Subtleties of the Japanese language

Japanese is a very complex language. For example, we're currently learning about transitive and intransitive verbs. For those who aren't sure what the difference between transitive and intransitive verbs is, Wikipedia can give you a hand: "a transitive verb is a verb that requires both a direct subject and one or more objects". Or as I see it: transitive = action verbs ; intransitive = passive verbs.

In English, we'll say:

1) I open the door. (action)
2) The door is open. (passive state or condition)

We use the same verb "to open" but we simply rearrange the rest of the sentence to convey the different meaning. Well.. it's not as simple in Japanese. In Japanese, different verbs are used depending whether the subject (i.e. the door) is opened by someone (action) or whether the speaker simply wishes to describe the door's current state (passive). In the first scenario, akemasu must be used, and akimasu in the second. A couple more examples if you're interested:

to drop: otoshimasu ; to be dropped: ochimasu
to turn on: tsukemasu ; to be on: tsukimasu
to close: shimemasu ; to be closed: shimarimasu

... and many more. That means more vocabulary to be learnt, memorized, and crammed into my already pretty full brain. But supposedly, we only use a small percentage of our brains... so I can't really say I've used up my brain's full capacity... yet : p

Learning Japanese also has its little moments. The other day, a student from England mispronounced the work jikan and instead softened the first syllable to make out the word chikan. The teacher started laughing hysterically along with a few other students. Wondering what was so funny, I looked up chikan in my dictionary. The definition: sexual pervert; molester. That explained it ; ) lol

It's also funny when the Korean students in my class speak in Japanese and I can't understand a thing. I wouldn't even think it was Japanese if I heard it outside the classroom.

Time to study again. Coming up this weekend: shopping in Shinjuku with my roommate and going to watch some of Tokai's judo girls fight in a tournament. : D