So forum goers! I am in a bit of a bind. Let me give some backstory first though.

I came to the U.S. to study English and get my degree in English Education. I am getting close to being finished now. I studied in China for a year and was granted a degree in Modern Standard Chinese Language and Theory. Yay, my other BA is done. Now I need to choose a third language to learn. My dream is to be fluent in 4+ languages.

I currently know at a level such that I can read/live in the country and watch tv/movies without subtitles in; Thai, English and Chinese. I am torn between Japanese and German, though I have Spanish/French/Arabic/Russian also available to myself at my uni. I do not like Spanish though.

I am torn because I love German music, but I also like Japanese music. It just seems to me that Japanese would be overall more useful to me, personally. For instance, I could be playing Monster Hunter Portable 2G for psp in Japanese, instead of the Chinese (and now English) patch. Bad example but it is at least fits the situation. It seems I could do more "fun" things with skill in Japanese. Being able to use a Thai-Japanese/Chinese-Japanese/English-Japanese dictionary helps a lot also. I say this because Thai-German is not a wide field and dictionaries there are limited, even though I haven't used a Thai dictionary for almost 4 years... I like the option there.

Japanese sounds more fun. But to my ears, German sounds amazing. It is the perfect hip-hop/rap language. I love German music (Tanzwut was it right D?). My worry is German will end up like Chinese. I love Chinese films, and culture, but once I GOT to China I found it was nothing like I had hoped. I quickly lost interest in learning Chinese and now I am just doing the motions to finish class and get back to the good ol' U.S. Though there is nothing to say that Japanese wouldn't be the same.

Basicaly I do not have enough knowledge of these two language or their uses personally to make this decision. All of my friends are jumping into J101 come the new semester and I want to join them, but my sister is studying German...

So forum-friends, give me your ideas and help, offer advice or help me make this decision? I know we have a huge inter cultural community here and I would love to hear what you all have to say. Feel free to make a cse for French/Russian/Arabic if you want also. Thanks so much!

NOTE: IF anyone here speaks German... what is "bloud" like cloud but with a b?

To me I find Japanese easier than I did my 2 years of french. I personally enjoy most asian languages better as they are different from English. I have self-studied Japanese for about 1 and a half years and plan on taking a class at the university next semester. (as i couldn't fit it into my fall courses...)

At some point I would also like to study Russian (and danish). Just the sounds and the way the writen language is done is what interests me in a language.

i speak japanese and japan is a good country. though there are no more ninja here.. anyway, there are certain..movies, and games that is only in japanese. if you are interested in that, it would better for you to learn this language..

dont know german so i cant compare but - more practically, the amount of work available to japanese/english speaking professionals are quite high.

German was fairly easy for me, I've never tried Japanese though.

My vote is Japanese. It's a fantastic language, and there's so much to delve into with it.

For example, the Japanese film industry is dynamic and fascinating, from Miyazaki's charming animations that often delve into mythological Japan, to the unique and incredibly amusing horror (the spirals that took over the town, for example), to quirky and somehow thoughtful movies like Survive Style 5+. And these are all doubled in quality with only half the necessary Japanese to watch without subtitles.


The culture is brilliant and utterly unique- putting aside the usual tourist stuff like geishas, sakura viewings, cormorant fishing, ikebana and so on, try looking into the Ganguro girls in various stages, otaku, or other social tribes. Or the robotics or sex industries. The thing about Japan is that it was the only country that reacted to Western colonising powers by becoming one, and the only to develop to a first world level in Asia. So one can almost think of it as a prediction of the other Asian nation's development, and some trends already show similarities.


I'm a Japanophile- was it too obvious? I can tell you about the language if that's more helpful.

Please do! Thanks for all the help everyone. I am interested in hearing more, and I do love robots.

I lived in Germany a long time ago. I don't remember much of it though considering I was like 8 when we left. I can read it though Don't know what I'm reading though some of the time. I'm told by my dad that I learned some german again I don't remember much except how to say thank you and some other things.

Japanese.
That is all.

Since you allready have 2 asian languages (Chinese, Thai) and only 1 European language (English) I would suggest you learn another European language. It will give you more breadth/depth so that as new languages come up you'll be able to more easily notice the differences and propabbly pick up on them.

I imagine learning Japanese will be easier and more "usefull" but German (or propbabbly better some other language like French or Spanish since they are used in more countries) would probabbly be better for your "education"

I can't really tell you about the names of the robots or anything, but if you can, try getting a Pommy show called Japanorama, hosted by Jonathon Ross. In a few episodes he delves into Japan's robots. There's a couple of dancing robots who perform with a famous Japanese ballerina, a waiter-bot...

As for the language, it's charming, highly logical and surprisingly expressive. My favourite thing would be the onomatopoeias. For example:

Zaa zaa: sound of heavy rain
Wan wan: woof woof (dog's bark)
Pera pera: adjective for fluency in a language
Guru guru: to describe the winding curve of ringlets (or things of that shape)
Guru-tto: a ringlet curve that stops short after one turn around

I studied Nihongo and think it's great. That is definitely my recommendation.

I am still torn here but I do very much agree with Daganev. Another European language would round me out quite a bit more, but I do this as a hobby. Language is my specialty and it is where all of my skill lies. I love to talk and I like when people talk to me. I do not plan on using Chinese at all in my career, but it is there if I need it. With the fall of the English teaching market in Japan, and the known fact that in the ESL/EFL world, Whiteface >>> my face, it seems like Japanese would again fall into the "for fun" instead of the "for work" catagory. Hrm...

Before I read the thread, I would have voted Japanese, but then I saw your question and realised German (or French or Spanish) would be better for you.

Just remember you are talking to a bunch of Mudders here and we are highly biased towards Japan, the home of great ninja charachters.

But Japanese are just so cool, and I'm not just saying that because of my Japanese ancestry ... oh wait ... erm, because who else could have come up with Rice Field Art!

(Seriously, I'd think Japanese is more useful than German insofar as there is a wider demand in the business world for those who are bilingual in English/Japanese. Spanish, of course, is the most widespread and useful, especially if you live in California. French is also pretty widespread as its in Canada as well as France, and there's lots of excellent and quirky French films to watch. I don't really understand the appeal of German--the language is confined to Germany and they aren't exactly known for their film and literature--but then again if you like the sound and the culture, why not!)

Thank you, Lady! I am seriously leaning towards Japanese now, simply because I have a special place in my heart for Ruby... It was my first language. /nerd-dom.

But in all seriousness, I would have the pronunciation advantage with Japanese as the Japanese language can be perfectly conveyed phonetically using the Thai script, much like other languages. Plus, I would love to work with robots one day, not to mention Japan has the all powerful foodstuffs that I so enjoy.

Might as well go with it. I just wonder how long it will take to develop decent reading ability. It took about 3 months of Chinese before I could begin to read things. 5 Months for the news on tv and about 6 for the paper/magazines...

Learn Spanish. If you do, you'll be able to communicate with a great majority of the world! (Chinese, English and Spanish)

and blöd is dumb, but I recommend Spatzenhirn if you want to insult someone... and do it while tapping your forehead with your index finger. It gets them Germans pissed as hell

a decent reading ability depends how much you study really, as with anything. Being you learned Chinese, it should be fairly simple once you gasp the kanji. Reading, to me, is normally the easiest part of learning a language (understanding would probably be a better word for it in this case?). With speaking/listening being the hardest, again to me. I think once you learn the basics the worries about "how long" something will take will begin to show themselves.

I agree. Well I registered for Japanese 101, so I'll let everyone know how it goes when the time comes.

Thank you all for the help and assistance!