Equality is rarely precise

[cerowyn]

I've deleted the long, rambling post on a personal philosophy to spare anyone the pain of having to read it. Nonetheless, I still wanted to share something. I came across the following poem in my Japanese Writing text book

Comments

[littleminx]

I add my name to the list of people who'd like to see a rant from you. I picture you all angry and mad scientist like, with flushed red face and hair all sticking up...

.. and then i gets distracted.

Also, this poem is disturbing and melancholy and beautifulhurty.

And the best thing we've come up with is "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog"? :(

[cerowyn]

In "our" defence, we have only 26 characters to work with, and only a couple of them are words in their own right. There are 46 hiragana, and almost all of the characters represent both a consonent and vowel sound (the exceptions are あいおうえ and ん, the five vowels and 'n'). The Japanese have a lot more to work with.

And who says that "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" isn't just as deep? [/reaching]

[littleminx]

i am confused by the wording... are you saying that hiragana are words or sounds? Or is this 'some of the hiragana are words' in the same way that 'a' and 'i' are words?

i think your estimate of three years for me to learn may be a little ambitious. :(

Also, perhaps 'the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog' is ... a statement to the... careless and blind passiveness of the west? *coughs*