I’d like to hear your opinion on my dilemma:
I have to work with some Japanese clients at work, who don’t speak any Spanish or English, there is nobody to deal them and given my few Japanese knowledge I have to handle them. And it is a true pleasure, but it is also complicated sometimes, because one single wrong word and they might get seriously offended. Plus the Japanese they use with me is very formal, and it makes it hard to find a translation. I do love Japan, its culture and its language, don’t get me wrong.
I have noticed Japanese people are very shy or closed minded or afraid of us, (at least in italki.com) I say this because I write and write to them (and even though they’re learning English or Spanish) and it is hard for me to obtain a serious constant answer to get our learning going…
Regarding Russian: I love it, unfortunately I won’t be using it anytime soon (maybe on the world soccer tournament in Russia 2018… though my attendance is not yet confirmed entirely) and the Russians in italki.com are very open, they have sent some invitations to me, I don’t have to be “chasing” them like the Japanese.
Last topics to consider:
- Difficulty of both is irrelevant, both use different alphabets than roman, and none of them will be easy, so difficulty has no importance to me.
- I am much better at Japanese than Russian, although I am pretty much a noob in Japanese.
- We do have Russian clients at work, but my Russian workmates can currently cover the demand pretty well.
What would you do?
