Three hundred questions.

[turbolaserguy]

I'm a native Japanese. The following link is in Japanese, but I find it quite interesting.
"300 questions to the Japanese from people from overseas":
(http colon slash slash)jiten.cside3.jp/gimon/seminar_xx.htm
Would you like to discuss (or argue about) possible answers to any of the 300 questions?

[ASHIKAGA]

There are just too many questions... can you pick a few (preferably ones that have not been discussed to death on other threads)?

[pipokun]

http://jiten.cside3.jp/gimon/seminar_xx.htm

5. 日本人にはなぜ、自国・自国民・自国文化を愛せないよ うな自虐的なことを言う人が少なくないのか。英語を国 語にしようと言う人もいる［いた］ようだが。

Interesting 'WHY' for me, but you should ask your professor to prepare the English page for the WHYs.

[grapefruit]

http://jiten.cside3.jp/gimon/seminar_xx.htm


Interesting 'WHY' for me, but you should ask your professor to prepare the English page for the WHYs.

It is not just Japanese. Some Chinese also thought about abolishing their Chinese characters and replace them with the English alphabet.

[JerseyBoy]

It is not just Japanese. Some Chinese also thought about abolishing their Chinese characters and replace them with the English alphabet.
For me, I have not read any Japanese books for at least 15 years (for that matter, I have not seen any Japanese TV programs nor listened to Japanese radio stations for over 15 years). I only read books/news/magazines in English and watch or listen to British or American TV/radio programs.

If you are in Japan (as I have been for the last 1.5 years), you would have to speak and read Japanese. But, once you are outside Japan, the Japanese language is pretty much useless to me. When I was in the states, there was not much use for the Japanese language. I foresee Japanese go down in popularity outside Japan because of Japan's grim future prospects (due to its rapidly aging population, sclerotic politics, ever higher pile of national debt, tattered social security / pension funds, sheer lack of natural resources, very small land mass, and etc).

As I am in the process of returning to the States, I guess I won't have any compelling reasons to brush up and deepen my Japanese for now.