You flatter me Episcopus. 
I donāt live near Japan, Emma, in fact I live in Colorado, but I do have a facination with Japan, Japanese culture, language, history, thinking, martial arts, anime, and so on.
Iāll have to go there somedayā¦
You should stay there. My mommy said that I have to learn japanese go there and earn lots of paper.
Ahhā¦ so you all the Japanese programmes you were talking about were Animes? Just thought you must live near Japan, cause I thought you had Japanese TV or somethingā¦
One of my best friends has quite a few DVDs in Japanese, I always think itās really funny to listen to them, because when you see them in German quite a few organisations or groups of some sort have German names, but I always thought that was just the translation like until I heard the Japanese original. They have some fascination with the German language or what?
The Japanese have a fascination with English mostly, but they like to use many other languages in Anime too.
I have many DVDs of Anime, that is to say, 7 whole series and several movies. I only watch them in Japanese with subtitles because the English dubbing is usually horrible. Where do you live, Emma? Because in America Anime is growing in popularity, but most people think that it is for kids just because it is animated. But the truth is that the Japanese animate almost everything, they have cartoons everywhere, from history books to manuals. Hell, they even animateā¦ āadultā movies, if you get my meaning.
Also, the good Anime isnāt imported to America, it seems, and if they do import it it usually has bad dubbing. Sigh Most people think of Disney when they see animation, but they donāt know what theyāre missing out onā¦
I live in Germany, and Amnime is very popular here and has been for some time. American comics never really made it to Germany, but Japanese ones certainly have.
Hell, they even animateā¦ āadultā movies, if you get my meaning.
Thatās how Mangas first came into being like, cause pornos are forbidden Japan (or were, dunno if they still are), but animated ones arenāt 
. So they just drew and drew and drewā¦
Then you are not missing out on anything.
Aa, sou nan da. Boku wa nihon e kite kara, eiga toka terebi o miru jikan ga sukunaku natte shimatta node, kono goro nanimo minakatta. Demo mae wa, tokidoki anime o mita. (tatoeba, Akira, Sen to chihiro, nado.)
Un, nihongo o jyouzu ni kaku no wa muzukashii kedo, boku ni wa bunpou ga ichiban muzukashii. Saikin nihongo no gakkou de ā2 kyuuā to iu bunpou o sumasete, 1 kyuu o hajimetaā¦sugoku muzukashii yo. Demo, nihongo no doushi wa chou kantan da ne! Ratengo yori zutto yasashii.
Ee, soo desu. Nihonjin wa Ratengo ka Eigo o narattara, sugoku muzukashii deshoo. Eigo wa nansensu de, taihen na kotoba n desu. Tokidoki eigo wa kirai desu.
We even have an Anime shop near where I work which sells toys and models of Anime characters, Anime computer games etc etc. I havenāt really checked it out properly - looks fascinating.
First German, now Japanese. :melodramatic sigh: If only I could study every single language in the world so that I could follow conversations around here. 
(crude translation: (Iām) watching many Animeās. but since thereās no caption itās very difficult to understand. ā¦ But Japanese (itself) is quite easy. (Although) Itās difficult to write(?). (ā¦?) Mononoka Hime is (my) most favorite Anime. as much as Akira. Do you watch Anime? Which of Japanese movie do you like best? That movie?)
If you liked Mononoke Hime, you might also like Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind(Kaseno Tanino Naushika). I like the Manga version of it the more. Tha Anime is an abridged(and incomplete) version of it.
I keep DVDās of the āSeven Samuraiā and āYojimboā, the old japanese movies that brought forth many remakes.
p.s.
Beruseruku(Berserk) is a dark, gory, and creepy nightmare-o-genic, killer manga(anime too). strong recommendation for only those who like it. 
Takusan Anime o miru n desu. Demo, jimaku wa nakereba, amari wakarimasen. Motto Nihongo ga wakaru yoo ni naritai n desu. Kakiru no taihen desu ne? Tonikaku, Mononoke Hime ga ichiban Anime suki desu. Akira yori n da. Anata ga Anime o mimasu ka? Nihon de donna eiga ga ichiban suki desu ka? Dono eiga?
Complete translation: I watch lots of Anime, (I meant to put a comma here) but if there are no subtitles, I cannot understand much. I want to be able to understand more Japanese. Writing is hard, isnāt it? Anyway, Princess Mononoke is my favorite Anime (Movie, that is). I like it better than Akira. Do you watch Anime? Which Japanese movies do you like best? What kind of movie?
Mingshey, what are you doing knowing Japanese? 
I never thought so many people would know it. Difficult language, though. Grammatically, I find it easy, but the honorifics are hard and there is so much that doesnāt translate at all. You know, use the wrong honorific verb for give and your insulting someone, comparing him to a dog or something. Well, Iām sure they would forgive us Gai-jin.
Talking about Japanese Chinese is crazy.
Grammatically japanese is almost the same as my mother tongue, Korean. But I only took the beginnerās course and do not know many a vocabulary. Thereās are many Anime fans in Korea and they have translated most of the anime into Korean. Itās very easy to download the subtitles translated into Korean through the internet. Having learned the basics, I can catch some of the japanese speach while reading the subtitle.
Japnese tongue is composed of only fifty or so syllables and so there are great possibility of ambiguities when spoken. And thus, confusion. ā But the very fact opened a possibility of pangram in japanese. An old japanese zen poem, Irowa Uta(āColor isā-Song) is a pangram(a sentence composed of every alphabet, each used only once).
Korea and Japan imported the chinese characters through somewhat different routes. Korean has quite a consistent, single reading convention for chinese characters. But Japan had imported the chinese character set firstly through Korea, and then later directly from China, through several different dynasties of Imperial Chinese. Thus Japanese has several different reading conventions for Chinese characters(Kan-ji). This is a hard challenge for gaikokujins, indeed. And moreover, since japanese uses different kanjiās for different nuances of seemingly the same native japanese word, and read the kanji after their native word, kanjiās take different pronunciation between different usages. A total chaos for foreigners. So much for kanji.
If I should become fluent in Japanese, it has a great usage. Since itās said that almost every books in the world are translated into Japanese(sometimes earlier than the original!), you get a broad access channel for information and knowledge with it.
Wow. 