“Old alliances wonít die so long as it remains so affordable to fly to the UK and we resist teaching Eastern languages in high schools. The kids are still learning Spanish and French! What’s up with that?”

The school system currently can barely teach its students to read at their grade level so I’m not shocked they’ve not attempted large scale teaching of Japanese or Chinese. From what I remember from high school, the quality of instruction of European foreign languages is pretty low as well.

Maybe I watch too much anime or am too aware of Japanese contributions to film but this idea that Japan keeps it culture to itself or doesn’t export it is so odd to me. You can see the influence of anime in everything from the style of the PowerPuff Girls cartoons to ad campaigns to [fill in the blank]. Isn’t Hello Kitty more popular than Mickey now? There’s also the disgusting new Gwen Stefani solo career. Gwen thinks it’s sooo funny to use Japanese women as props. I hate her. And Memoirs of A Geisha should be out in a year or two. Of course, it stars almost all Chinese actresses which is imo quite strange.