(Photos in this blog all taken by EEE Reporter around Tokyo over years...)SECTION I: Languages Japanese Learn
According to an Internet Survey conducted in January 2007, foreign languages Japanese people want to learn are as follows in terms of ratios of respondents:
..Interested In.....Ratio
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#1...English......56.2%
#2...Chinese......4.9%
#3...Korean.......4.0%
#4...French.......2.2%
#5...Spanish......1.6%
#6...Italian......1.4%
#7...German.......1.4%
#8...Russian......0.4%
#9...Arabic.......0.2%
#..Other Asian Languages...0.7%
#..Other European Languages...0.4%
#..Others...0.4%
#..None...26.2%
According to an Internet Survey conducted in January 2007, foreign languages Japanese people are actually learning are as follows in terms of ratios of respondents:
..Now Learning.....Ratio
----------------------------------
#1...English.....18.8%
#2...Korean......1.7%
#3...Chinese.....1.3%
#4...French......0.7%
#5...German......0.6%
#6...Spanish.....0.4%
#7...Italian.....0.3%
#9...Russian.....0.2%
#10...Arabic......0.1%
#...Other Asian Languages...0.3%
#...Other European Languages...0.1%
#...Others....0.2%
#...None......75.4%
English, Korean, and Chinese are a kind of pragmatic foreign languages for Japanese citizens. Japanese like France and Itlay. Russia is also close to Japan. Spanish can be useful when Japanese go to America if not Brazil. German science, engineering, art, and culture are traditionally well studied in Japanese universities.
Specifically, university students in Japan are usually obliged to learn English and other foreign language. Most of students choose French, Chinese, or German.
(http://www.myvoice.co.jp/biz/surveys/10211/index.html)
But, almost one in thousand Internet users in Japan is learning Arabic, which is a big surprise, though 13 in 1,000 learning Chinese, which is reasonable.
However, two thirds of Japanese citizens never use English in person or read or write in a year, according to a survey in 2006 or so (except English expressions used as part of Japanese like in commercials).
(http://jgss.daishodai.ac.jp/research/monographs/jgssm9/jgssm9_8.pdf)
Yet, probably in China, 99% of people must never use English in person or read or write in a year.
To be an economic power in East Asia, the ability to speak English has not been needed among people in society, including elites, since higher education is provided in the mother language in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China owing to great translation work on Western cultural works by Japanese in the late 19th century.
And, historically the East Asian Culture, absorbing Buddhism born in South Asia, has been as advanced as ancient Greek/Roman Civilizations and Juadaistic Culture.
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Dan 5:4 They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.
Dan 5:5 In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.
Dan 5:6 Then the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.
Dan 5:7 The king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. And the king spake, and said to the wise men of Babylon, Whosoever shall read this writing, and shew me the interpretation thereof, shall be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.
Dan 5:8 Then came in all the king's wise men: but they could not read the writing, nor make known to the king the interpretation thereof.
Dan 5:9 Then was king Belshazzar greatly troubled, and his countenance was changed in him, and his lords were astonied.
Dan 5:10 Now the queen by reason of the words of the king and his lords came into the banquet house: and the queen spake and said, O king, live for ever: let not thy thoughts trouble thee, nor let thy countenance be changed:
Dan 5:11 There is a man in thy kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods; and in the days of thy father light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, was found in him; whom the king Nebuchadnezzar thy father, the king, I say, thy father, made master of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers;