To clarify, I’ve found an inordinate number of textbooks that are references on Classical Japanese grammar, but there don’t seem to be any books that offer structured, organized lessons that, when followed from point “A” to “B”, will let you read, say, Heian period classics. Is this because the classical language is close enough to modern that knowledge of the modern Japanese lexicon, when combined with knowledge of the premodern grammar, enables you to access the older texts? Or am I missing something?
I don’t know Japanese, but in English, there generally are no formal, structured programs for Victorian, Elizabethan, or even Medieval/Middle English (e.g. 1300’s). The differences are primarily vocabulary and spelling, with a few minor grammatical quirks that are easily learned, and you can pick those up with practice and dictionaries combined with general English language skills. I don’t know of any programs designed e.g. to teach non-English speakers how to read Chaucer but don’t cover modern vocabulary and usage.
I don’t have a cite right now, but Old English (e.g. Beowulf) does have formal programs because of how different it is. I assume that most if not all of them assume that you already know Modern English.
I have studied, on my own, classical Japanese to some extent. I will just say that in my mind it is without any doubt the single most difficult language to learn. This is not something that you would want to endeavor without great fluency in the modern language.
That said, to my knowledge, there are no easy tutorials on the topic. Classical Japanese is touched on as part of the senior high school curriculum, but here the emphasis is on rote memorization of grammar, and spoon-feeding of some classic texts. Hence, almost all the material readily available falls along those lines. The most useful book I bought was my classical Japanese dictionary, as it contains extensive grammatical notes.
It seems that the tiny minority of people who study classical Japanese for any other reason than passing entrance exams do so largely on their own. In most cases, you would work from actual classical text and study the grammar as it comes along. Taketori-monogatari is a popular first book, as it’s relatively “easy”. The Man’yo-shu and Genji-monogatari are also very popular simply by virtue of being pillars of Japanese literature. In my experience, I have found that the earlier texts are actually easier than mid-classical texts. I read most of Ise-monogatari in the original text, and it wasn’t that painful, though by no means easy.
Of course, once you have mastered the grammar and vocabulary, and you want to become “fluent”, then you’ll need to to learn classical Chinese to read kanbun and you’ll need to train yourself to be able to read cursive and hentai-gana, as this is the way even printed books were written.
Sssssssssss… veeeeery difficult (as a Japanese person would say, while rubbing the back of his head)
Robert: Yes, Old English is taught in several colleges/universities in English speaking countries. Not sure I’ve heard of any in non-English speaking countries that teach it as a foreign language, but it’s about as much of a foreign language to English speakers as German is. Maybe not so much after you acquaint yourself with archaic spelling conventions, but pretty close.
Kanbun is something else that I’ve been curious about, jovan-how, exactly, does kanbun differ from Classical Chinese? Is it just a matter of learning the weird punctuation and knowing enough Classical Japanese to recognize the non-sinitic words, or is learning kanbun after learning Classical Chinese like learning a totally new language?
I think that coming from a SVO language like english, it’s probably just easier to learn classical Chinese than to worry too much about kanbun punctuation.
I forgot to mention that good (and expensive) editions of classical works will have both the original text and a translation in modern Japanese, along with grammar and cultural notes. This is very important because lost cultural references are one of the most difficult parts of reading and comprehending classical Japanese. For instance, when Yoshida no Kaneyoshi talks about “leaves of the bamboo garden” in Tsurezuregusa, just knowing the vocabulary won’t help you. You have to also know that the phrase means “members of the imperial family”. That’s where good annotations are essential.