Why Japan???
Japan is a very complicated Country full of mystisicim and with a very ancient history... One of the oldest countries thath still keeps their own native culture and traditions.
But even Japan has been afected by the influence of the Western countries, mostly the United States.
Obviously the official language of Japan is the Japanesse, However as a consequence of globalization, mixture of culures and overall the progress of communication tecnologies such as computers, cellphones and specially the Internet, English became a necessity for their way of life, adding that, to the fact that USA is one of the most powerfull economies in the world.
Japan has adopted English as a secong language, even if it's not official (very similar to what's happening in Mexico, that is the very same reasson for us to study English, isn't it???).
But Japanese not only speak English, they've adopted a lot of words in English and introduce them into their every day vocabulary since they can vistually reproduce any word or sentence in English to their own alphabet. As matter of fact, Japanese has three alphabets:
- Hiragana, wich is entierly Japanesse an
d for words born in Japan. - the Kanji alphabet, that was an adaptation from the chinese alphabet.
- Katakana, that is exclusive for foreigns words, mostly in English.
Do you think Japan struggles to maintain its cultural values?
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's bad that Japan needs to integrate to the worlwide type of writing. I thinks it's cool if they want to preserve their signs and that stuff, but they need to communicate with the rest of the world. I don't believe in a 'westernization' I believe in a culture integration.
ReplyDeleteI really want to know how is the way japanese learn three language, and if it´s obligated for all of them or only for a few¡¡¡¡¡¡ Viviana=D
ReplyDeleteIs good to know how English is in all the world, and I think is good to know how globalization and new technologies make us look for communication.
ReplyDeletelet me ask your questions:
ReplyDelete1.-yes, there has been an struggle for the japanesse people to maintain their own traditions and culture, I think that the key for them to succes is that their economy is quite strong, enough to be self suficient.
2.-everyone is entitled to their opinion Chris, i think that we need to maintain a portion of us to ourselfs and don't sell our tradition to the world. But they do have open minds, they do know how to spell in arabic alphabet.
3.-No, Viviana, maybe I wasn't clear enough they don't have to lear three languajes, just their mother languaje anda english, the three ways of writing is something diferent, they all are japanesse.
4.- Yes, it's very interesting to see how globalization works, Ale.. in another post I will talk a little about their computers and how they use english for it, meybe tomorrow, waith for it, i'm sorry but I've been very busy...
Could youe give some examples of vocabulary both cultures share?
ReplyDeleteFlora Itzel
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