Does America think Japan is becoming irrelevant?

[Bucky]

Twenty years ago Japanese was the language Americans needed to be learning. Now. . .

"Junior high and high schools in the United States are increasingly switching foreign-language classes from Japanese to Chinese," a senior Foreign Ministry official said.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/rss/nn20080417f3.html

[Kanchou]

It only seems prudent to make kids learn the language of the country they think are going to own us in 20 years.

[Charles]

It only seems prudent to make kids learn the language of the country they think are going to own us in 20 years.

Yeah, but this is the age old problem, the hot subjects when you enter school are cold by the time you become proficient.

[Visitor K]

a school within the same university system that i teach in down here in mexico offers a degree in tourism and the students study english, french and chinese.. i dont know if japanese was ever offered or not, but i thought it was pretty significant, and apparently indicative of the rest of the world.

at least english is still around, for now...

[2triky]

"Junior high and high schools in the United States are increasingly switching foreign-language classes from Japanese to Chinese," a senior Foreign Ministry official said.

That's so they can read the instructions on all the shiet they buy from Wal Mart, because nobody can read the broken English in the manuals.

[Adhesive]

Professionally, I do regret learning Japanese instead of Chinese...but socially, I don't regret a thing...I mean really, who doesn't like having the ability to talk Japanese girls out of their pants? What would I even do with a basic grasp of Mandarin? Hang out in Beijing and flirt with party-members?

[Charles]

Professionally, I do regret learning Japanese instead of Chinese...but socially, I don't regret a thing...I mean really, who doesn't like having the ability to talk Japanese girls out of their pants? What would I even do with a basic grasp of Mandarin? Hang out in Beijing and flirt with party-members?

Become filthy rich brokering contaminated food products?

I always thought the natural progression of Asian language studies is that you'd study Japanese first, then Classical Japanese, then you'd study Chinese. At least that was the idea at my school. But then I had a few friends with advanced Japanese proficiency who took a stab at Chinese, they all hit the wall rather quickly. Their Japanese studies demoralized them for the task, one of them told me, "I studied 6 years of Japanese to get where I am today, and after one year of Chinese, I'm about at the level of where I was in the fourth week of Japanese classes. I just can't face it anymore."
I never encountered anyone who studied Chinese first. I did meet one ichinensei who asked me (with a British accent) a kanji question that was way above even my level, he scribbled out the kanji with astonishing ease, and then told me what it meant in Chinese. Astonished, I blurted out, "you're in your first month of Japanese class, how the hell do you know what that means in Chinese?" He was offended, and explained that he grew up in Hong Kong and had native fluency. Oops, it never occurred to me that any pasty white Brit might know Chinese like a native.

[Neo-Rio]

Yeah, but this is the age old problem, the hot subjects when you enter school are cold by the time you become proficient.

In other words, what I have learned is that language skills are nice, but you could put your time towards doing more productive things, like making money.

[Tommybar]

I would comment on that, but I have no language skill so I can't...

I always felt lack of language = less money...

Oops, I commented anyways...

[Charles]

In other words, what I have learned is that language skills are nice, but you could put your time towards doing more productive things, like making money.

There is an old saying amongst us Liberal Arts majors, studying science and technology will teach you how to make a living, but Liberal Arts will teach you why life is worth living.

[Takechanpoo]

The more irrelevant Euro-America become to Japan, the more Japan is rehabilitation faicility for real loser Euro-American like Lafcadio Hearn.

[Iraira]

There is an old saying amongst us Liberal Arts majors, studying science and technology will teach you how to make a living, but Liberal Arts will teach you why life is worth living.

I'm saying this just to get a flame war started over the course of the rainy weekend....po'ed a bit as the rain killed a weekend party in Yoyogi Koen.

Liberal arts majors can think a lot about why life is worth living when delivering pizzas to us science and technology guys....

[Tsuru]

There is an old saying amongst us Liberal Arts majors, studying science and technology will teach you how to make a living, but Liberal Arts will teach you why life is worth living.

:lol:

Oh man, I just had a good chuckle at this one... no wonder you think being an ignorant tosser is a virtue.

You should know what "old sayings" engineers, biologists, economists and other "science folk" have about arts people. But then again you probably do.


And what Iraira said.

[ttjereth]

I'm saying this just to get a flame war started over the course of the rainy weekend....po'ed a bit as the rain killed a weekend party in Yoyogi Koen.

Liberal arts majors can think a lot about why life is worth living when delivering pizzas to us science and technology guys....

I'm a liberal arts graduate, but I'm not inclined to argue with you, however, don't you work as a translator?

[Buraku]

[kusai Jijii]

I'm sure we have been throught this in other threads, but I think the key point is this,

Language ability alone is largely useless. You have to be a (say) Japanese speaking 'something' (e.g. lawyer, accountant, etc...) to get the return on the investment you made becoming proficient in the first place.

[Iraira]

I'm a liberal arts graduate, but I'm not inclined to argue with you, however, don't you work as a translator?

Yeah, and my English grammar sucks "as almost badderly is" my Japanese.

[ttjereth]

Yeah, and my English grammar sucks "as almost badderly is" my Japanese.

Pssshhh. Like grammar matters for translation. The only thing that's important is how well you can obfuscate the meaning the of the text through unnecessary text, direct translations and making sure that only the least important parts of the translation are stressed and stand out from the rest of the text all in accordance with the demands of the client.

I was just commenting because I'd be pretty willing to say translation falls in the liberal arts realm so you can help us with delivering them pizzas

[Iraira]

Pssshhh. Like grammar matters for translation. The only thing that's important is how well you can obfuscate the meaning the of the text through unnecessary text, direct translations and making sure that only the least important parts of the translation are stressed and stand out from the rest of the text all in accordance with the demands of the client.

I was just commenting because I'd be pretty willing to say translation falls in the liberal arts realm so you can help us with delivering them pizzas

I do patents and scitech stuff, so if one of my translations goes to an invalidation trial and is all screwed up, then I start a new career delivering pizzas, on foot.

[ttjereth]

I do patents and scitech stuff, so if one of my translations goes to an invalidation trial and is all screwed up, then I start a new career delivering pizzas, on foot.

Patent translations scare me. I dislike having responsibility for something that needs to be so precise while receiving only partial and often mistaken information and instructions from the clients

That being said, the amount of money that you can make doing patent translations has always made my mouth water. I know a guy who does nothing but patents for several big clients and he clears US$10,000 in his slim months...

[Kuang_Grade]

[yt]SBiYAa5qdDE[/yt]

[SovietSupreme]

Do not throw away time with Japanese or Chinese, learn to speak Russian. It is language of future! Every country will soon be part of Soviet Union and have honor of being guided by its great leader, Soviet Supreme!

Learn to speak like Lenin and you too will be great!