78 points

It’s like going to Poland to study Russian lmao wtf

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46 points

Help I sent my kid to Madagascar to learn Basque

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30 points

Probably would be more accurate to say “sent my kid to Madagascar to learn Norwegian Sign Language”

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32 points

Hey if you can learn Polish you can learn Interslavic and if you can learn Interslavic you can learn Russian. Think about it!

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11 points

Interslavic is cool, I should go back to learning it…

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10 points

At least Polish and Russian are related languages!

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7 points

True, I just know how to read Cyrillic and can fill out the rest through a bit of thinking.

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78 points
*

I mean there are immigrant areas in Japan. There’s a big Chinese community in Yokohama, which is reasonably close to Tokyo.

But I guess that would involve interactions with working class Chinese immigrants, or second generation kids of immigrants. And that’s not the type of people some fancy rich kid would want to be around.

What kind of racism do you need to assume Japanese people simply know how to speak Mandarin and also use it in their daily lives? And what kind of racism do you need to not even investigate this. They could have sent the kid to Singapore or Malaysia, a lot of people speak Mandarin there.

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27 points

If you were going to do it that way you could have done it in the US

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77 points

Critical support to this guy’s large adult son, who is either:

  1. Offline enough to not know about Japan through manga/anime/Vtubers/Jpop/hentai/video games and genuinely didn’t know his father was making a huge mistake

or

  1. Knows and opted not to tell his brain dead father for a free trip to Japan

both are good bits.

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46 points

Nice thesis and antithesis there, but I must propose the synthesis “offline enough to not know about Japan through pop culture soft power shit, but also totally knew his dad was being an ass but opted not to say anything in order to get a free trip to Japan”

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76 points

https://www.teamblind.com/post/Accidentally-sent-my-son-to-Japan-to-study-Chinese-fxdjjwqJ

This has to be a bit. They didn’t want to send their son to Taiwan because they have a “hillbilly accent”, so they sent him to Japan instead?

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60 points
*

Japan also seemed like the better choice because the northern latitude coincided with China’s capital, Beijing.

What is going on in this person’s brain? Do they think the magnetic poles impact a person’s accent? Being closer to the equator makes you sound more like a hick or what lmao

Ah yes studying Arabic in Mexico will help me develop an Algerian accent because of the latitude

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35 points

equator makes you sound more like a hick

hicquator

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34 points

Oh dear god I think he first learned Taiwan has a different accent, and separately learned that it’s in the south, so therefore there would be a southern accent and mentally melded the two together as Taiwanese have a hillbilly accent

He then learned the University of Tokyo has a good Mandarin course, and it’s on the same level latitude as Beijing, so he would get a proper northerner accent.

If this is real, this guy is incredible

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12 points

hes a nordicist (hence the “ethnic german”) and wants to stay in the higher latitudes

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38 points

i just wanted to point out that an exaggerated taiwanese accent is generally perceived to be more effeminate to your average mainlander. so their son was not in any danger of sounding like a hillbilly, at worst people might think he was gay or fem

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26 points

at worst people might think he was gay

So the one part of China that is not ruled by the Communist Party is the same part of China whose locals are most likely to sound like “comrades”?

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I was told that Southern Chinese accents do not sound good on men, and Taiwanese accents could come across as “feminine”-sounding. It seems like Taiwan is also the only place in Asia where gay marriage is legal, so there seems to be some logic in that. Not prejudiced or anything, but I’m not spending thousands to send my son overseas so he can sound gay.

They are so prejudiced

Northern accents are apparently more masculine, hence our choice in Japan, a northern masculine country.

TO LEARN CHINESE

I’m crying

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26 points
*

This is actually a thing, Taiwanese Mandarin accents are difficult to the point that even Taiwanese people acknowledge it because the other way around with another accent is usually easier to understand

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35 points
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Deleted by creator
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23 points

Imagine if the OP sent their son to some other Chinese diaspora and comes back with fluent Wenzhounese and is completely unable to communicate with 99.95% of Mandarin and Cantonese speakers

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7 points

since southerners including taiwanese don’t distinguish s/sh, z/zh, c/ch, and in some cases r/l and f/h, it could be a bit difficult to listen and understand for beginners.

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21 points

Also, I would imagine that Japan is much closer to China in terms of culture and language, than Mexico is to the US or the UK.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnsiZOJjfUg

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27 points

than Mexico is to the US

There are no Chicanos in Ba Sing Se

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19 points

“So, Kanji is derived from Chinese”

“So you’re telling me all Japanese is basically Chinese? Good to know”

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8 points

Lowriders are universal. Last I checked Mexican street style was the up and comic popular trend in japan.

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16 points

wtf is that website and why does everyone have a company name next to their screen name?

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17 points

It’s a forum for tech bros and software engineers, but it’s anonymous. Except you have to provide what company you work for.

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11 points

Also, I would imagine that Japan is much closer to China in terms of culture and language, than Mexico is to the US or the UK.

hahahahahahahahahaha

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People with Taiwanese accent are perceived to be more effeminate. And there’s no singular “hillbilly accent” because China is like the UK where the further your (Mandarin) accent diverges from the standard, the more you’re perceived to be from a working class/peasantry background.

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71 points

“I didn’t do any research and I didn’t ask any questions. This sucks. Why didn’t anyone tell me.”

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43 points

The “research” here was just going to the Chinese language wiki page.

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14 points

but if he did that he would already know that Chinese is not spoken in Japan

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