Question:
Say I want to have access to go books in another language.
How much of the gist of a go text can you get by just learning a few
go symbols? 20%? 80%?
How much of the gist of a go text can you get by learning a few go
symbols, and learning basic grammar and how to look up words in a
dictionary?
Would anyone care to try to rank English, Korean, Japanese and Chinese
in order from least go books to most go books?
Could anyone who already knows Korean, Japanese or Chinese comment on
how much is missing in the English language in terms of go material?
Which of Korean, Japanese and Chinese would be the easiest to learn
for someone with fluent English, some college German, and a smattering
of informal Vietnamese (which is tonal, which I find fun-but-hard)?
Answer:
A lot of people whose native language is not English (or Japanese,
Korean or Chinese) are buying go books in English and considering
themsleves lucky that they don't have to learn an Asian language.
There are already a huge number of books available in English covering
nearly all the available knowledge of the game. A lot of the best
books available have been translated into English thanks to a small
number of dedicated people working for next to nothing.
There are a plethora of books available in Asian languages most of
which are a complete waste of time. Often they are not written by the
professionals whose photo appears on the cover. However there are
still gems that are not translated. Most of these are collections or
dictionaries which can be appreciated with a minimum of language
knowledge.
In a Chinese book (or Japanese with some grammar knowledge) if the
text predominates over diagrams then you need a fairly large level of
knowledge (2000+ characters) to get any benefit from them. However,
if there is greater than 50% of the page area given over to diagrams
then the explanations can often be adequately appreciated with the
knowledge of a few (<100 characters). The most important characters
are the colours, some names, words like sente, gote, good, bad, the
numbers etc.Looking up words in a dictionary is very slow and really is of benefit
only if you are actively trying to further your knowledge of the
language. Chinese grammar is sufficiently straightforward that you
wouldn't need to worry, but some grammar knowledge (word endings etc)
is helpful with Japanese. Korean books are written in a phonetic
script and more grammar/basic language knowledge is requiredI don't know about Korean but there are definitely more books
available in Japanese than in Chinese. Many Japanese books have been
translated into Chinese, but the reverse is rare. However Chinese
books are abundant enough for the difference to be unimportant.
Chinese books tend to be cheaper, Japanese books generally have higher
printing qualityNot enough for the effort of learning a language to be valuable at
sub-6 dan level in terms of go improvement
My theory is that all languages are equally difficult to learn.
However languages that are related to languages that you already know
may be easier.
In terms of learning enough to help with appreciating go books then
Chinese may be easiest to start with. You just learn the meaning of
the characters and don't worry about grammar, pronunciation etc.
If you are seriously wanting to learn the language then you had best
choose the language that is most available to you. If there is a
Chinese, Korean or Japanese club near you (or large number of some
Asian group in your club) then choose that language. I am sure that
as you progress you will find people happy to help you.
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