Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Studying Japanese? Stop Wasting Your Time. Now.

The Seoul Gyopo Guide is meant for many things, and here are the most important.
a.  Inform non-Koreans about brilliant Korea, and the amazing things that have been, are being, and will be accomplished by Korea.
b.  Help native Koreans understand how to adapt to a world outside Korea, which will be necessary in order for Korea to continue its ascent.
c.  Point out how Korea's legal and social structure must evolve to match its economic development.

One bias amongst Koreans that has existed as a result of the oddest combination of animus and envy, combined with convenience, is Koreans' continual study of the Japanese language.  This is a complete waste of time.  The Seoul Gyopo Guide has suggested, almost begged, native Koreans to stop this.  English is much more important, and you can make the case for Mandarin.  The many reasons are summarized here.

More evidence continues, and will continue to flow in steadily. Here is today's evidence from Japan's Kyodo News.

"In a multiple response question asking executive to list negative factors affecting the economy, 75 companies referred to the yen, 58 cited the future course of the U.S. economy, and 31 noted the weakening effects of economic stimulus."

This perfectly coincides with all of the Seoul Gyopo Guide's previous posts regarding the inevitable Japanese decline.  There is a phrase called "The Lost Decade" in Japan.  That is is an untruth.  We are in the third lost decade for Japan.

The Lost Seoul acknowledges that there are similarities between the Japanese and Korean language, which makes Japanese a convenient language to study from an academic perspective.  However, unless you are employed to specifically cater to Japanese tourists, or conduct business with Japanese corporations, it is a fact that Japan is in inevitable decline.  Only a full-out war between North Korea and South Korea can stop that now, and in that case, it wouldn't really matter, would it?

0 comments:

Post a Comment