Japanese, Korean, and Chinese

Growing up I have always wanted to learn Japanese, Korean, and Chinese languages. I have always had an interest in their cultures and origins. They are so different in language and cultural backgrounds from the US its hard not to have an interest. When it comes to learning a language it helps to have an interest in their languages. I am going to list and show some of my interests so maybe it can help you decided what language or languages are right for you. First off I like to read manga which is a Japanese form of a comic book. Their stories help you learn some of the language and a lot about their culture. There are a bunch of manga sites you can go to read online for free or you can support your favorites by buying them at your local book store. One manga site to read for free is linked here. To read manga you read it from right to left but the book opens to the beginning on the opposite side of our books in America. Here is an example of a manga page. The Title of this Manga is Bleach, which is widely popular in Japan and America. 

Most mangas will have a cartoon made after it called anime. Some animes are made even with out being a manga but a lot of stories are both a manga and an anime. You can watch an anime dubbed or subbed which ever you prefer. If you want to learn the language it is best to watch it in the subbed version but in either one you can lean the culture. Like the mangas there are plenty of sites for you to go and view them but you can also buy them at some stores in American or online. Go here if you want to see one for free. One of the big things I like is to listen to Japanese, Korean, and Chinese music. You can find their music anyone if you know where to look. Of course the best place to find most is on YouTube. Some of the singers even sing whole songs in English but if they are in their own language you can usually find subbed versions on YouTube to understand the true meaning behind the song. Most all of the music have at least some English words mixed in theirs songs. I'm not sure why they do this but all most all of the music I listen to has English words or sentences in them. Also most Chinese, Korean, and Japanese music performers sing in groups,bands, but there are also some that sing by themselves.

This music video is called Rescue by a Japanese group named KAT-TUN. The name KAT_TUN comes from the first letter of the members last names.

This is a Korean band named DBSK and the song is called "O". There are a few different versions of this song and video. There is a Korean, Japanese, and Chinese version of this song.

Finally this a Taiwanese band named Fahrenheit and the song is called (Superb) Chu Shen Re Hua. Side note Mandarin is the main language spoken in Taiwan so that is the language they sing in.

 I also watch Asian drama and movies which is just like an ordinary American TV show but they only have so many episodes and usually only one season. Sometimes the shows and movies are live action shows of anime and/or manga. Asian dramas rather they be spoken in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean the shows and movies themselves are really different then American shows. I guess I could say that they are more pure. I say this because they have very little or no swearing and they focus more on plot instead of sex appeal. There are usually no sex scenes like there are in American stuff and the kiss scenes are usually very innocent as they are no more then just touching lips together instead of being all over the place like American kiss scenes. I'm guess this is like this because of Asian society being more preserved then ours. You can go any where to watch these dramas but when it comes to buying them with subtitles you are mostly out of luck. You can buy them off of Amazon or have them shipped from their home countries but it cost a lot. But there is hope cause you can watch them off line on sites like this one.
In the end I can say from watching these or listening I have learned a lot about their different cultures and a little bit of words, or sentences from their languages. Its great to have the interests but in doing so I actually learn things too.