I hate how people confuse Japan and China!

[toryn]

In my personal experience, people who are confused by the sound of Asian languages or the appearance of Asian people or the writing aren't looking for the differences, they probably have no need to. My school has plenty of Asians of different nationalities, and I've been exposed to Asian influences in other ways, so I can tell some of the main differences.

However, if I hear or see something said/written in a Middle-Eastern language I most likely wouldn't have a clue. And I don't know the difference between many European languages.

If people don't know, it just means they haven't been told (or have a bad memory or hearing ). Though it's very annoying to have someone confuse Japanese with Chinese, for example, the best thing we can do to overcome their ignorance is tell them what it is, and the difference. And if expanding their knowledge is no incentive, think of how cool you'll seem when you knowingly tell them the facts.

EDIT: And, yes, kanji pretty much have the same meanings, but different pronunciations to their Chinese counterparts.

[Kaze]

before i started learning japanese i wasnt really able to distinguish chinese and japanese when spoken. now it seems clear. but i agree to toryn. i couldnt distinguish middle eastern languages, although i have no problems with roman languages like french and spanish. its probably because im just used to those languages.

[Elumi]

ShinDig wrote:
i know what you mean...but my school is worse, my school specialises in Languages... french, German, Spanisn, Gujarati, Italian and even Japanese. I picked to study the japanese course, (on top of french) but for some reason, they switched me to Italian!!!! arrrgh! Stupid School...

Omoshiroi desu ne! I would have taken linguistics as my major before but my memory bank told me that four languages are enough already. I'll force it to accept one more before it explodes on me (landing me in a mental hospital). It's not like I remember and use the third language that much and am still struggling with Nihongo.

[ShinDig]

lol... nihongo is hard!;)

[onisquared]

I get it all the time. You wouldn't believe.

The only languages taught in my school are French and German.

I live in a small city where Asians are a terribly visible minority. I get called Chinese all the time, and I'm clearly not Chinese. It's that bad.

It sorta pisses me off when I'm watching anime, and I hear "I don't like it with the Chinese audio" or, "Oh you like cartoons from China?"

Everytime I hear it...I die a little inside...