Latest 15 of 20 Total Comments Show All

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  ninjaboy at 01:14 PM JST - 19th April

  Pukey2 - Here! Here! Yes, the dwindling number of Japan programmes at UK universities mirrors a world-wide phenomenon. Teachers like myself can no longer find employment at UK higher educational institutions because of this lack of interest in all things Japanese studies... rather sadly. And this, in spite of having been involved in the field of Japanese Studies at various public & private institutions for the best part of 20 years (inc. language teaching).

  Decided to switch sides for career survival and got signed-up by the other team. I now work in China where I could not be more happy promoting the growth of Chinese influence abroad and training the next generation of business people who will almost certainly contribute in some small way to keeping their country ahead of the game.

  Playing 'catch-up' yest, as pointed out by "borscht" above will come too little, too late. The talent pool for Japanese lang/studies has well and truely drained.

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  Pukey2 at 03:00 PM JST - 19th April

  ninjaboy:

  Lucky you! In the early-mid nineties, I studied some Mandarin and Japanese at evening classes at a university (and loved studying both of them). Even though Madarin was one of the few languages offered as a degree, it was Japanese out of the many languages offered which was THE popular choice during the evening, with five beginner's class. That was then, and I'm not sure what it's like now at that university. I remember there was this Jp-craze at that time, and BBC TV even had a Jp language programme.

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  some14some at 04:06 PM JST - 19th April

  Govt is taking this measure just to appropriate funds, jp language is still popular in China/Taiwan/Korea, elsewhere it has lost ground to Chinese Language long ago.

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  mark009 at 09:17 PM JST - 19th April

  It is great for Japan and the world. When JP government promotes the wave of learning Japanese, more funds are available to recruite teachers to teach Japanese abroad as well as scholarships for foreign students to stady in Japan. Japanese popular culture can be introduced and approached foreign people around the globe. If I had a chance, I love getting involved in this program.

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  noborito at 11:58 PM JST - 19th April

  The 10 schools now, are only for Japanese native students. The normal Joe can't go to them. This is just another opportunity for the Government to attempt to keep the Japanese people "pure". They can't trust the local governments to teach Japanese children. God forbid they actually learn they can ask questions to the teacher. As for learning Japanese vs Chinese, come on guys. People, including the Japanese, better start learning Mandarin.

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  mark009 at 08:16 AM JST - 20th April

  For the public opinion on which names are properly for Japanese classes, It will be arranged for levels - two levels with a number after such Genji I,II,III,IV and Murasaki I,II,III, and IV. Maybe, Genji refers to a male name, while Murasaki refers to a female name. Eitheir choices, new facilities will bring the international community to study Japanese and cultural perspectives. Thanks Ozaki-san.

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  smithinjapan at 06:56 PM JST - 20th April

  "The number of young people interested in Japanese is increasing globally under the influence of Japanese animated cartoons and pop culture, and the number wishing to be employed by Japanese companies advancing abroad is increasing, foundation officials said."

  HAHAHAHA.... the 'officials' said. Geez.... I wonder what nationality the officials are. I have yet to hear of ANYONE abroad interested in learning the Japanese language aside from a whim. This is just stupid.... while I promote the learning of ANY language at all (even dead ones like Latin), there is no way Japan is going to compete with China in terms of people willing to learn Chinese.

  Build the schools, and push people to learn... nothing wrong with that... but if you're hoping to beat Chinese, you need to go back in time about 1000 years and stop emigration. Go ANYWHERE in the world and you can hear Chinese.... outside of a small island in Micronesia, Saipan, Guam, and Japan, you will never hear Japanese except from tourist groups.

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  smithinjapan at 06:57 PM JST - 20th April

  Oops! Forget to mention you CAN hear Japanese in Hawaii, though I hear Japanese people complaining daily about how Hawaii has become full of Korean and Chinese tourists.

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  Pukey2 at 07:12 PM JST - 20th April

  What, you mean other tourists, apart from the Japanese, are allowed to visit Hawaii?

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  smithinjapan at 07:24 PM JST - 20th April

  Pukey: That's what I've heard from Japanese tourist who go 'overseas' to Hawaii. They're pretty upset it is no longer a Japanese colony, and that other nationals are 'allowed' to visit and swim at their beaches.

  Moderator: Back on topic please.

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  sarcasm123 at 10:31 AM JST - 22nd April

  "Pukey: That's what I've heard from Japanese tourist who go 'overseas' to Hawaii. They're pretty upset it is no longer a Japanese colony, and that other nationals are 'allowed' to visit and swim at their beaches."

  Or at least, that is your wishful thinking based opinion.

  Moderator: Back on topic please.

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  capone at 04:59 PM JST - 22nd April

  so think about how americans feel...we have to deal with japanese, koreans, and chinese in hawaii...talk about a lose-lose situation

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  Triple888 at 11:14 PM JST - 22nd April

  Chinese (mandarin) will be the new popular-foreign business language in this century progressively replacing Japanese and arguebly all asian languages. However students of Japanese can relatively-easily learn Chinese given that some vocabulary and massive of amount of kanji are shared in both languages. But if you're a Korean or Vietnamese student you have to start from stratch.

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  paleopoet at 11:30 PM JST - 22nd April

  Just because you can speak a language doesn't mean you can teach it. If you have very little education and no worldy experience, what makes you qualified to teach. I teach at a State University in the western US and English skills of many of my students is abysmal and declining.

  In the past all sorts of low life characters have gone to teach English in Japan without any real ability to do so. Of course there have been excellent teachers as well. Unfortunately some Americans among these people, have gone to Japan because they see it as an easy way to make money with little effort. Japanese aren't stupid and as a result have tightened qualifications--rightly so--they should.

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  jackkrone at 01:07 PM JST - 24th April

  Japanese is so popular in China. I hope more Japanese will learn Chinese too. China and Japan can join in hands to promote East Asian languages together,as Chinese and Japanese share hanzi(kanji),hanzi is pretty,artistic and illusion-image.
  It seems more westerners like learn Chinese now,as Chinese is spoken in mainland of China,Taiwan,Hong Kong,Macau, and Singapore.More than 30 million Chinese live overseas,they mostly use Chinese too.

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