One thing that has put me off learning Japanese is the trend for a foreigner to be increasingly shunned by Japanese society as his language skills improve. It’s considered cute if a foreigner makes a halting effort, but once he actually reaches proficiency his efforts only disturb the people he meets. For a long time, [...]
While I do hope to learn Japanese one day to read the works of such great novelists as Kawabata and Mishima, I doubt I will ever be more than the most casual of dilettantes in Japanese historical linguistics. That said, I do like skimming books on the field, and have heard enough of Roy Andrew [...]