Japanese people and outer websites

Hello there,

I know this question may sound stupid... but I've often heard that there weren't many Japanese people who could speak English or any other language (in a way, it's pretty legit: when you look at the way their own language is made, you may understand that it is already quite complicated seen the number of characters (kanji, katakana, hiragana), and that it may not be very easy to learn other languages in term of grammar).
So I wondered paradoxically whether it was still quite recurrent for them to be curious about other cultures, other websites which were not Japanese (Facebook, of course... but apart from that? DeviantArt? Youtube? Occidental/outer websites here and there?)
I also wondered whether Japan-Guide was quite famous in Japan...

I guess you mean "foreign" websites, not "outer" websites :)

Well, Japan Guide is mostly for people outside Japan wanting to travel/live in Japan, so there is no reason that it should be "famous" in Japan, is there? :)

YouTube is well known/used (though there is language settings you can choose from), Facebook is well known/used (again there is language settings available).

Some things and information are available only on non-Japanese websites, so depending on people's interest, they will view websites in languages other than Japanese :) Interests will take us to different websites, whether Japanese or non-Japanese.

I don't quite agree with your view about us finding it difficult to learn other languages because of the "complicated" nature of the Japanese langauge, though :)

Oops, my bad! I meant foreign*, indeed.

Well, thank you for the answer. I thought it was interesting to see there were many members from Japan here so I wondered whether it couldn't be a website known for people who were more curious about other countries and this kind of things...

Yeah, I guess you disagree with me... hmm, actually I was thinking as the Japanese grammar was quite different it could affect the way to learn another language. But I may be wrong ^_^"

What I meant is that for the Japanese (including myself), the Japanese language is something we learn from childhood, so that we don't consider it "complicated," (even though the kanji writing can be time-consuming). So that cannot be the reason why we (or some of us) find it difficult to learn other languages. I admit its grammar is quite different from that of western languages, though.

Yes, there are many participants on this forum from Japan. I, for one, used to teach the Japanese language to English speakers, so I am interested in helping others in that sense. Also I like to travel, so would not mind helping others who want to travel Japan too :) But it was by pure coincidence that I came to know this website.

Aaah ok, yes. I guess as a mother tongue you are used to speak the language so obviously... you may not find that SO complicated. Heh (:

Well, it's like French here; I've been used to speak it, but then... foreigners may find it complicated. However, even French people make mistakes, so... OO"
Anyway, that's nice to see you want to discover and teach Japanese to others. I guess you may receive a few requests there (as many want to learn the language x).

I agree with AK and just to add, I think that being interested in foreign cultures and being interested in foreign languages are two different things. I'd say that the majority of the Japanese are interested in the former while many are interested but very reluctant to learn the latter.

In fact, we very often see locals posting on Japanese websites asking internet users to translate some of the contents of foreign language websites they're interested in, or to translate the comments they want to post as a response to what's written in foreign language websites.

Also, many of the most popular TV shows in Japan are about foreign culture. One of the biggest population of foreign tourists around the world is Japanese, too.

On a related note, a lot of people around the world use things like "Google Translate" to automatically translate foreign languages to their own.

Ah right. Thank you very much for your answer.

Yes, I think Google Tr is a very good tool to translate and make things of another language more accessible on the Internet.