Translations (JP to English)

[Jennestia]

Oh what a load of crap, please.

You say that like every japanese citizen is some sort of genius or something. It's their fricking alphabet, they learn it as children just like every other country that uses phonetic symbols. Is everyone in China an artist? I can guarantee you no.

I can understand having a passion for the country and the culture, but having weeaboo blindfolds like that isn't going to help you.

Kids these days still use the term "Weeaboo"? Such an idiotic term. What do you call someone who has a passion for America and it's mixed culture? Patriotic?

[Konachibi]

Kids these days still use the term "Weeaboo"? Such an idiotic term. What do you call someone who has a passion for America and it's mixed culture? Patriotic?

I'd say the first thing that popped into my head... but the moderators would remove it

[quantumsaint]

Kids these days still use the term "Weeaboo"? Such an idiotic term. What do you call someone who has a passion for America and it's mixed culture? Patriotic?

Reverse weeaboo.

http://i.imgur.com/hg9dX.jpg

[Kafeen]

Self-teaching is the only way to learn the language. Classes are for weeaboos.

All you need is a 20 buck book, internet access and patience.

I completely disagree with this. There's a reason children are sent to school rather than given a few books to read at home.

While you can't rely solely on a class and some self study is needed, if all you have is a few books how are you going to get the correct pronunciation in your speaking? Check your practice is correct. Sure, you can check an answer in the back of a book but that's nothing compared to being able to write freestyle and have someone, especially a native speaker, check if what you're saying is correct.

[Betelgeuzah]

I completely disagree with this. There's a reason children are sent to school rather than given a few books to read at home.

Children don't know how to learn on their own.

Are you a child? In that case go to school.

[Betelgeuzah]

It's especially true for writing.

[Betelgeuzah]

You really need to move to Japan someday. You need a firm ass-spanking by Reality himself.

They aren't special.

[Konachibi]

You really need to move to Japan someday. You need a firm ass-spanking by Reality himself.

They aren't special.

Maybe, maybe not.

At least I'd have easier access to anime and manga without having to go 15 miles just to get to the nearest store.... which usually doesn't sell the good stuff.

[Colino]

Japanese cartoon

American cartoon

Who's better at art?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci

He is.

I know what you mean though, if you learn it as a kid it's easier than trying to learn it as an adult. Kids learn things quicker than adults, natural fact.

It's just that in comparison, the Japanese alphabet just seems so much more complex than the English alphabet to me.

It's not that much more complex. Try Chinese, it's actually much harder than Japanese is. Not to mention the Cyrillic Alphabet, Arabic, Hebrew... There's loads of very difficult alphabets to learn.

You really need to move to Japan someday. You need a firm ass-spanking by Reality himself.

They aren't special.

Exactly.

You do know Otaku is a derogatory term and they're considered no better than the stereotypical "nerds" we have here in the west right?

It's a great culture with lots of interesting things to learn from, but they're far from perfect and amazing. In fact they have loads of social issues and cultural problems, including a still strong presence of racism in pop culture and the highest suicide rate in the world, among other things.

I'm not trying to put Japan done, I'm just saying being blind and considering them the most amazing people to ever grace planet earth of their existence is a bit much.

I also apologize for the derailing as well, that's all I had to say really.

[Konachibi]

It's a great culture with lots of interesting things to learn from, but they're far from perfect and amazing.

From what I understand 'Otaku' sort of translates as 'obsessionist', it's not actually relative to anime or anything, but it's more commonly associated with it. (A bit like how 'Neko' in america means 'cat-person' when in Japan it just means 'cat')

I can understand what you mean. to be honest the one thing that really made me kind of be a fan of them is this thing I read saying it's traditional that parents only give presents to their kids on christmas if the kid still believes in santa claus, and a lot of parents try to keep their kid believing for as long as they can. It sounds stupid but I think it's really sweet, in the U.K most parents would tell the kid that santa wasn't real the moment the child was born.

Then there was the other thing where it's considered bad luck (I think it was bad luck, or something like that) for a woman to be single during christmas, so it's traditional to ask out a girl/guy you have a crush on leading up to christmas.

I dunno if any of that is actually true or not, but if it is I really envy them. Sure they do have problems, but at least Christmas there feels like christmas, here nobody even bothers putting up decorations anymore, art and culture festivals barely even exist in schools. It's like every day is a monday in the middle of may, everyone's lost their sense of what festivals and holidays are meant to be like ; ;

but yeah I'll stop now... or at least I'll TRY to stop now...