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Is Technology Dumbing Down the Japanese Language?

25 points by rglovejoy 17y ago

MikeMacMan 17y ago
Is there a story here? I read the article twice and still don't understand what's NY Times-worthy here...
brazzy 17y ago
Too lazy to subscribe. Is the gist "People can't write kanji anymore because computer-assisted input requires only passive knowledge"? If so, that was old news 20 years ago. Electrical typewriters were a huge thing in Japan, because mechanical ones could never produce the ~3000 characters they use.
- ilovecheese 17y ago
  > Too lazy to subscribe If you don't have an account to read the NY Times I don't know whether I should laugh at you or pity you. Maybe both.
  - andyking 17y ago
    I've never had to subscribe to read the NY Times from Britain. Is it different for overseas visitors?
- umbra 17y ago
  Just delete your NYTimes cookie and then you won't have to subscribe.
- taw 17y ago
  mailinator emails work with NYT just fine.
m0th87 17y ago
People make the same argument with technology and English too, but that's not going to stop language evolution.
potatolicious 17y ago
"Is Technology Changing the Japanese Language?" FTFY. Moralistic "them kids today" alarmism is generally unwarranted. Evolution doesn't have a direction - it is merely change; to assign value judgment to this change historically has turned out to be shortsighted.
- Deestan 17y ago
  I agree. I also think the annoying alarmism is caused by not identifying the changes in intellectual habits. For instance, in the past the high school math geeks all knew how to use a slide rule, and mastering it was an intellectually satisfying task. Now that slide rules have been replaced with calculators, the geeks instead know how to solve quadratic and differential equations with a technical calculator, which is an intellectually satisfying task to master. The problem is that some of the "old school" can't really see the new skills and knowledge. They see only the lack of the old skills, and thus determine that X has been dumbed down and the kids today don't learn anything hard anymore.

25 points by rglovejoy 17y ago

Is there a story here? I read the article twice and still don't understand what's NY Times-worthy here...

Too lazy to subscribe. Is the gist "People can't write kanji anymore because computer-assisted input requires only passive knowledge"? If so, that was old news 20 years ago. Electrical typewriters were a huge thing in Japan, because mechanical ones could never produce the ~3000 characters they use.

ilovecheese 17y ago
> Too lazy to subscribe If you don't have an account to read the NY Times I don't know whether I should laugh at you or pity you. Maybe both.
- andyking 17y ago
  I've never had to subscribe to read the NY Times from Britain. Is it different for overseas visitors?
umbra 17y ago
Just delete your NYTimes cookie and then you won't have to subscribe.
taw 17y ago
mailinator emails work with NYT just fine.

m0th87 17y ago

People make the same argument with technology and English too, but that's not going to stop language evolution.

potatolicious 17y ago

"Is Technology Changing the Japanese Language?" FTFY. Moralistic "them kids today" alarmism is generally unwarranted. Evolution doesn't have a direction - it is merely change; to assign value judgment to this change historically has turned out to be shortsighted.

Deestan 17y ago
I agree. I also think the annoying alarmism is caused by not identifying the changes in intellectual habits. For instance, in the past the high school math geeks all knew how to use a slide rule, and mastering it was an intellectually satisfying task. Now that slide rules have been replaced with calculators, the geeks instead know how to solve quadratic and differential equations with a technical calculator, which is an intellectually satisfying task to master. The problem is that some of the "old school" can't really see the new skills and knowledge. They see only the lack of the old skills, and thus determine that X has been dumbed down and the kids today don't learn anything hard anymore.