alt Hacker News> Is anime & JAV to blame here?
Why "blame"? Isn't it perfectly reasonable for people to take more interest in a country that's supplied them with interesting cultural exports than one that hasn't?
> Foreigners who speak Chinese are way more rare than those who speak Japanese, therefore making it a more valuable language to acquire for business, diplomacy and travel.
Only to the extent that you want to do business, diplomacy, or travel with China. More people are interested in Japan.
Hey not sure if you are a native-English speaker but considering the context of this thread you might not be and just wanted to clarify: "to blame" here might be a bit confusing as a common English expression "is X to blame for Y?" actually means "is X the reason Y occurs?".
It's confusing because "blame" can have a negative connotation...but in this instance it's used in an expression that basically means "the reason something happens".
Please ignore me if you already knew this but just wanted it to be out there in case you didn't.