(2016-02-11, 2:56 pm)Dudeist Wrote:

(2016-02-11, 12:12 am)Wurstmann Wrote: Or come to the Mainland where KMarkP's first three points are valid, too. xD

If it were not so horribly polluted Mainland China would be high on that list. I know the south isn't as bad as the north but then you get the heat and Cantonese with twice as many tones.

I think I'll pass. If I were to go the Chinese direction, I'd do Taiwan.

As for Japanese being useless overseas. I am pushing 50. I've met one half Japanese girl, perhaps had 10 minutes of conversation with her. Based on one story she told me I'd guess she knows some Japanese but I don't know how much. I did Karate from a white dude who lived in Japan and had a wife who didn't seem comfortable in English but we never really socialized either.
That is about it. I would have gotten much more use out of Chinese or even Korean.

In town I hear there is a Japanese girl who is married to some white guy. Have never met her though. There are some exchange students but it would be a bit pedobearish to talk to them considering my age but even on that front, much more Chinese.

Can't swing a dead cat on St Catherines street in Montreal without hitting a Chinese speaking person.

I suppose if I knew Japanese, maybe via the consulate in Ottawa or Montreal I could find people to talk to but Chinese would be so much easier.

Never mind that Chinese movies are so much better at least to me [like Hollywood and Bollywood they range from great to crap] and they come on once a week on Canadian TV and I can even watch them in an actual movie theatre an hour away [ditto Bollywood].

My ongoing fear with Japanese is that if I don't go over there, it will represent a huge pointless time suck. Likewise if I go there for say a year and it doesn't appeal to me, I'd be hard pressed to keep it up when I got back home. It would only pay off if I spent say 3 to 5 years there.
Sadly I've looked into tones and my confidence in tackling them without an actual instructor to beat corrections into me is very low. From what I understand it is hard to find an instructor who is good in teaching tones and the options are someone near local which is brutal expensive or someone online and I don't like the idea of skyping too much.

I still think of switching at times. I got about 250 Kanji left on the RTK, once I start on Genki I figure I'm locked in and might as well stick with what I started.

Also very recent events have really dented any motivation I have for doing anything in terms of self improvement. That however is another story.

(2016-02-12, 2:15 pm)angelneko Wrote: Just wondering.
Not saying this is your goal, but tons of people study Japanese, not even to talk to real people or visit Japan, but solely to read manga, play games, or watch anime without subtitles. It is possible to study languages without much -real world- application, while still being an enjoyable endeavor.

(2016-02-13, 8:53 pm)mc962 Wrote: Out of curiosity, what is your approximate goal at this point for where you want to get with the language. Is it perfect fluency, to the point that you want to sound like any average adult (maybe minus some of the more intricate manners)? Or are you looking more for basic enough communication to the point where you can talk with people when you need to, fill out the required forms without heavy assistance, etc.? I believe you mentioned at some point wanting to live there, but I am not as sure about how high you wanted to take the language right now.