I'll be interested in Japan through thick and thin. In good times and bad times.

TheVinster wrote:

A good start would be for them to stop giving attention to idol groups. That alone makes me want to stop learning Japanese.

Seriously, the Japan we know is surely going to see a rather severe economic crisis at some point, the election of the Abe government will make that moment come sooner rather than later, and demographics are at the root of the crisis. If you happen to be thinking that Japanese will have any professional payoff whatsoever if you don't live in Japan, I'm sorry, it won't. But that's not a good reason to learn a language anyway. My guess is that it's equally likely that China will have a major crisis and turns into some sort of quasi-fascist state challenging the rest of the world militarily. That deflate the aspirations and enjoyment of the many more people learning Chinese.

But it seems you're mainly interested in Japanese culture, and that won't go away. In fact times of upheaval tend to stimulate more cultural creativity than long times of stagnation.

What do you guys think about the language in general? Do you think that is going away?

egoplant wrote:

What do you guys think about the language in general? Do you think that is going away?

Until they can figure out how to teach their students to be fluent in English, there's not a chance.

In a way, but not really.
Just take the practice of Shinto as an example. A large population says it doesn't practice it (theoretically there's only 4 million practicioners or so), yet a remarkably large proportion(70%+ I think? Maybe more) practices it (having religious items, going to temples, etc) for cultural reasons. In theory people are abandoning Japanese culture, but in practice there's a gargantuan amount of cultural practices which are carried on by most of the populace.
If anything, people are starting to maintain the culture less out of force and more out of personal choice/general respect for it. I don't think that's a bad thing.

Tsuchinoko wrote:

I had taken up the study of Japanese because of my interest in Japanese culture...

Even if Japan would vanish completely tomorrow, there still so much material to watch, listen and read that will take you whole lifetime to get through. For example if you look at history of cinematography Japan is among 3 most important film producers in the world (other being USA and France). For example look at Kinema Junpo's list of greatest Japanese films: http://www.criticker.com/?fl&filter=e10613 How many of them have you seen? If you're not a serious cinephile, my bet is no more than 10-15%. But there are still hundreds of other great films not on the list. I'm not that knowledgable about literature/music/other aspects of Japanese culture, but I'm sure that whatever you like you'll find a lot of things to discover. Just don't limit yourself only to recent media.

Last edited by edkrak (2013 January 11, 5:33 am)

Nope, don't see it happening. Remember, Japan has managed to hit rock bottom, and then bounce back multiple times.

Just a thought.

So basically everyone is saying Japan is going down because of their economy, or their aging population, or because of invasion by China, or their low reproduction rates, or lack of foreign immigration etc...

On the other end of the scale, everyone is saying that China will go up, because of the booming 10% annual GDP growth economy, or their population, overtake the weakening USA etc...

I assume that most not all, but most people learn Japanese because of Japanese media entertainment like anime, manga, video games, movies, books, music, etc...

Certainly, I doubt most of us are learning Kazhakstanese or whatever because of the lack of said entertainment.

If Japan goes down, there will be less of those entertainment. Yet, why does Chinese entertainment get completely eclipsed by Japanese entertainment when the Japanese country and population is so much smaller and has always been smaller? With a small country like Japan, you would expect them to be insignificant and ignored on the world stage. Even smaller Hong Kong makes more and better movies than their bigger cousion or brother.

For things like porn, the lack of Chinese porn is easily explained: it is banned. But where is the Chinese media entertainment behemoth? Things like Journey to the West don't count though, it's way overdone and shit. Sorry.

egoplant wrote:

Well with the internet, every individual culture is slowly fading and turning into one global one. I assume the same thing will happen with language, people will start speaking less Japanese in favor of English. It seems like every non-English speaking country teaches English as a second language, and it's the most used language on the internet by quite a bit. Chinese is the only thing that comes close, but nobody outside of China really learns it like they do with English.

http://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/ … tion-bias/

qwertyytrewq wrote:

mrbryce wrote:

meh. i think some people misunderstand culture as entertainment. i wouldnt wish any country to thrive on such distractions. japan has more to offer than that. as for the aging population, i think its all for the best,in the long run.

Apart from entertainment, what else does Japan offer in terms of culture and why should we care about those non-entertainment culture?

Architecture, cuisine, gardens/ikebana/onsen, clothing, calligraphy/painting, samurai/geisha...

Now please tell me that your question is a joke. Please explain why we shouldn't care about these things...>_>

qwertyytrewq wrote:

Apart from entertainment, what else does Japan offer in terms of culture and why should we care about those non-entertainment culture?

I've always thought of 'culture' as 'the psyche of a society.' Sure there are "things" which people point at and go "That's Japanese!" (see Betelgeuzah's post) but not many Japanese are going to give a shit about architecture or ikebana. Likewise, I really doubt many foreigners are sticking around in Japan for years because they "like Japanese food and caligraphy." Unless their job happens to be attached to those things; its more likely they are sticking around in Japan (on their own will) because they like the social aspects of the country. Things like the way people interact with each other, way organizations/businesses/group/etc. interact with people. These are the things that if you don't like them, are what will drive you back home in a short amount of time because it'll be causing constant culture shock. And because of that, I think these things are what really constitute "Japan's culture."

Incoming rant. Just to understand where I'm coming from, after reading the post I replied to:

mrbryce wrote:

meh. i think some people misunderstand culture as entertainment. i wouldnt wish any country to thrive on such distractions. japan has more to offer than that.

I was reminded of this thread: http://forum.koohii.com/viewtopic.php?pid=168651

In other words, it smacks of Japanese language learner or Japan-fan elitism (not saying mrbryce is one or not but you know they exist): "You're learning Japanese for things like anime? Those are just distractions. Japan has more to offer than just anime and manga and video games. Like uh... botanical specimen shuffling. And little bush cutting! And fancy brush writing!"

I'm sorry but I, and I suspect most people learning Japanese, don't give a shit about ikebana, bonsai and calligraphy. I don't even give a shit about them in my original language/country. I don't give a shit about samurais, except the fictional Rurouni Kenshin (Japanese entertainment). Similarly, I don't give a shit about their Western counter-parts: knights. But I do like King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table (Western entertainment). Anime forums have 1 million members. Flower arranging has like 2?

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the "higher" and more "sophisticated" forms of Japanese culture like Earthquake-proof architecture. I'm sure it's interesting to architects. What I am against is calling entertainment "distractions" because they're not distractions, they are entertainment and they are interesting and enjoyable which is why they are called entertainment. Unless you're a Buddhist who believes in avoiding both good and bad stimulants, but that's another story.

Anyway, if we're going to call anything "distractions", then by far, the best candidate would be "full time jobs."

Because my (and everyone else's) full time job that I hate is distracting me from watching my 200 episode anime series which I like. But that's also another story.

To finish off, I'd like to direct you to a post I made last year: http://forum.koohii.com/viewtopic.php?p … 51#p168651

The idea seems silly but I think it's valid. (made a mistake in that post: swap "good" and "bad" so non-shallow/disheartening = good)

Last edited by qwertyytrewq (2013 January 16, 10:02 am)