Now if you really want to watch Japanese media, lucky for you Taiwanese are Japanophiles. You should be able to find Mandarin dubs of most popular Japanese anime and translations of popular manga. I could recommend some.

So, there may be hope yet. Nonetheless, if the language is really getting you down, don’t bother. You don’t need it. You don’t decrease in value for not learning another language.

Hah, this reminds me of the many morons on Youtube spouting jibba jabba like ‘there are people dying in Iraq right now and you are watching videos on Youtube!’
There are starving kids in Africa and you are writing articles!
There was an earthquake in Taiwan and you are watching TV!
Global warming is killing the earth and I’m typing this nonsense!

The one thing we have that is ours alone is choice. When you limit yourself to what is conventionally acceptable you might as well give away your soul while you’re at it because you won’t be using it, if you let the rest of the world dictate what you do with it.

We will never get around to doing all the things we ‘should’ do, it’s not possible. You won’t read 1/1000000000000000000+ of the books you ‘should’ read in your lifetime. You can, however, read whatever you want right now.

Since you’re in Taiwan, where there a lot of people who LOVE Japanese stuff, you should be able to find originally Japanese materials in Mandarin, if you want to read and listen to that. Nobody said you couldn’t do that, and it’s not any less authentic Mandarin.

Otherwise, don’t waste your time. No, seriously, don’t waste your time. If you’re going to leave the country anyway, go ahead and live in your “laowai bubble”.

==WARNING: If you don’t want to read about my First-World Problems, look away now

I started French for pure fun, enjoying French indie cinema, French politics, French pop, awesome BD’s, and soaking up Hugo In The Original French (no ponciness here, it was a guilty pleasure), and French ladies. I still enjoyed US and UK shows, and didn’t want to give them up, but so much was dubbed, so I enjoyed those too, as a Frenchman would. Love of culture first, fluency as a consequence. Job done.

I started Mandarin for pure fun, the sounds pleased me, the characters were beautiful, and as that initial coolness wore off I wrongly assumed there would be a culture of similar interest to me. But I was wrong. There are a few gems, but mostly there is very little I enjoy. (Zero disrespect to Chinese/Taiwanese culture as such, it’s just not for me. Peace and love!) There is (almost) nothing I enjoy in films and pop culture. The weibo world just makes me sad. And it is definitely NOT for lack of looking. The stuff simply isn’t there. And as for Western media, next-to-nothing is dubbed.

Literally the only thing keeping me interested is getting to a level to read the old school books.

To make matters worse, I’m stuck in Taiwan for a year. Wonderful people, but nothing beyond that.

Meanwhile, I have been drawn into Japanese stuff. Loads and loads and loads of it. I listen and watch all the time, when I “should” be listening to Mando. I can’t understand a word, but I don’t care. It’s fun, it’s interesting, it’s well-produced, it’s even funny. It’s LOVEable. I listen and watch while I do my Mando MCDs.

My dilemma – I don’t want to stop, because I feel like I’ve committed too much, because not getting to fluency would feel like a failure, because I don’t want to have “wasted” my time, because I don’t want to be in a laowai bubble in Taiwan and, more positively, because I will maintain a mild, half-arsed interest for the rest of my life, especially in old literature.

On the other hand – Anki and listening to schyte for hours a day for another 365 days is a bleak prospect.

So do I crack on for one more year, until I can put it to bed as a job well done, if not particularly enjoyed, and enjoy the marginal interest and growth after the Final Sh## Year? And then dive into the AJATT 5-10 year dream of becoming a third Japanese (I’m already half French :D)? A Japano-Franco-Anglophile, with a mild like of Mandarin.

Or do I do AJATT in Taiwan, starting this week? A Japano-Franco-Anglophile, who once f###ed up and “wasted” two years studying a language, and a third living in a country in isolation.

I know Khatz made a similar decision with Canto vs Mando, but he eventually did both, he was just choosing which one *first*. My choice is *whether* “mild interest” is enough to justify.

I would genuinely love to hear your advices, *especially* if you’ve faced a similar problem yourself.

And would it be sane or insane to attempt Mando intermediate and Japanese beginner simultaneously? (Bear in mind French advanced ticks away in the background.) The internet seems to be awash with people who’ve been chasing two rabbits for ages, and still have yet to catch either.

Again I would genuinely love to hear your advices.

And apologies for putting a big downer in people’s happy place!

🙂