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Hm,, I'm from Seattle as well. However, my school does not offer Japanese, and I only know of 1 Japanese person..and I know a lot of people.</p>
<p>By the way, where exactly are you from? Seattle? Or a nearby city?
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<p>that's strange, all the schools that I know of offer japanese.
All the schools in the Bellevue SChool District and Issaquah SChool District offer japanese and chinese.
i come from issaquah.</p>
<p>Mandarin is a pretty tough subject. My son says it is the HARDEST by far of all the classes he's taken, harder than all the APs & the college course he took. He has never taken Japanese, so he can't compare it with Mandarin.
I do believe that Mandarin will be a useful language to know, which is one of the reasons it is offered at many Us, including UVa, USC & others. There are business opportunities in China & 1/4 of the world's population lives there. In international business, it is useful to be comfortable in multiple languages and cultures. As the world is becoming more global, it is useful to keep this in mind.</p>
<p>HImom,</p>
<p>If I'm not mistaken, almost every major university in the US offers a Chinese language. </p>
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In international business, it is useful to be comfortable in multiple languages and cultures. As the world is becoming more global, it is useful to keep this in mind.
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<p>Agreed. Yet keep in mind that if India is any indication, most international business will continue to be conducted in English. It's remarkable how Anglo Bangalorian business is. </p>
<p>I am by no means discounting those who would go to study Chinese or Japanese (that would be discounting myself), but don't look at it as a business opportunity. You'll probably be disappointed.</p>
<p>I think it is always useful to know at least one language other than your "native tongue." It really helps you think differently & helps reduce the ethnocentricity. I'm not convinced that there is no business advantage in learning Mandarin, but the future will unfold & likely suprise us all.</p>
<p>Well, there is a business advantage to having a passing knowledge, but I think that it's less pronounced than a lot of people think.</p>
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Well, there is a business advantage to having a passing knowledge, but I think that it's less pronounced than a lot of people think.
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<p>again and again, i find that hard to believe. many of my parents' friends have sons and daughters that have graduated from college and been hired by companies looking for those billingual in english and either japanese, chinese, or korean.</p>
<p>again, i'll say that it will probably be much more important to the pacific coast than to other areas of the country.</p>
<p>Yes, there are companies looking for bilingualism. However, it's not this magic pill where all of a sudden you become the most hireable person on the market. </p>
<p>I mean, I applied for a number of jobs dealing with East Asia, and they all said, "Oh, Japanese is nice, but we have Japanese in the office who know English anyway..."</p>
<p>I'm just saying, "Don't study it thinking you'll use it as leverage to make oodles of money. It rarely works out as well as people think."</p>
<p>Speaking, the English craze in China has let people in China wonder whether English would replace Chinese in China. Frankly, there's some overemphesis of English and underemphesis in Chinese in Chinese cities.</p>
<p>SamCurt,</p>
<p>Well, if the English from most of my Chinese TAs is any indication, then the Chinese are at least a step above the Japanese.</p>
<p>To the OP,</p>
<p>I note with sympathy your frustration at your own incompetence to learn Japanese. But your letter wasn't funny at all. And about this line,</p>
<p>"Your languages are hopelessly difficult to learn as non-natives. You spend more time in your classes learning those damn pictographs than we do learning how to do math."</p>
<p>If Asian children really did spend so much more time on "damn pictographs" than on maths, why then are these very same kids often several grade levels of maths above their American counterparts?</p>
<p>Before you attack me with "get a sense of humor" or whatnot, I'd just like to point out that humor can be used as a disguise for expressing a writer's own deep bitter feelings about a particular subject. In your case, you expressed your hate of Asian languages in a (self-proclaimed) humorous letter, most likely afraid of people accusing you of racism or whatever. Next time, say what you mean without sugarcoating it with in a "funny" letter, coward.</p>
<p>chlor,</p>
<p>Hang on a sec here. First of all, I LIVE in Japan. I speak Japanese. I read and write it quite well. I plan on spending the rest of my life tied to Japan and China in some way.</p>
<p>But you know what? It is VERY VERY hard to learn Japanese as a non-native. I have not met one non-native who hasn't at least expressed some frustration at learning all the on and kun readings of the kanji, or pulled their hair out at least once at learning all the humble and polite forms. It is NOT an easy language to learn.</p>
<p>I mean, yesterday, I saw a Japanese person struggle over a certain kanji (for the word "inkan.") If the Japanese themselves have trouble remembering kanji (I've seen college professors pause on certain kanji) then there is a certain level of difficulty with learning the kanji.</p>
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If Asian children really did spend so much more time on "damn pictographs" than on maths, why then are these very same kids often several grade levels of maths above their American counterparts?
