Hello!
My family is from Hong Kong but I grew up in the USA speaking only English. I’ve always wanted to learn Chinese characters and I like how Japanese uses kanji. Compared to Cantonese, Japanese is also easy to pronounce. I also really like Japanese music, anime, food and culture. I am studying Japanese as an indirect way to connect with my family’s culture.
Are any of you doing the same? I’m especially interested in hearing from Japanese learners with families from within the sinosphere like Korean, Vietnamese, Taiwanese or Chinese.
You might argue that it’s wrong to learn Japanese especially based on what they did in world war 2. However my dad used to work for a Japanese company in HK in the 1980s and always sang praises of Japanese culture while criticizing communist China. As a result i never experienced any family animosity against Japan for their 1937 invasion. I don’t know if the same could be said about korean and Taiwanese families today. In other words my family would not be disappointed if I learned Japanese instead of Cantonese.
TLDR: Are any East Asians here learning Japanese as a substitute for their family language?
by Independent-Ad-7060