I am an International Affairs major in college, and I need to pick a language to study. I am stuck between Mandarin Chinese and Japanese. I am genuinely torn between these two options.I appreciate both cultures, however I find Japanese to be more fun when it comes to Entertainment. Chinese on the other hand, seems far more useful, considering where the world is headed. I am a bit turned off by the typical western "Otaku" culture. I don't want to learn Japanese just for anime, but rather for possible future integration into their society.From what little I've learned of both languages, I find Chinese has a harder introduction, (Tones/Symbols), with easier grammar. I REALLY love how simple Chinese grammar is.I like the idea of living in japan in the future, however I cannot say China is necessarily somewhere I want to live (but maybe we'll see). I do, however, always end up meeting Chinese speakers here in the USA. There being about 10 times more Chinese speakers than Japanese speakers in the world also leverages me more to learn Chinese, I don't want to learn a language where I can't find anyone to speak with.I do eventually plan on learning both, but when it comes to the language I must study for the next 6 Semesters, I am torn which to start with.I really just need some advice here. I'm looking to see if there is anyone who has had experience with either of these languages, or has been in my shoes.
>>34706956Chinese is more useful. Japanese is an isolate, making kind of a dick. Most of them can speak at least a little English anyway.
>>34706956I think Japanese is worth more as fewer westerners speak it, also I've heard a lot of people say that learning Japanese first builds a solid foundation for going into Mandarin.
>>34706956You need to ask yourself what's more important in your life: tech or anime. It really boils down to that.
>>34706956Uzbek-Turkic
>>34706956>I don't want to learn Japanese just for anime, but rather for possible future integration into their society.As someone who has spent many, many years putting a medium level effort into learning Japanese and ended up with a, well, medium level knowledge of Japanese, let me add my 2 cents.Living in Japan is the only rational reason to learn Japanese. I started learning it on a whim after watching my first anime, and while I don't exactly regret it, I strongly recommend that you go for Chinese because unless you love anime you will not use Japanese outside of Japan.
If you learn chinese you will be sent to live in china. Which will be complete hell compared to Japan.
Esperanto, but only if you can speak it like a native
>>34706956Japan is friendly and civilized. China has a lot of economic opportunities but the cost is feeding $ and relevance into their dystopia which affects your country poorly.
>>34706956Japan hates China and will work with the West better than they do. China is an arrogant, stupid country that was so dumb that they became Commies and still do it to this day.
Learning any second language is valuable. Chinese is more practical and doesn’t require you to live in China to use it, but that doesn’t mean speaking Japanese couldn’t help you either; there’s still Japanese companies and other opportunities where you could speak both at work in the US (though maybe less so than Chinese). t. live in Japan btw
>>34706956this isnt even a question. Chinese is infinitely more useful than Japanese will ever be. There are 1 billion chinese people and their soft power is increasing. whereas Japan hasnt produced anything worth talking about besides anime (not even games anymore lmao). i personally would learn japanese over chinese just because i want to talk to other weebs learning not necessarily because i care about japan or japanese culture
>>34715614China has zero soft power and always will.
>>34715618Nta. Watch them very soon determine the price of gold.>>34707090Now you hear different. Japanese is gobbledygook and a good foundation for wasting time. Even they think so.
Talking to Chinese people suckt.chinese
>>34706956Chinese is more practical but Japanese is more fun
Nothing's getting off my chest with these schizoposters
>>34706956Maybe Japanese but really it's useless to learn either. The Chinese have legions of English speakers so they just use them for translating work. I had a friend years ago who was learning Chinese saying it'd be useful in the business world. He never needed it once.
>>34706956There was an entire thread several years ago dedicated to this guy's experience with being an American who learned Chinese in college, just story after story of how much it sucks to be working in China with the Chinese. Which is more than likely where you'll end up if you tell your employer you speak Chinese.
Considering China is leading in business and manufacturing in the world since most things are made in China, I would do Mandarian.
>>34706956Chinese!!! Chinese boys/girls are really cute and you could get a bf/gf there
