NationStates Jolt Archive

I never see any japanese on the english web. I am french, I saw many other french guys/girls, many germans, english, americans, dutch, some russians and australians etc. People from everywhere there is an important access to the internet.

But I almost never see any Japanese or Korean (south) in the forums I visit. Can someone explain that? Are those people more attracted by sites in their languages? But then, why do we see so many Europeans? Japanese people speak english as well as europeans, for what I know... anyone has a good explanation? :confused:

That is weird. I never even noticed the lack.

This is something to ponder more carefully . . . :confused:

I have seen a few but not many. It may have to do with how radically different the languages are. I've studied Japanese a bit and it is much harder than Spanish or German. It may also have something to do with the fact that some of the Japanese I have communicated with online have passable English but are still very embarassed by the fact that it is not perfect.

Try searching for japanese girls on google. I bet you will find a lot then. :)

Note: do not actually listen to me.

I have run across a few every now and then. A Korean seems to be the most common person to meet on the internet. I am not sure why that is...

I've always figured that it's because of the different keyboards. I speak some Russian, but I'm sure as hell not going to go on a Russian message board. Do you know how long it would take to type out a message in cyrillic using an american keyboard? AGH.

I talk to a few Japanese people on the IRC-network I frequently visit. They're really nice but yeah, most of them feel ashamed because their English isn't near perfect. :)

I believe there may be more then you think, but a lot of them speak good english and because they're nationality is never specified its just not really noticed that they are in fact japanese. However even on top of this there may be less, just as you say. I would account this to the fact that there are a LOT of japanese sites out there that most would stick to if its their first (and easiest to use) language. Plus I guess the keyboards would be quite different. Another thing is that because they are from another country, they're general interests could be quite different then yours so they just don't tend to visit the same boards and sites as you do. There are some boards out there that are english and mainly used by asian people just because of what the topic of the boards are.

The reason, obviously, is because the Japanese, being entirely composed of ninjas, are too busy doing other things to post on message boards. ie: Killing pirates, inventing new technology, getting nuked, ect.

So umm, what does a Japanese keyboard look like? Aren't there a ton of characters in the Japanese language? And might it be that most Japanese may be able to speak English, but can they read it all that well? The Asian and European alphabets are quite different from what I can tell. Or all this could be totally wrong and I sound stupid!

I would think the Japanese are beyond the internet. They communicate with text on cell phones. :p
As for on forums, I am very sure they don't come around non-Japanese sites too often. The Japanese are intensely xenophobic, and naturally keep to themselves. The funny thing is, they recognise English, but cannot speak it despite four (five?) years of mandatory English in school.

As for the Koreans, they are all, yes, all of them, playing Starcraft or Ragnarok Online (maybe Gunbound or O2Jam too). Korea doesn't have the most broadband for nothing :p

YOU'RE ALL WRONG AND GROTESQUELY UGLY FREAKS!!

Anyway.

I speak a language that is just as unrelated to English as Japanese, namely Finnish. And Finnish nationals have the exact same problem with embarrassment because of bad English. We're taught to write "perfect Oxford English" and errors in spelling or grammar are not tolerated. For the Japanese, the keyboard can't be an issue, because you'll need the shell, and shell commands are virtually never translated. The proportion of population using the Internet is virtually the same in Japan and Finland, both just over 50%. So, most of those arguments crumble under critical review.

I've noticed the same eery absence of Hawaiians, Estonians and South Americans in general and wondered that whereas there *are* Russians, why there isn't as many as you'd expect?

The underlying cause - I suspect - is that the Japanese culture is isolationist. They don't need communication and collaboration with the outside world. To compare: Americans, when did you last send a message to a forum not hosted by an American company/whatever? (Or in the Usenet, a non-American group, or in the BBS scene, a system outside your borders.)

They might also use the Internet for different purposes, or more passively.

Try searching for japanese girls on google. I bet you will find a lot then. :)

Note: do not actually listen to me.

I have run across a few every now and then. A Korean seems to be the most common person to meet on the internet. I am not sure why that is...
Because of the gaming nuts.

The underlying cause - I suspect - is that the Japanese culture is isolationist. They don't need communication and collaboration with the outside world. To compare: Americans, when did you last send a message to a forum not hosted by an American company/whatever? (Or in the Usenet, a non-American group, or in the BBS scene, a system outside your borders.)

They might also use the Internet for different purposes, or more passively.
I doubt that Japanese culture is isolationist. After all, why would the Japanese be some of the most frequent travellers, and why do Japanese and American companies cooperate more often? As for the Americans, that's mainly because MOST internet forums are sponsored by American entities. We still own the majority of the internet, since we got in the game early and vastly outpopulate the other nations that use the internet with any regularity.

Japanese are some of the most frequent travellers because they have two things: The means and the inclination. I would think that many travel not because its the most fun thing in the world, but because everyone (as in many Japanese) does so. Hordes of Japanese swarm through my favourite city, Washington DC, every day, taking pictures of everything they see. Its frightening really. Its much like a day trip to the beach, just with a longer transit. What I'm trying to say is that they travel not to see the world, but to show their friends and colleagues where they've gone.
As an aside: the Japanese girl on Google thing does have a Japanese equivalent. Blonde and redhead girls working the streets and clubs in Japan do particularly well for themselves.

And the Japanese and American companies working together very well is certainly a result of the eight-year American occupation after WWII. After all, it was Gen. MacArthur that allowed the creation of the Japanese corporations, that eventually solidified into a dozen or so mega-conglomerations (called zaibatsu).
The xenophobia (isolationism) is certainly a result of being an island nation for so long. In fact this is one of the reasons why Japan was so eager to invade China in 1935.

<--- Not Japanese, but 13 1/2 years in country. :)

Why you don't see Japanese on the net:

Language and culture issues: Most Japan have at least 6 years of English (3 years in jr. high and 3 in sr. high). However the English education system uses the very bad grammar-translation method (for historical and cultural reasons). Because of this, many Japanese have poor English skills (lowest TOEIC scores in Asia for years running).
Also, there are cultural issues of communication styles. You're unlikely to see many Japanese on English forums because of the confrontationa style of debate.

Expense and access issues: The main telecom is NTT, a former government monopoly. They still act like a government monopoly, including their pricing, which has stiffled a lot of usage. Speed is also a problem, as dial-ups have only just started being replaced by broadband.

Some interesting stats:

http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats7.htm
http://www.glreach.com/globstats/

Here's a Japanese keyboard:
http://www.datacal.com/s_images/Japanese-Keyboard_l.jpg

And note that there isn't a single "Asian alphabet" (or even a single "Euopean alphabet"). Try comparing Roman and Greek based alphabets. Asia is even more diverse.

Zaibatsu (http://www.bartleby.com/65/za/zaibatsu.html) is the pre-war name for the conglomerates, whixh are now known as keiretsu. They've been around about 150 years. MacArthur actually tried to beak them up, as they were a contributing cause to the Pacific war. However, they re-emerged in the 50s and 60s, partly due to the changing politics of the cold war.

Japanese travel overseas for many different reasons, but "to show their friends and colleagues where they've gone" is not really an important reason. Actually one of the biggest reasons is probably expense. An overseas vacation is almost always cheaper than one in Japan.

Japan's Xenophobia/isolation is more a result of government policies, especially Edo-period policies.

(But this is digressing. But so many missconceptiona about Japan. Maybe it's time for another Japan myth busting thread...)

Do they have "big eyes" and "little mouth" like I see in the cartoons?