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On September 24 2010 23:58 REDBLUEGREEN wrote:
I'd say go to Taiwan if you want to learn mandarin rather than japanese. I think spoken mandarin is the same in China and Taiwan it's just written differently. Not sure about that though.
Moreover if you fail to communicate in Mandarin you can always fall back to English in Taiwan and Hong Kong since a lot of people speak it there.
Taiwan uses Traditional Chinese while mainland China uses Simplified Chinese. ^^ Taiwan is great if you're going to learn Mandarin. English is a mandated course in schools so almost everybody knows a little English. I've been to both Japan and Taiwan, and Taiwan is much easier if you're a foreigner(or at least one who knows English). Also, everything else is cheaper, including trains, so if you want to do a bit of sightseeing while you're there, it'll be more affordable(1 week of sightseeing alone in Japan cost me $200). Internet access is much easier in Taiwan, and there's no censorship(except for piracy, they monitor that). If I had to pick between living in China, Japan, Taiwan, I'd choose Taiwan hands down.
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japan all the way, come-on the world of pokemon!
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There's a big difference between the atmosphere in China and Japan. I visited China some years ago and I live in Japan now. If you have specific desires about the social feel of the place then you really want to choose which one based on that. If it's just about experiencing a new culture and locale then they're probably going to be comparable to you. If it has anything to do with contacts, I'm sure that if you put in some effort you will be able to meet up with TLers regardless of your choice. Unless you are located in the same place that people you know are it will be a big social undertaking for you regardless of whether you know people elsewhere in the country.
If you want to know random stuff about Japan, feel free to PM me with questions. If I can help, I will. If I can't I'll be frank about it.
EDIT: Seeing the next post, I thought I'd mention that I'm from the yankzone.
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I've lived in Korea and I'm currently living in Japan. I've previously studied at KAIST in Korea and I'm currently enrolled at Keio University, Japan. I don't have time to read all 6 pages of this thread at the moment, so if there is any questions in particular that you'd like me to answer, send me a PM and I'll do my best to help you out.
I guess I should mention that I'm originally from Sweden.
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On September 24 2010 23:14 SgCloud wrote:
I plan on living in an asian country once I have made enough preparations/money in order to live in one. Me, being a very politically interested liberal-minded person however can not really approve of Chinas authoritarian political system and would much rather prefer Japan or Taiwan to it. That being said, I'm also not really a person who gets motivated a lot by money ( I rarely ever spend a lot of money on things other than basic ones) unless I really am in a financial crisis, so living in a country that is less economically successful would probably be fine for me, as long as the political and cultural atmosphere is liberally minded.
You should come live in vancouver.
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I was in OPs shoes a few years ago and went with Japan as I felt it was more appealing to me. After my exchange year (08-09, Keio ft..w?) I had no regrets.
Language is a minor problem in my opinion. Japanese has an easier pronounciation while I feel Chinese has easier grammar. Kanji is just a matter of grinding and will be there no matter the path you choose, but I suppose for a beginner Japan will be easier on you.
Then again, depending on what you want to do China might be heavily favourable just because of the economy. In my case, Japan spends several times more money on my field than the rest of the world so my choice was easy <.<
Culture? I loved and hated it. Thankfully, Japanese fighting game scene is awesome.
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I think Japan would be a little more fun? But maybe that's because I'm from Taiwan.
Bottomline: Chinese is more useful and Japanese is probably easier. Depends on why you want to learn these languages.
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I'm currently on exchange in Beijing, China. It's not too bad, I got used to a lot of things and honestly, there is still a lot of foreign comforts if you live in a foreigner area. If you want to go into specific details or issues in China, just PM me.
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Why would people think that Mandarin is more useful? Pretty much all Chinese people that you will deal with will speak English and even learning the language have no real benefit because Chinese do not demand the use of their language from other people.
Japanese on the other hand are completely different and there are more international companies and corporations from Japan and knowing the language will definitely help you climb the ladder.
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Lol it's pretty fun to read all the horrible stuff about China in this thread, none of which happened to me neither when I first went in '99 nor in the few past years when I went repeatedly and finally settled in Beijing this summer. It might be that I'm really lucky but to be honest I think that some people just don't try very hard.
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On September 25 2010 00:40 sikyon wrote:Show nested quote +On September 24 2010 23:14 SgCloud wrote:
I plan on living in an asian country once I have made enough preparations/money in order to live in one. Me, being a very politically interested liberal-minded person however can not really approve of Chinas authoritarian political system and would much rather prefer Japan or Taiwan to it. That being said, I'm also not really a person who gets motivated a lot by money ( I rarely ever spend a lot of money on things other than basic ones) unless I really am in a financial crisis, so living in a country that is less economically successful would probably be fine for me, as long as the political and cultural atmosphere is liberally minded. You should come live in vancouver.
Haha, why, is there such a big asian minority there?
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I would go to japan, just because i like their culture 
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There is so much misinformation in this thread, I'm not even going to bother anymore. People who have never lived (lived, not visited) in either of these countries really shouldn't comment. Also, it's funny that people automatically assume Tokyo/Keihanshin and Japan are equivalent...
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Yeah, it's like the difference between Seattle and Kansas.
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I would pick china, because it's totally awesome
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On September 24 2010 17:55 ParasitJonte wrote:
Japan is a free society. China is not.
They have a lot of very successfull companies.
I lol so hard at these "advice".
Not surprising coming from a Swedish person.
Honestly not much I can say to convince you over a forum, but I will predict with 98% certainty you would regret your decision going to Japan over China. Or be happy the other way around, China will pay off in the long run for sure.
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Wait, why do you say that? Japan is an awesome place and it's like top 10 in the world at everything, plus it's really safe and the people are super nice.
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On September 25 2010 01:00 haduken wrote:
Why would people think that Mandarin is more useful? Pretty much all Chinese people that you will deal with will speak English and even learning the language have no real benefit because Chinese do not demand the use of their language from other people.
Japanese on the other hand are completely different and there are more international companies and corporations from Japan and knowing the language will definitely help you climb the ladder.
When chinese people came at the company I worked at before we had to hire a translator because their english was really limited. Of course knowing some basic chinese wouldn't have solved this so you either have to speak chinese very well (like the translator did) or it's not really worth it.
When you work in China it's better because even if the people you work with all speak english well (which, again, isn't a given at all in my personal experience), speaking chinese will help you tons in developing a great relationship with them. Many companies know this and will preferably recruit people who are able to speak the local language, not necessarily with the hope that they will be able to conduct meetings in said language, but knowing that they will make contacts easier.
And if you want to keep working here for a long time you really need to speak the language anyway, it's depressing at hell if you can't even communicate normally with people around you for daily stuff.
Anyway in my eyes both languages require so much perseverance that few people will be able to make it through if they don't really like the country. That probably favors China since it's so diverse, from Guangxi to Heilongjiang you're probably going to find at least one place you like. Not sure about Japan since I've never been there but given the size of the country and the fact that Japanese is pretty much only spoken in, well, Japan, options seem to be quite limited.
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Japan. Have you seen the girls they produce, o man.
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Basically make your own decision but remember China is allies with North Korea.
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EPT
