So many Japanese Students
October 7, 2008 – 9:16 pmFinally I have internet again. It’s really hard to live without the net for more than one week. Today was my first day of this semester and I’m still unsure what classes to choose. Anyways, just for fun I took a look at the beginners Japanese class, which I could attend voluntary. Quite a surprise:
There is a huge interest in Japanese
I remember when I went to the Chinese class at my university some semesters ago. We were only about 4 (four) students, the classroom was almost empty. Small classes are good for learning, but if classes are to small the administration cancels these courses. Today I went to the beginners class in Japanese. The room was bursting full. More than 20 students were attending the Japanese class. Did I miss something? Do these guys know something I don’t. Is Japan the country where money grows on trees? I’ll need to research that.
The teacher of this class is already famous for the high quality Japanese lessons, then I didn’t expect this. Unfortunately this class doesn’t really fit my schedule. I’ll try a few lessons and see how it goes. Too bad there is no advanced Chinese class at my university. That is what I really need. I’ll probably subscribe with Chinesepod to continue my Chinese studies.
In today’s class we learned some very simple things, like saying hello and so on. It is very interesting so see how Japanese compares to Chinese. I could even see some similarities…. Some people told me Chinese and Japanese are so different. Are these similarities real or just by chance. I’ll have a look at the Japanese class for a few weeks, then I’ll know. Until then I’ll keep up learning Chinese.
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2 Responses to “So many Japanese Students”
Although Japan and China do not get along so well, Japan is China’s most important trading partner and thus it’s quite useful for a Chinese to learn Japanese.
Furthermore there really are some similarities – Japanese decends Chinese; as a result it’s quite easy for Chinese to learn Japanese – at least ways easier than to learn english. Anyway, the diffrence is maybe as big as the diffrence between German and English, so sounds totally diffrent when listening to it.
By Aremonus on Oct 9, 2008
The hate for the Japanese still seems to be widespread in China. When I was in Kunming some people I talked to told me about their negative feelings towards the Japanese.
On the other hand I could see, that those Chinese persons who had been abroad had a much more positive attitude towards the Japanese.
Maybe China should give free holidays in international destinations to its citizens to promote positive feelings towards Japan.
By Hendrik on Oct 10, 2008