From: Richard Sams parkcity ne jp> Date: 17 aug 2004 Subject: Re: The myth of the "kanji barrier" Your free subscription is supported by today's sponsor: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Amazing Diet Patch The fastest - Easiest way to lose weight! Try it now FREE! http://click.topica.com/= caacvgta2i6YsbnuqMaa/MyDietPatches ------------------------------------------------------------------- I am surprised that so much discussion has been generated by this=20 question of whether the kanji on shogi pieces put people off or make=20 the game more difficult to learn. My first encounter with kanji was=20 when a Japanese student at a language school where I was teaching=20 taught me shogi. I remember being struck by the beauty of the Chinese=20 characters and attracted to the game partly for that reason. Even=20 though I had never seen kanji before, it did not take me long to become=20 familiar with the pieces (though perhaps a little longer than the 3=20 minutes which, according to Danerud Martin, the average Swedish=20 beginner requires!). After all, there are only eight types of pattern=20 to remember. Anyway, I found these "hieroglyphics," as one person=20 surprisingly refers to them, very appealing and started studying=20 Japanese. That took me to Japan and, to cut a long story short, I have=20 been living here for 15 years, working as a translator. In an earlier post, Paul Smith wrote: "But I think that the key question is - are there a significant number=20 of people who are put off trying shogi because of the kanji? And from=20 my personal experience (I could give various examples) I am confident=20 that the answer is yes." My personal experience is the opposite and I am pretty sure the answer=20 is no. The kanji made shogi more attractive and interesting for me and=20 I have heard several people say the same. Of course we can never know=20 for sure how many people have been "put off" because we are not likely=20 to meet them, but I very much doubt that shogi players in the west=20 constitute a small minority who were not put off and managed to=20 overcome this barrier through dogged and persistent efforts. I am more=20 inclined to believe that even fewer people would have been attracted to=20 the game if they only saw the kanji-less sets (especially those with=20 just letters and arrows). Some participants in this discussion seem to=20 believe that there is a vast untapped shogi population out there in the=20 west and we only need really nice-looking occident-friendly shogi=20 pieces to draw them in. This seems to me very unlikely. I think the=20 shogi population in the west will always be tiny, consisting mainly of=20 eccentrics like you and me! This is what experience over the past 20=20 years tells us (sadly, I hear that the MSO shogi tournament this year=20 has just been canceled due to lack of entries). When Habu was asked why shogi did not catch on big-time in the west, he=20 simply replied "because they have chess." I also think this is the=20 main reason. The kind of people who might get into shogi, already a=20 very small percentage of the total population, are chess players. Paul=20 Smith believes that more chess players might take up shogi if the sets=20 were "westernized." But this assumes that chess players would want to=20 play another type of chess. Why should they? There just aren't enough=20 hours in the day. When I was into chess in my late teens and early=20 twenties, it was an all-consuming passion. How would an obsessive chess=20 player find the time to take up another type of chess that is as deep=20 and difficult (if not more so)? And why would they want to? In my=20 experience, some chess players have even seemed a little "threatened"=20 by the thought of a different type of chess that might be even better=20 than the game they have devoted so much time to. I remember that I felt=20 some initial resistance to shogi, probably for this reason. The kind of=20 chess players who get interested in shogi are those who are losing=20 interest in chess, or who have exceptional intellectual curiosity, or=20 are exceptionally broadminded. They are a tiny fraction of the small=20 chess-playing population. I have another, more personal, reason for being annoyed by this talk of=20 a "kanji barrier." The Japanese have a strong prejudice that foreigners=20 cannot be expected to master kanji. Even though they were imported from=20 China (at a time when Japan did not have a written language) they are=20 somehow assumed to be uniquely Japanese and inaccessible to the=20 outsider. Admittedly it was hard work for me to memorize them, but you=20 only need to learn about 2,000 to read a newspaper and, because of=20 similarities among them, they can be learned in groups rather than=20 individually. In short, kanji are not as difficult as they look. Even=20 so, when I meet a Japanese person and tell them that I translate from=20 Japanese to English for a living, they invariably ask; "Can you read=20 kanji as well?" This cultural prejudice is widespread and deep. It is=20 shared, unfortunately, by Manabu Terao and Naohiro Sanada of the ISPS=20 (International Shogi Popularization Society). They have spent countless=20 hours wracking their brains about this "kanji barrier," thinking about=20 the various different piece designs they could use, designing special=20 stickers to put on the pieces, and seriously considering the=20 possibility of promoting shogi in Esperanto (I kid you not!). Please=20 don't get me wrong - I do not doubt their sincerity and I know they=20 have done a lot of good work in promoting shogi worldwide, but I still=20 can't help feeling sad that they have wasted too much energy on this=20 non-problem. I once asked Mr. Sanada whether he had actually done a=20 survey of western shogi players to determine whether they had had=20 difficulty familiarizing themselves with the kanji on the pieces. He=20 looked quite perplexed! When I met him recently at the Shogi Renmei, he=20 bemoaned the decrease in the shogi population in the west. "It's the=20 kanji," he said, shaking his head. I would be quite dismayed if this strange view caught on in the west. Richard Sams Your free subscription is supported by today's sponsor: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Get a Great Credit Card for You Today=20 You can find a credit card to fit your credit needs.=20=20 All types of credit cards -- 0% APRs, Rewards, & Bad Credit. http://click.topica.com/= caacvgua2i6YsbnuqMaf/411Web ------------------------------------------------------------------- --^---------------------------------------------------------------- This email was sent to: = shogi-l shogi net EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a2i6Ys.= bnuqMa.= c2hvZ2kt Or send an email to: shogi-unsubscribe topica com For Topica's complete suite of email marketing solutions visit: http://www.topica.com/?p=3DTEXFOOTER --^----------------------------------------------------------------