culture more important than anything else
Why do people have a common conception that things like economic prosperity, industrial output or number of speakers are more important than culture when it comes to making a language important? While some people do learn for those reasons, I believe popular culture and 'coolness' is much stronger an influence when it comes to popularising a language.
For example , many people cite the USA's superpower status as the impetus for the proliferation of English. While it helps, I think much more important is the influence of American culture on popular culture all around the world. English is just 'cool'.
Another example, a smaller scale reverse of the same situation. Americans are very well known for their inability and unwillingness to learn languages, especially among young people. However, in direct contrast to this is the attitude held by many young people with respect to Japanese. Anime and manga have become very popular among teenagers and amongst the more geeky circles Japanese is seen as the 'ultimate cool'. Although most have superficial knowledge, I have actually met 3 people who went on to become interpreters of Japanese, and at least 10 who are conversationally proficient in Japanese, all of whom became acquainted through pop-culture, not because of Japan's 'economic power'.
Thus, instead of worrying about becoming more prosperous or beefing up numbers of speakers, if people want to improve their language's status they need to break into the popular culture scene.
Japanese is simply not considered as a language of culture, at least in the Chinese eye, due to the atrocities the speakers of that language committed towards their neighbors in World War II, yet they do not even have the courage to admit even today.
I and many of my countrymen in China feel disgusted of modern japaneese revisionism( it's on par with holocaust denier's bs).
We dislike them for their rabid chauvenism.
We hate them for their nazi-fanboyism ( burn! burn! burn in hell!).
I also feel disgusted of their modern mainstream culture ( seriously, some of it is completely feed up).
<<Japanese is simply not considered as a language of culture, at least in the Chinese eye, due to the atrocities the speakers of that language committed towards their neighbors in World War II, yet they do not even have the courage to admit even today. >>
Of course, the same things are not popular in all countries, and the culture I am referring to does not necessarily need to be 'quality' culture. I consider anime and manga to be garbage, similar to Hollywood. But as far as the popularity of the language is concerned, the important thing is that it appeals to as many people as possible.
By the same token, Chinese will unlikely ever be as popular as Japanese among Western young people, simply because Chinese popular culture is unpopular in the West. Most people don't even know what it is, or if it exists.
<<I consider anime and manga to be garbage, similar to Hollywood. >>
Those types of garbage things do cater to their counterparts in the human world. There is no wonder about that!
A low-quality culture cannot produce a high-quality pop culture, period!
<<Chinese will unlikely ever be as popular as Japanese among Western young people, simply because Chinese popular culture is unpopular in the West. Most people don't even know what it is, or if it exists. >>
Actually, the Chinese people are not quite concerned whether the Chinese popular culture is unpopular or popular in the West.
But we do care enormously whether our GDP and GDP per capita bear comparison with our Western counterparts.
<<Why do people have a common conception that things like economic prosperity, industrial output or number of speakers are more important than culture when it comes to making a language important?>>
Didn't English militiary, industrial, and technical power in centuries past cause the spread of English to places like North America, India, Africa, Hong Kong etc? Isn't this why English is widesperad and important, for the time being?
<<Chinese will unlikely ever be as popular as Japanese among Western young people, simply because Chinese popular culture is unpopular in the West. Most people don't even know what it is, or if it exists. >>
Uh - not true. I'm 16 and I'm learning Chinese and I'm English.
<<Uh - not true. I'm 16 and I'm learning Chinese and I'm English. >>
Where in my post did I say that NO ONE learns Chinese? I just said it is unlikely it will ever be AS popular as Japanese. You are a young guy right, surely you have seen the huge hordes of nerds at your school who learn Japanese because of anime? At my high school in Australia there were 5 classes of Japanese, 2 classes of French, 2 classes of Spanish and one of Indonesian. The majority of the ones who studied Japanese did so because "it would be cool to understand anime without the subtitles". No such hordes exist for Chinese, because, in my opinion, Chinese pop-culture is unknown.
If China or any other country wants to spread their language, instead of inventing some kind of phoney institution like the Instituto Cervantes, they need to invest in popular culture and make sure it is appealing to the widest audience possible (ie, by dumbing down). South American telenovelas have probably done a lot more to spread Spanish than the Instituto Cervantes will ever do, they are actually quite popular in Eastern European countries.
<<South American telenovelas have probably done a lot more to spread Spanish than the Instituto Cervantes will ever do, they are actually quite popular in Eastern European countries. >>
Do they watch these soap operas in Eastern Europe with subtitles or dubbing, or do they juat watch them in Spanish (as in the US).
Sigmondo Froido, you seem to have hit the nail on the head - there are many people like this at my school!
Howeber, none of them seem interested in learning the language. They like to say that they are learning Japanese, yet when it comes to learning the language, they have made little effort. One or two even say that they speak the language, yet all they can say is a couple of basic phrases such as 'Konnichiwa' or 'Ohayo Gesaimasu'.
It's possible, though, that Chinese will increase its popularity as the demand increases. Due to the Olympics, and of course the fact that China is rising economically, I think that people's awareness of China will increase, therefore making it more of a popular and even 'cool' idea to learn the language.
However, people say they learn languages. Really, they learn one or two cliché phrases, then strut about telling everybody that they are learning it!
Hmmm....Where are you from, Sigmondo?
Your name is a joke about the pronuntiation of Sigmund Freud. So, you are Hispanic, Spaniard or from Philippines, Andorra, Equatorial Guinea, etc.
Secondly, you lived in Australia because you said that. And you probably live now in other country. You speak about Eastern Europe, but you can live in other continent.
Explain us, please...