日本人忘记他们的汉字了吗？
Are people in Japan forgetting their kanji?
译文简介
远离母语环境的背景下，很多日本人遗忘了汉字
正文翻译
Ryosuke Yokoe
Yes, they are. And I’m the prime example of this phenomenon.
I grew up in Tokyo under Japanese parents until I reached the age of 19 and moved to the United Kingdom. I was there until I turned 28 last year and I returned home to Japan.
是的，他们是。我就是这种现象的典型例子。
我在东京长大，父母是日本人，直到我19岁搬到英国。我在那里一直待到去年28岁，然后我回到了日本的家。
And, boy, I’ve come back basically functionally illiterate. Not only did I never read or write Japanese in the UK but I also didn’t have any Japanese friends, so the only time I ever used the language was when I called my parents once every month or two.
When I came back home every Christmas to visit my parents, I struggled to produce some basic expressions when talking to store clerks in the first couple of days.
天哪，我回来的时候基本上是个文盲。我在英国不仅从来没有读过或写过日语，而且我也没有任何日本朋友，所以我唯一一次使用日语是每一两个月给我父母打一次电话的时候。
当我每年圣诞节回家看望父母，头几天和店员交谈时，我都很难说出一些基本的表达。
I could still read and understand most kanji, but no longer could I write most of the ones I learned as a child. I struggle to write basic, everyday words like 許諾 (consent) and 承認 (approval) at my job. It even took me about a week to be able to write my new address without checking my national ID after I arrived.
我仍然可以阅读和理解大部分汉字，但我已经不能再写我小时候学的大部分汉字了。在我的工作中，我很难写出一些基本的日常词汇，比如“許諾” (同意)和“承認” (批准)。我甚至花了大约一周的时间，才能在抵达后不查看国籍身份证明的情况下写下我的新地址。
When I came back home every Christmas to visit my parents, I struggled to produce some basic expressions when talking to store clerks in the first couple of days.
天哪，我回来的时候基本上是个文盲。我在英国不仅从来没有读过或写过日语，而且我也没有任何日本朋友，所以我唯一一次使用日语是每一两个月给我父母打一次电话的时候。
当我每年圣诞节回家看望父母，头几天和店员交谈时，我都很难说出一些基本的表达。
I could still read and understand most kanji, but no longer could I write most of the ones I learned as a child. I struggle to write basic, everyday words like 許諾 (consent) and 承認 (approval) at my job. It even took me about a week to be able to write my new address without checking my national ID after I arrived.
我仍然可以阅读和理解大部分汉字，但我已经不能再写我小时候学的大部分汉字了。在我的工作中，我很难写出一些基本的日常词汇，比如“許諾” (同意)和“承認” (批准)。我甚至花了大约一周的时间，才能在抵达后不查看国籍身份证明的情况下写下我的新地址。
Japanese is one of these languages that you have to write by hand every day to preserve your literacy. Because so many people nowadays do everything on their phones and laptops, a lot of professional workers sometimes struggle to write certain characters (although not to the same extent as someone like me).
日语是你必须每天手写以保持读写能力的语言之一。因为现在很多人在手机和笔记本电脑上做任何事情，很多专业人士有时很难写出某些字符(虽然和我的程度不一样)。
日语是你必须每天手写以保持读写能力的语言之一。因为现在很多人在手机和笔记本电脑上做任何事情，很多专业人士有时很难写出某些字符(虽然和我的程度不一样)。
This is more an aspect of Japanese culture than the language, but Japanese society has a tendency to shame people who don’t possess ‘basic’ or ‘common sense’ skills and knowledge. It’s not that uncommon for people to be chastised when they can’t write even difficult expressions on the go.
这更多的是日本文化的一个方面，而不是语言，但日本社会倾向于羞辱那些不具备“基本”或“常识”技能和知识的人。当人们不能在忙碌的生活中写出困难的表达时，被批评的情况并不少见。
这更多的是日本文化的一个方面，而不是语言，但日本社会倾向于羞辱那些不具备“基本”或“常识”技能和知识的人。当人们不能在忙碌的生活中写出困难的表达时，被批评的情况并不少见。
评论翻译
很赞 ( 2 )
收藏
This is a scary post!! I’m terrified of the idea/fact that I will lose my Japanese/Kanji skills if I quit Japan. I spent hard years acquiring it, and even after 10 years living here I’m very far to be compared to native speakers.
