Browsing by Author "Balasooriya, B.A.D.N."

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A Comparison of Particle “Ne” in Japanese and Sinhalese
(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Balasooriya, B.A.D.N.
Sinhalese students learning Japanese as a foreign language make many errors in particle usage, especially in the usage of particle “Ne” in their speech. Japanese language final particle “Ne ”and Sinhalese sentence particle “Ne ”is used in the same meaning, when the speaker assumes that he/she and the addressee have same status regarding the knowledge or belief about the piece of information being conveyed. Nevertheless there are other usages of “Ne” in both languages. For an example “Ne” is used to confirm something in Sinhalese: “Yamada mahata NE?”. However, when we translate it into Japanese it becomes “Yamada san desu KA?” Not “NE”. Therefore, students tend to use mix up Sinhalese “Ne” with Japanese “Ne” particle in their speech. Thus this study aims to identify different usages of Japanese “Ne” and Sinhalese “Ne”, what type of errors students make in using “Ne” in their Japanese speech and why they are making these errors. For this study, a group of Japanese learning students in the University of Kelaniya was selected and they were categorised according to the levels of their Japanese Language proficiency test results. All were given a particular dialogue to be made in concerned with the particle “Ne”. Their speeches were recorded and the data was analysed. The findings highlights that, overgeneralisation of Sinhalese “Ne” in Japanese context is the main cause for the errors made by students. In conclusion this research will help the students to identify the correct usage of “Ne” and will also be a guideline to conduct further research on oral communication.
An error analysis in the usage of Japanese Kanji characters
(Faculty of Humanities, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Balasooriya, B.A.D.N.
Kanji are ideographs meaning that the whole character conveys a meaning rather than just a sound as in the case of Hiragana and katakana. Kanji were originally drawn as pictures from nature but gradually transformed to more generalized representations. There are 75,963 kanji currently encoded in Unicode available today. However, the Japanese government's list of recommended characters consists of 2136 characters which are commonly used in Japan. Kanji characters have become the main obstacle for Japanese learning students in Sri Lanka, because of there is a large number of Kanji characters to remember and the period of time is mostly too short to remember those characters, (for an example students have to remember around 2000 Kanji characters within the second and the third year students of Japanese language education) when compared with Japanese native students. Most of the students obtain better marks for Kanji character tests but their writing and reading ability of Kanji is very poor. Especially they make many errors when they write Kanji characters. So this study focuses on identifying errors in usage of Kanji characters. The data was collected by conducting an essay test guiding to use Kanji characters as much as possible for the second year students reading for Japanese language special degree at the University of Kelaniya. The findings highlight the fact that, Kanji characters which has few stroke numbers and which are based on pictures are in frequent usage, complicated Kanji characters which have a number of stocks are in less usage. Other than that missing some strokes of the character, Kanji characters which have lots of strokes become larger than other letters and some parts of Kanji characters are mixed up with similar shapes of other characters can often be seen as frequent errors made by Sri Lankan students.
An Error Analysis of Japanese Business Letters Written by Undergraduates Learning Japanese as A Foreign Language in The University of Kelaniya
(Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Balasooriya, B.A.D.N.
The technique of writing Japanese business letters is very helpful for students who learn Japanese as a foreign language, especially if they wish to work for a Japanese company. With the aim of improving knowledge on business Japanese, a new Japanese course called “Business Japanese” was started in Kelaniya University in 2014. But the area of writing business letters is identified as a difficult area for students to master, although there are many books about techniques of business writing in Japanese. Most of the time students tend to memorize the examples that are given in text books and if they memorize it incorrectly that mistake will be made by them repeatedly. So this paper aims to specifically extract the errors found in the business letter writings of students, examine the frequency of errors and to point out often committed errors. In this paper, examples of errors made by undergraduates who are specializing in Japanese language, in writing Japanese business letters were collected, analyzed, and evaluated. The data were collected from a course taught in the first semester of 2016, and consisted of errors in internal and external letters written as practice on the use of honorific expressions. Many types of errors related to word choice were found. In particular, inappropriate combinations of recipient name and honorific title, inappropriate combinations of verbs and objects, mixing of respectful and humble language, and insufficient understanding of fundamental Japanese constructions were prevalent. Other types of mistakes included inappropriate layout, incorrect use of abbreviations, and incorrect use of Arabic and Japanese numerals. There was a tendency to make the same mistakes repeatedly, and it was concluded that the guidance offered by textbook examples is insufficient and that systematic training in formal written Japanese is desirable.
Eye contact of Japanese people
(Faculty of Humanities, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Balasooriya, B.A.D.N.
Eyes are very important in communication and they are more vital when it comes to foreign language communication. Japanese language is considered to be a high context language, meaning that a major part of the communication depends on the context, not words. So eye contact plays a significant role in Japanese language communication. But compared to Europeans and Americans, it is said that Japanese people are not very good at maintaining eye contact in their communication. So this paper focuses on why Japanese people are not very good at maintaining the eye contact, although Japanese is considered to be a high context language. For this study a group of native Japanese speakers and non-native speakers (41) in Tokyo University of Foreign Studies were selected. They were given a questionnaire to be filled and data was analysed. The findings highlight that most of the native Japanese speakers are good at maintaining eye contact in their daily communication although most of the non-native speakers are of the opinion that the Japanese people are not very good at keeping eye contact. It also highlights that factors like modesty, tradition, social class, up and down relationships in Japanese society, influence of Asian culture and unique etiquettes of Japan also make them avo id the eye contact in their communication.
A Journey to Discover Zen
(Faculty of Humanities, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Balasooriya, B.A.D.N.
The Reasons behind Japanese – Sinhalese Cultural Translation Errors
(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Balasooriya, B.A.D.N.
Quality language translation aims to share the knowledge and bridge the communication with world. Recently the language translation has become one of the most in- demand job opportunities for foreign language learning students. Responding those job opportunities, Japanese Language section in the University of Kelaniya added Japanese Language translation method unit for the special degree program from 2013. Though it has passed nearly 3 years, students make many errors in their translations and still they are not competent enough to do a successful Japanese-Sinhalese translation. Especially most of the errors can be seen in Japanese - Sinhalese cultural translations. Therefore there is an urgent need to clear the common errors made in Japanese - Sinhalese cultural translations. Thus, this study aims to identify the common errors made by the Japanese learning students in their cultural translations. The main focus will be on the errors based on the meaning of cultural word translations. Data were collected by reviewing cultural translations of the first year students reading special degree in Japanese language at the University of Kelaniya. Mainly the errors can be categorised as, source language writing errors, target language understanding errors and transmitting errors from the source language to the target language. The findings highlight the fact that, transmitting errors from the source language to the target language are the vastly found and the target language understanding errors are the second. The particular study is effective in the field of Japanese - Sinhalese and Sinhalese - Japanese translation methods to make the Japanese learning students more aware of the field of translation.