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The future of Japanese | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Jon1991 Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5366 days ago 98 posts - 126 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French, Russian | Message 1 of 46 26 September 2010 at 4:19pm | IP Logged | |||||
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From the 1950's to 2000, Japan was the most influential country in Asia with it's economic growth, political stability, allies in "the west" and high standard of living despite its influence being hampered by Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution that it cannot declare war on a nation unless it's in self defence.
But 2010 is a different situation in Japan with the surging economic and military growth in China, "the sleeping dragon", but also the economies and population of India, Indonesia and South Korea (not population in South Korea's case but a firm economy and high standard of living). My question is - will the popularity of Japanese now decline due to the influence of other nations in Asia. Bare in mind that this could be said of languages such as German, French and Italian, which their economies MAY be overtaken by populous Asian nations and Brazil; but remember that these languages are known to be far easier to learn than Japanese and also enjoy a lingua franca status and are also more accessible in the United Kingdom and Europe. Or will the technological, cultural, chic factor and just simply "cool" factors of Japanese safe guard the popularity of the language for the future. Any thoughts? I reckon Chinese will overtake Japanese in terms of popularity, but Japanese will stay as Asia's "number 2" language. Well at least I hope so, I love Japanese and Japan, although I'm entirely focused on studying Spanish, Russian and French for the time being :) Edited by Jon1991 on 26 September 2010 at 6:31pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 budonoseito Pro Member United States budobeyondtechnRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5806 days ago 261 posts - 344 votes Studies: French, Japanese Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 46 26 September 2010 at 4:35pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I think Chinese as already overtaken Japanese. My town offers an Adult Night School where
local business and teacher offer a wide range of topics for up to 8 weeks. Most from from $50 to 150. So it is good to try something if you are interested in it. A few years ago I took the Chinese class. The Chinese class is still offered but never has a Japanese class been offered. Also, the librarian was telling me that many parents are coming in for Chinese material to teach their young children to get them ahead when they are older. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6583 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 3 of 46 26 September 2010 at 5:43pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I've never met anyone studying Japanese for economic reasons. It's always been cultural (read: they like the cartoons). I don't think that'll change so much. I never felt Japanese was a language a lot of people was learning the was Mandarin is now, but maybe I'm too young (26)?
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| The Real CZ Senior Member United States Joined 5650 days ago 1069 posts - 1495 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 4 of 46 26 September 2010 at 6:01pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I don't think anyone has learned Japanese for economic reasons since the 80s. It's mainly Jpop, anime/manga, video games, dramas, culture, food, martial arts, etc.
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| reineke Senior Member United States https://learnalangua Joined 6448 days ago 851 posts - 1008 votes Studies: German | Message 5 of 46 26 September 2010 at 8:32pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Nonsense that keeps repeating itself decade after decade with different languages. I would have found Swedish useful professionally in the US. Chinese speakers were easy to find. In real life I've met several people who used Japanese professionally and they were the best paid of the lot. Apparently of all the human waves attacking Japanese in the 80's and 90's for business reasons only a few survived. Edited by reineke on 26 September 2010 at 8:54pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| lichtrausch Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5961 days ago 525 posts - 1072 votes Speaks: English*, German, Japanese Studies: Korean, Mandarin | Message 6 of 46 26 September 2010 at 9:09pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Japanese will continue to be popular as long as its popular culture continues to thrive.
However, Mandarin is rapidly outpacing Japanese as an important language of business and science in East Asia. So learn Mandarin, unless you love Japanese culture. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| cathrynm Senior Member United States junglevision.co Joined 6126 days ago 910 posts - 1232 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Finnish | Message 7 of 46 26 September 2010 at 10:18pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Practically, Japanese classes in the SF bay area are still busy. At the language school I go to, their classes for children are very popular. It really is the anime factor -- Miyazaki, Pokemon, Naruto. I'm slightly envious of the people who study Chinese or Spanish (also Korean) because they have TV and radio channels here in Northern California. We only have limited Japanese TV here -- and I have to depend on bittorrent. "In real life I've met several people who used Japanese professionally and they were the best paid of the lot." Really? What kind of job did they get? I'd just be curious to hear accounts from native English speakers who have used learned Japanese, or Mandarin skills for that matter, in any kind of job. I tell Japanese people I study this language only for fun -- there's no potential monetary gain involved at all. Usually, they seem amused by this. Though personally, I derive some kind of strange pleasure from the ultimate pointlessness of studying Japanese and Finnish. Perhaps someday some good will come of this, but right now, it's hard to imagine. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5465 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 8 of 46 27 September 2010 at 1:00am | IP Logged | |||||
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Japanese will remain an important language until (1) there are drastic, and I mean
really drastic, improvements in English language education in Japan, and/or (2) Sony, Toyota, Nissan, Fujitsu, Honda, Panasonic, and all the other companies that make your cars, game consoles, and washing machines go bankrupt. Neither of these scenarios is even on the horizon.
I'm 38 and I've lived in Japan for 14 years and I can honestly say that I have not met a single person who has studied Japanese because he or she likes manga. Not one. This image may be truer among younger people, but it is certainly not as widespread as believed.
Japanese translators (of which I am one) do get paid high rates because of the difficulty of the language and the rarity of people who know it well enough to translate professionally. There is a huge volume of material that needs to be translated from Japanese to English, so if you're good enough you can work full-time and earn a very comfortable income. 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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