From: Jamis Buck <jgb3@...>
Date: 2004-10-07T09:17:59+09:00
Subject: Re: Bit of the Matz Interview (in Rubyist Magazine)

Chad Fowler wrote:
> On Thu, 7 Oct 2004 08:27:08 +0900, Yukihiro Matsumoto
> <matz@ruby-lang.org> wrote:
>  speak.  We are similar to Chinese too. ;-)
> 
>>For languages, I've heard that basic syntax is similar.  I know some
>>Koreans who have learned to speak Japanese very quickly.  Reading and
>>writing is harder because we have totally different writing system.
>>I wish natural languages are as easy as programming ones.
>>
> 
> 
> Matz, if one wanted to learn just enough Japanese to _barely_
> understand what's being discussed on the Japanese mailing lists, which
> of the writing systems would be best to start with?  From what our
> friends at RubyConf told me, _all_ of them are used all of the time. 
> Is that true for the mailing list too?
> 
> My project for next year is to learn Japanese well enough to skim
> through for keywords in the mailing lists (if not more) and to be able
> to speak basically to my family in Japan :)

This is pretty much my goal, too. I'm not too worried about 
speaking/listening skills (although from what matz said, those might 
come more easily for me), but being able to read/write Japanese at a 
basic level (as Chad said--enough to skim the lists for relevant 
keywords) would be wonderful.

- Jamis