Joined: May 2011
Posts: 118
Thanks:
15
Hehe. Yeah that one is a soul crusher. Thing is it that numbers can mislead.
For example, take my partner who is Chinese. She can score 50,000 on that test, which puts her at the level of a Japanese person who has graduated university. Myself? I scored only half that when I took it a year back or so. Who has better Japanese? Actually I do. She has a very powerful passive vocabulary when it comes to hard words written in Kanji, as you might expect, but that doesn't mean she actually knows that many words in Japanese. Not even close.
And in a way, it is a similar thing with Japanese people in general though. A university graduate has a larger vocabulary than a middle-school student. But the gap which emerges is one made more of increasingly rarer words of which an ever greater proportion are what we could call passive vocabulary.
Joined: Oct 2011
Posts: 476
Thanks:
0
Don't learn Japanese.
Their country is aging and there is a high elderly population.
Their country is dying and their birth rate is low with no immigrants to replace them.
Their country is stagnating and their economy can no longer compete with other countries.
Their country is racist and nationalist so even if you learn Japanese, they'll still hate you (secretly).
Their entertainment is derivative and their music, movies, animation, comic books and video games are boring.
Politicians and business leaders say that we are entering the Asian century. Not quite. It's the Chinese century. Don't make the mistake of putting your hopes in the wrong Asian country.
Like most people, money/job is probably your main incentive for learning a language. You want money? My advice: go learn Chinese.
So stop browsing Reviewing the Kanji and log out. Your next stop: Reviewing the Hanji.
Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 113
Thanks:
0
But surely our Chinese overlords will need loyal administrators for the Japan Autonomous Region?
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 1,101
Thanks:
14
I just looked at the first post, and it's interesting how the purpose of this thread changed completely...
Joined: Oct 2011
Posts: 476
Thanks:
0
You've studied textbooks and built up vocabulary, but you can still barely read Yotsuba. Even a 5 year old Japanese kid (the manga's main audience) have you, a 20-70 year old adult, beat. To make things worse, you know 1000000 words but you can't look up words like sorya in a dictionary because its not in it. You're expected to know it naturally, whatever that means, according to those who know more than you.
Just give up already.
Joined: Oct 2011
Posts: 476
Thanks:
0
If you were wondering whether to stop learning Japanese and start learning Chinese, have I got news for you: India has now overtaken Japan as the 3rd largest economy. You're learning for the sake of money and career right? Then cut your losses and give up on Japanese if you haven't already.
Edited: 2014-05-08, 3:43 pm
