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That saying that English is the hardest language to learn is misleading. A better saying would probably be is hardest for a non-english speaker to learn (even though that's still misleading). Obviously, It's not the hardest language for a native english speaker. Yeah, you spend most if not all of your school career is some kind of English class so you can learn to master it, but kids all around the world do the same thing with their native language. The US Department of Foreign Affairs, or something like that, has put out a list of languages that is hardest for a Native English speaker to learn. They divide it up into 4 levels, 1 being the easist, 4 being the hardest. Most west-european langauagese fall in level 1, Spanish. French, etc, but on level 4 such languagese as Chinese, Arabic, Old Turkish, and Japanese.

You can kind of think of it this way, the farther away from West Europe a particular country (or at least where that countries language developed) is, the harder their language is for a speaker of a West European language. You have to think about how the language delveloped and where it developed from. English developed in close proximety to French, Spanish, German, etc, so they all influences each other and therefore their languagese aren't too different (I mean in terms of grammar and sentance structure). Many Europeans know 3-4 languages well enough to carry a conversation (Since America is so big and relatively isolated in a geographic sense, we don't seem to care enough to learn even a second language to the point of fluency). Then you go to a place like China, where the language developed with little to no influence from the West until fairly recently, and naturally it's harder for an English speaker to understand because it's completely different. Same with Japan, which was already isolated geographically, and then they imposed isolation on themselves for hundreds of years.

Another big factor is when in your life you start learning a language. The ideal time for a child to learn a second language is in their grade school years. It just because you're at a time in your life when you're really developing your language skills, and your brain is ready to soak up all sorts of information. Your brain has a hard time processing new sounds after the age of 12, which sadly is when school not just in America but around the world starts to offer a foreign language. English speakers have a hard time with the japanese "r", with "tsu" and with double consonants because we don't have those sounds in English, and likewise, a Japanese person has a hard time with "v" "th" , the l/r difference and "ye."

Also, how submersed you are in a language will affect you. A person who studies French for a year, then lives in france for a year will probably be much more fluent than someone who just studied in an american school for 2 years. My Japanese teachers are always like, "study for 2 hours everyday!" and they really aren't kidding. If I were a better student, I'd watch Japanese movies and read Japanese books until my eyes bled, but I don't biggrin

Post . . .too long . . . must stop!

Eww... I saw those Bratz dolls. It was really shallow. They had new 'Anime eyes'. Like OMG! That's so totally what a bunch of Otaku's are so going for. The again... whee

I live in Las Vegas, Nevada and if there was any kind of Japanese invasion, it would be here. I've noticed the amount of sushi bars and Japanese toy stores have skyrocketed. Not only has the Japanese commercial network increased in Vegas, but the Japanese population, also! I've noticed when I go to Chinatown to get food or whatnot, more people speak Japanese than any other Eastern language.

I'm not including electronics. The reason that all these electronics are made is Japan, is simply that the Japanese are "smarter" than most other countries. I'm not saying all Japanese are rocket scientists, or that they all do well in school. I'm saying that they were raised a certain way, and their society is different than ours. So what if they make electronics. I'm not talking about that. And... Microsoft isn't from Japan. It's from Washington state.

What I am talking about is certain toys, books, things like that. Anime is huge now because Japan is "cool". Sure, some animes are good, but that doesn't mean that people would pick them up on their own.

I'm just gonna stop now. I'm in a really pissy mood, and I'm not going to wait around and bit someone else's head off.

I actually have a bottle of green tea perfume. blaugh

~Masaki

Gah! I hate how we are teaching our youth to be such hos and sluts. It's amazing that a lot of the Japanese population has not caught on to that trend... or are they, and I just don't know it? xp

~Masaki

everywhere i go in ottawa/nepeia, i see japanese culture taking over, sushi bars, manga's and anime stores...ect..

You make it sound like that the Bratz dolls were the first in the movement to "make sluts out of our daughters". Let's not forget the origins of Barbie in 1959 as a knock-off of the German Sex-doll Lili. sad Your response also reminds me of the response given by the women who saw their daughters hiking up their skirts to their knees (oh the scandal! surprised ).


Another situation which forces me to shake my poor head. Just because one loved any given thing before it breaks out of a subculture does not necessarily make them better. Nor does it mean that the fanbase was any better then than it is now. I see elitists of all too many fandoms turning to the more obscure and praising it as "better" than that which is easily accessible by the average fan. Is it trally that bad that people enjoy the titles that are on Cartoon Network? A casual fan is nothing of which to be ashamed or be shamed for being. sad

Blatant ignorance is what should be disliked, not the scope-- no matter how narrow or wide the breadth of it may be-- of what these people like.

And... how was the anime that the fanbase viewed "back in the day" any better than what is distributed now? Its safe to say that 99% of all Japanese anime does NOT amount to high art. Its a form of entertainment. If one does not enjoy a certain anime, that does not necessarily make it BAD. Likewise, if one does like a given series, that does not necessarily make is GOOD. GOOD and BAD in this situation are subjective and depend entirely on the tastes of the viewer. sad