Completely random and not super important thought I after some interactions, I didn’t know where to post.
For all the learners on here, does anyone get this question fairly often? Especially Japanese majors in college. Whenever I tell people my major is Japanese, about half the time they go, “well why didn’t you learn mandarin? It’s soooo much more useful.” Like, I don’t know, ask fourteen year old me that. I wasn’t exactly thinking of my future, I just picked what I felt was intresting and fell into it. Am I the only one who thinks this question is so like, rude? I think people have this perception that the only people who learn Japanese are anime obsessed weebs (no shame if you are, still valid) and that Chinese is just worlds more useful and you’re basically guaranteed a job if you study it, which isn’t necessarily true at all. I think people think that Japanese isn’t useful for any sort of diplomatic translation or business translation, and if you’re going down that path the only “intelligent option” is to study Chinese. I also feel as if it implies that learning it outside of any sort of translation career, IE cultural understanding and appreciation, is useless, which I also find to be a little offensive. They also say to say it very condescendingly I feel.
This may not be a common issue but I don’t know where else to complain, and I was wondering if anyone else has encountered this expirence.
by Quirky-Kiwi-6583