Languages first translated.

Radagast said:

Either by people who grew up bilingual (like Jews speaking Aramaic and Greek in Palestine in Jesus' day) or by people who learned second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, ... languages as adults.

For example, when Europeans first went to China, they learned the languages and made translations both ways. Generally, these were people with a talent for languages.

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Radagast said:

Both the US State and Defense Departments list it in the hardest of 4 categories (along with Korean, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Arabic).

That's partly because of the difficulty in reading and writing. Japanese is a bit easier if you can avoid kanji.

Here's a three-way classification:

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Radagast said:

I think the basic language might come in 3 out of 4 in that case. But the complex sociolinguistics (e.g. varying politeness levels, the sublanguage used by women, etc.) would still keep it in the hardest category, I suspect.

There are indeed teaching strategies that approach Japanese with just romaji; even more with just katakana/hiragana (that's what young Japanese children do).

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Radagast said:

I think the basic language might come in 3 out of 4 in that case. But the complex sociolinguistics (e.g. varying politeness levels, the sublanguage used by women, etc.) would still keep it in the hardest category, I suspect.

There are indeed teaching strategies that approach Japanese with just romaji; even more with just katakana/hiragana (that's what young Japanese children do).

Click to expand...

Radagast said:

I think the basic language might come in 3 out of 4 in that case. But the complex sociolinguistics (e.g. varying politeness levels, the sublanguage used by women, etc.) would still keep it in the hardest category, I suspect.

There are indeed teaching strategies that approach Japanese with just romaji; even more with just katakana/hiragana (that's what young Japanese children do).

Click to expand...

Radagast said:

I think the basic language might come in 3 out of 4 in that case. But the complex sociolinguistics (e.g. varying politeness levels, the sublanguage used by women, etc.) would still keep it in the hardest category, I suspect.

There are indeed teaching strategies that approach Japanese with just romaji; even more with just katakana/hiragana (that's what young Japanese children do).

Click to expand...

"As soon as I reached these regions, I forcibly seized some Indians from the first island, so they could learn from us and also give us information about what they knew of these parts. Everything went according to our wishes; it was not long before we understood each other, first by gesture and sign, then by words; and this was of great advantage to us." (italics added) (Christopher Columbus to Gabriel Sanchez in a letter translated by Donald B. Clark)

In that situation, I sure would scramble to pick up the language of my captors. Fear is a great motivator.

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The very earliest communication would probably have involved smiles, grunts, basic body language, and improvised sign language, if all parties involved were inclined to be friendly. War-dances, cannon-fire, and the launching of projectiles if anybody on either side wasn't feeling inclined to be friendly.
I think the simple truth is that an overwhelming majority of Indians and whites were never able to communicate in the first place. Once trade routes were established on the North American continent, many merchants on both sides tended to use sign language and hybrid/pidgin jargon, rather than developing a well-rounded familiarity with each other's tongues. Well into the 19th Century, treaty-brokers and army officers often communicated with the Lakota and Apachean peoples through translators, not directly.

When Natives and Europeans did learn each others' languages in detail, it would have been a bumpy road for most people. Actually, I think the movies Dances With Wolves and The Last Samurai give a feel for what this would be like - the white man using the 'native' tongue like the proverbial bull in a china shop, but managing to get his point across. As with anything, practice would make perfect.

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Radagast said:

Either by people who grew up bilingual (like Jews speaking Aramaic and Greek in Palestine in Jesus' day) or by people who learned second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, ... languages as adults.

For example, when Europeans first went to China, they learned the languages and made translations both ways. Generally, these were people with a talent for languages.

Click to expand...