Chinese characters (including kanji in Japanese and hanja in Korean) started off as pictographs but mutated over time, becoming so abstract they're probably bet

Chinese characters (including kanji in Japanese and hanja in Korean) started off as pictographs but mutated over time, becoming so abstract they're probably better thought of as ideographs. One way in which Japanese may more profoundly affect your thinking is -- Japanese has completely different registers and even entirely different vocabularies depending on whether you are talking to an inferior, an equal or a superior, or someone from your ingroup or outgroup (and these may change depending on the situation!). Proper use of Japanese language -- proper functioning in Japanese society -- requires a sort of constant situational awareness of your social position with regard to the people you are talking to[0]. Given the similarly hierarchical nature of Indian society, I think it may be easier for an Indian to acclimate to this social awareness than, say, an American or Brit... but spending years in Japan may cause a Westerner to become more socially aware than when they first arrived! [0] The phenomenon of otaku and hikikomori is explainable in such terms: Japanese people with high-functioning autism and other social deficits would, ceteris paribus, be at a greater disadvantage than Westerners in their own societies, so their tendency to withdraw and to pursue hobbies they can engage in largely solo would be much greater. The word "otaku" came from the tendency of such people to address each other always in the most formal terms to overcautiously avoid causing offense.