Quote:
Originally Posted by Sashimister
I've been wondering about this quite some time but was always afraid of asking.
Why do many people seem to think it cooler to write letters or cards to Japanese friends in Japanese when they aren't able to write them by themselves? We get these types of requests in the Japanese Help section from people who, later on, turn out to be complete noobs to the Japanese language.
Why do they want to send something that isn't their own and something that their Japanese friend will find out in a second was clearly written by someone else? Who do these letters make happy? What's wrong with writing it in your first language even if you had to use simple language?
I have no problem with this if the language of communication has always been Japanese between the two persons. Otherwise, this phenomenon leaves me in the dark.
|
Thinking back to when I was starting out, most of my Japanese friends both here and abroad were naturally aware that I was learning the language. My speaking was pretty poor so we spoke english in person but personally most of the letters i wrote were in japanese for absolutely everything I could manage, and English for everything I couldn't. However, some of my friends didn't speak much English, so yes, there were a couple of times I went and got advice on how to write a letter that I couldn't manage alone, for example, if I had something that needed to be conveyed accurately. And a lot of the time the Japanese people wrote back (subject to ability) in English.
I agree that trying to write a whole letter in Japanese when you don't have even a basic idea of the writing system is a silly idea. But I don't think it's silly to write to your japanese friends in japanese, even if you aren't fluent though, or to try and include at least some. It's good practice for you and it shows effort and consideration as well. On which note, I don't think the idea of it is just to look 'cool' either. I didn't do it to be cool, it was just a gesture.
I certainly can't say that i'd be offended if someone wrote to me in English, even if it was bad. And I don't know why the commonality of it surprises you; most textbooks lead students towards the idea at some point or other.