a beginner so I probably didn't make any sence to a cantonese person

I love asian language!