...as a fellow who lived in Japan in for seven years and who spoke the language with even reasonable proficiency BEFORE that...I have to agree...why the hell would you study the language? Other than tourists in California and Hawaii, what the hell is the point? I SHOULD have studied Mandarin Chinese and earned myself a real trade.
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Depends on your use of the language. I'm currently studying Spanish and French - originally it was so I could stand out and be impressive, and secondarily for job-seeking and career purposes. Truth is, both of those motives were problematic. But I'm still studying them because it's culturally enriching and allows me to think in a different way, even when communicating with other English-speaking people like myself.
Perhaps the usefulness of learning a new language is not necessarily to use it, but to expand your consciousness and apply it to other facets of your life.
There you go. Maybe because I'm lazy. Chinese is like Egyptian to me!
Just don't be a persistent dick and attempt to convince others they should learn Chinese! It may just turn them away.
But out of curiosity what was the trade?
And don't you know you could translate stuff for a living, it helps to understand media at least if you don't have a career and we know that's just so wrong! (I mean you could also have a pen pal if you have a sister city in Japan...)
There's a slogan written here. 'Happiness Will Walk Away'...
Maybe he learned it for fun and not for an actual job skill.
We accept the love we think we deserve
http://mrsantonyelchin.tumblr.com/
I have a friend whose spouse is in the military. They were stationed in Japan for several years and are now back in the States. They have their children enrolled in continuing Japanese classes here.
shareI think that him learning a 'useless' language was a focal point of the movie. He came from a different social economic background than the people he surrounded himself with.
In upper class society, learning Japanese when you have the wealth to visit a remote country makes more sense than if you were poor and would never have the opportunity to travel, it would be useless. We're never going to go to Mars, so learning martian would be pointless.
For people who live on the bottom rung of society the world is a different place than for the upper crust.
No if you maybe want to move to japan and working with japanese companies..or does everyone there speaks English?
share