Although I’m not thinking of leaving Japan anytime soon, I would like to preserve the hard earned language.
这是一个可怕的帖子!!我很害怕如果我离开日本，我会失去日语/汉字技能。我花了很多年的时间来学习它，即使在这里生活了10年，我还是远远不能与母语人士相比。
虽然我不打算近期离开日本，但我想保留这门来之不易的语言。
（回）Ryosuke Yokoe
Considering that you worked so hard to acquire it, you can probably write much better than I can right now.
如果你失去过一次，你肯定会把它捡起来，就像骑自行车或开车一样。还有一些app可以重新训练你的汉字技能。
考虑到你如此努力地学习它，你可能比我现在写得好得多。
（回）David Attaway
他是对的；我曾经是一名专业翻译，经过多年的文字处理（电脑上进行），我失去了写大多数汉字的能力。现在我已经退休了，有时我甚至连阅读都有困难。
Japanese is the easiest language for Koreans to learn due to the similarity of the languages but our alphabet is completely different. Koreans basically got rid of the kanji chinese writing system in the 20th century although hangul was created in 1400s (thank god) so the peasants could read easier, it was a gift from king Sejong who created the Korean alphabet. We still use it for important documents, contracts and all the government paperwork has my hanja (kanji) character name on it. I honestly think if you just watch a lot of anime you can retain Japanese at least for speaking. I also moved to Canada at a young age and remember taking classes as a child but don't remember shit now. The only thing I remember is 'tree’ and my last name maybe. My level of Korean is stunted to a child level around 5–8 years old or possibly even worse. It's sad but this is why it's really important for Asians to retain their cultural heritage and never forget their own languages. The only way to maintain languages is constant exposure and practice
日语是韩国人最容易学的语言，因为两种语言很相似，但我们的字母表完全不同。韩国人基本上在20世纪摆脱了汉字书写系统，尽管韩文是在15世纪创造的(感谢上帝)，所以农民可以更容易地阅读，它是来自创造了韩语字母表的世宗国王的礼物。我们仍然用它来处理重要的文件，合同和所有政府工作文件。说实话，我认为如果你看了很多动画，你至少可以记住日语。我也在很小的时候搬到了加拿大，记得小时候在韩国上过课，但现在什么都不记得了。我只记得“树”和我的姓。我的韩语水平发育不良，只有5-8岁左右的儿童水平，甚至可能更糟。这很悲哀，但这就是为什么亚洲人要保留自己的文化遗产，永远不要忘记自己的语言。保持语言的唯一方法就是不断地接触和练习
（回）Sam King
What a shame!
Let me reiterate, the Chinese language and writing system has been the most influential system for communication and education in the Asian region for thousands of years, just as the English language has influenced the west and the rest of the world across many platforms. Now that China’s economy is developing so quickly and may emulate its past glory as a nation that once made up 30% of the world’s GDP, more people are learning Chinese. I think cutting off the Chinese language/writing system was a mistake.
“韩国人基本上在19世纪就摆脱了汉字”
真可惜!
让我重申一下，几千年来，汉语及其书写系统一直是亚洲地区最具影响力的交流和教育系统，就像英语通过许多平台影响着西方和世界其他地区一样。现在中国经济发展如此迅速，可能会重现一个国家曾经占世界GDP的30%的过去辉煌，越来越多的人开始学习汉语。我认为切断中文/书写系统是一个错误。
I struggle to read or write my native language so i can understand
我很难读或写我的母语，所以我可以理解
原创翻译：龙腾网 http://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处
It's not unusual for returning expats, or even just those returning after a year or so, to get a little “rusty" in their native language. I noticed it when I got back to the U.S. after spending a year in Göttingen. It's not like my English was broken, but I definitely was noticeably less fluent. While in Germany, I took my first classes in linguistics, and to this day I tend to think of linguistics terminology in German first.
At least English and German use almost the same alphabet, though.
I think for most Westerners it's a marvel to us how the Japanese manage to master Kanji at all, or how Chinese people learn Chinese characters, etc.
对于回国的侨民，甚至是仅仅离开一年左右回国的人来说，对母语有点生疏是很正常的。我在哥廷根呆了一年后回到美国时就注意到了这一点。这不是我的英语坏了，但我的流利程度肯定明显下降了。
在德国时，我上了语言学的第一堂课，直到今天，我倾向于首先想到德语中的语言学术语。
不过，至少英语和德语使用几乎相同的字母表。
我认为对大多数西方人来说，日本人如何掌握汉字，或者中国人如何学习汉字，都是一个奇迹。
The answer is simple - Traditional Chinese, of which Kanji is based on, is too complex. That’s why China switched to simplified Chinese and now several countries are using it.
