Dive for your memory
Member 1285
Level 26.51
Mar 2006
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May 6, 2006, 02:32 AM
Local time: May 6, 2006, 02:32 AM
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#1 of 16
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In my opinion, Mandarin will become more powerful, especially with US/China relations as it is now. Japanese will continue to be slightly important (like French), though, not as important as Mandarin. Far more people converse in Mandarin, and having that ability will only be a benefit.
As for learning, the easier choice will obviously be Japanese. It's phonetic, and you don't have to remember tones or remember hundreds of characters by sheer will alone. You can probably get by using Hiragana/Katakana in Japanese without Kanji, whereas if you think of Chinese in a Japanese sense, it's all Kanji. Besides, written Japanese is just watered down Chinese, and you can also probably get by using Engrish too.
Jam it back in, in the dark.
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Dee