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<p>By the way, read more carefully. I was actually taking a stab at our own poor math education. Like I said, they spend more time learning kanji/hanzi than we do learning math. WE. We, as in us Westerners.</p>
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Next time, say what you mean without sugarcoating it with in a "funny" letter, coward.
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<p>Yeah, I sure hate them Japanese. I hate them so much, I devoted a year of my life to teaching English in Japan. I hate them so much, I'm excited to go study Japanese more at the graduate level. I hate the Chinese even more. I hate them so much, I plan on studying next summer in Beijing. I hate them so much, my senior thesis dealt with Chinese politics. </p>
<p>You've got me pegged, chlor. Right on the mark, man.</p>
<p>i agree with the OP, learning Chinese is dumb, Im already focused on so much other stuff, besides English, Spanish, and Hindi is enough and Hindi in it self is impossible to learn</p>
<p>When did I ever say learning Chinese is dumb?</p>
<p>It's just really really really hard.</p>
<p>The news media lauds the Chinese government for their increase of economic power. Some economists speculate that the Chinese will supersede Americas economy in twenty years. Is this true?</p>
<pre><code>Well, I believe that the US economy will always be the true economic world power with China in a close second.
"I was actually taking a stab at our own poor math education."
</code></pre>
<p>Just wait a second, UCLA. I distinctly remember you lauding the American public schools in another thread. I can't remeber exactly in which thread you said this, however. Oh well! Regardless, Americas school systems leave much to be desired, that is for sure.</p>
<p>Justinian,</p>
<p>
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The news media lauds the Chinese government for their increase of economic power. Some economists speculate that the Chinese will supersede Americas economy in twenty years. Is this true?
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<p>Economists back in the 1980s suspected that Japan would surpass the US by the 1990s. It never happened. </p>
<p>However, that doesn't mean that China will follow the same route. China has distinct advantages over the Japanese. First of all, they show a greater willingness to all direct investment in their economy than the Japanese. They also have a much larger population and much more land.</p>
<p>If not in 20 years, then within our lifetimes. By many measures, the Chinese are clearly on the road to being the largest economy. But GDP doesn't mean that per capita income or per capita GDP is high. The US will still remain much richer on a per capita basis for a long, long time. </p>
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Well, I believe that the US economy will always be the true economic world power with China in a close second.
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<p>Based on what? Your Magic 8 Ball?</p>
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Just wait a second, UCLA. I distinctly remember you lauding the American public schools in another thread. I can't remeber exactly in which thread you said this, however. Oh well! Regardless, Americas school systems leave much to be desired, that is for sure.
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<p>Yes, it's true that the Japanese, as an aggregate, learn math at a faster pace than their American counterparts. I said that American public schools have strengths that are distinctly lacking in Japanese schools. For one, they offer students a chance to "learn at their pace." This means that students who excel at math can take math at an accelerated pace (though some may argue not accelerated enough.)</p>
<p>Either way, the American system is still clearly leading to the production of much more innovative people than Japan, where innovation and independent thinking is oftentimes frowned upon. </p>
<p>For all of its weaknesses, the American educational system is still pretty darn good, and the university system is one of the strongest (if not the strongest) in the world.</p>
<p>"Based on what? Your Magic 8 Ball?"</p>
<p>No, just a little something called free market enterprise and capitalism. Hmm, which will win? Free market or communism. Let me consult my magic 8 ball; or lets just look at our history books and see which system will prevail.
East and West Germany: East Communist, West free. I wonder which one had a better economy. LOLZ!!!</p>
<p>Justinian,</p>
<p>You do realize that China hasn't ascribed to a Maoist economy since the Deng reforms of the 80s and 90s, right?</p>
<p>You realize that China is a member of the WTO, right? And that private ownership and free enterprise are flourishing, right? Or do you just ignore these things in order to maintain your own beliefs, anyway?</p>
<p>I mean, I've heard that the Chinese are not going to surpass the US in the next few decades because of non-performing loans, the issues with the wealth gap, or geopolitical issues...</p>
<p>But because China is "communist?" Jeebus, kid, join the 21st century already. It's about time.</p>
<p>How stupid is it to make this free market capitalism vs. communism? Firstly, there hasn't been any free market capitalism since the Great Depression, if it was even true free market capitalism before. And true communism ended with the NEP, if it was even true communism and not Bolshevism/Leninism beforehand. </p>
<p>And anybody who still believes China is communist probably believes that the missile defence system will protect us from the commie nazis.</p>
<p>I've been told many times that English is one of the hardest languages to learn, made easier only by its mass use and constant bombardment upon the world populace via the media. Is this true?</p>
<p>English is easy/hard because the gramatical system sucks. So really, it is hard to use properly, but easy to use. If you memorize a lot of vocabulary, you can generally fake your way around the grammar, more or less...</p>