答案很简单——繁体中文，也就是汉字的基础，太复杂了。这就是为什么中国改用简体中文，现在只有几个国家正在使用它。
（回）Ryosuke Yokoe
第二次世界大战后，日本汉字也得到了简化，尽管程度不及简体中文。
（回）Neville Tsun
我不认为它太复杂，中国只是改用简体中文，因为它更容易、更快地学习，这是它的目的。台湾和香港使用繁体字没有问题。
Pretty much the same in any society. If people couldn't fill in a form in English by hand then people would think they never received an education in English, unless their was a reason such as physical or other disability.
在任何社会都差不多。如果人们不能用英文手工填写表格，那么人们就会认为他们从未接受过英语教育，除非他们的原因是身体或其他残疾。
（回）John R. Yamamoto-Wilson
Japanese has thousands of characters, and the difference, even after just a few months of not being in daily contact with the written language, is very noticeable.
我不认为英语和日语的语言损耗过程是一样的。 我们有 26 个字母要记住，大多数人，即使他们长期生活在非英语国家，也保留了拼写“同意”或“批准”等单词的能力。
日语有数千个字符，即使在几个月没有与书面语言进行日常接触之后，差异也非常明显。
You forgot Kanji when you left your country for studies, Indian youngsters don't even wanna talk in Hindi anymore much less than read or write it. If you speak in English in India then you're a literate person but if you speak in Hindi or a regional language, well…. then you don't have an education or ‘class’.
你出国留学时忘记了汉字，印度年轻人甚至都不想谈及印地语了，更不用说读或写了。如果你在印度说英语，那么你就是一个有文化的人，但如果你说印地语或其他地方语言，那么....那么你就没有接受过教育，没有“品味”。
I think your deteriorating Japanese and kanji skills may say more about your own mindset than some overall average. Sure the world has been adoring and worshipping western stuff for past couple centuries and that would make many individuals commit “cultural self-genocide", abandoning mother tongues in favor of deeper ingraining by western stuff.
Anyway, I knew a Canada born Japanese girl who could write many kanjis. How? Her parents were very dedicated to the Japanese culture and worked hard to pass on their passion to that daughter. It turned out well for the parents because the daughter happened to be the very non-rebellious type who also appreciated her ancestral culture, so she worked hard to learn and commit to remember the knowledge.
我认为你日益恶化的日语和汉字技能可能比总体平均水平更能说明你自己的心态。当然，在过去的几个世纪里，世界一直在崇拜西方和西方的东西，这将使许多人犯下“文化自我灭绝”，放弃母语，更倾向于被西方的东西深深灌输。
无论如何，我认识一个出生在加拿大的日本女孩，她会写很多汉字。为什么？她的父母非常热衷于日本文化，并努力将自己的热情传递给女儿。结果这对父母来说很好，因为女儿恰好是一个非常不叛逆的类型，她也很欣赏自己的祖先文化，所以她努力学习并决定记住这些知识。
（回）Ryosuke Yokoe
If the Canadian Japanese girl chose not to pursue her parents’ cultural heritage and decided to become a fully Anglophone Canadian citizen, there’s nothing wrong with that either, nor is that a sign of ‘rebelliousness’. I know plenty of British kids with Chinese/Hongkonger parents who do not speak any of the Chinese dialects and are, culturally speaking, indistinguishable from white British children. Again, there’s nothing wrong with that.
Although it certainly is annoying when I face barriers in situations where I require a native-level command of my language, I don’t at all regret the fact that my command of the English language is superior to that of my mother tongue.
这有很多种价值判断。生活在与父母文化不同的文化中的人放弃/忘记自己的文化背景，这本身既不是好事也不是坏事。
如果这个加拿大日裔女孩选择不追求她父母的文化遗产，而是决定成为一个完全讲英语的加拿大公民，这也没有什么错，也不是“叛逆”的标志。我认识很多父母是中国或中国香港人的英国孩子，他们不会说任何中国方言，从文化上讲，他们与英国白人孩子没有什么区别。再次强调，这并没有错。
虽然当我在需要达到母语水平的情况下遇到障碍时确实很烦人，但我一点也不后悔我对英语的掌握能力超过了我的母语。