Regretful Japanese-speaking web

Uchio Umeda is a board member of Hatena Inc, which provides one of the most popular web services in Japan. In a recent interview titled "Regretful Japanese-speaking web", he criticized Japanese-speaking web, saying that while web services are vital in people's life in the United States, the Japanese speaking web is not used effectively except for some subcultural websites like Nico Nico Douga. According to him, especially the problem is that the most intellectual people don't express themselves through web in Japan even though the Internet has great potential to boost their intelligence.

I also share his view on Japanese-speaking web. The Japanese-speaking web is too negative. Too often do I witness negative anonymous comments that attack and insult other people. The reason is, as Dr. Obuno Ikeda says, that Japanese people have no chance to express themselves under their own name because it's too risky. Under the Japanese evaluation system, once they lose their reputation, it is almost impossible to regain it later. They are afraid of criticism from their bosses and coworkers. Therefore, they insult others under an anonymous name to release their pressure in their real life. How sad it is!

Personally, I am fed up with the Japanese-speaking web. It's just fruitless. I have to cut down on the time I spent reading Japanese-speaking web. It's sad...because I am a native Japanese speaker.

I'd like to be a good English writer

For better or worse, I have to admit that English is the single universal language in the 21 century. For those who have international aspiration, English is an essentional tool for communication. On the internet, the most important English skills are reading and writing. If you want to get your voice heard to the public in the world, you need to express yourself in Enlgish. This is a lethal handicap for non native English speakers like me...but whining is no use and I just have to do what to do. 

I do notice that my English sentences are not perfectly natural for native English speakers. I'd like to improve my writing but don't know how. Anyway, I will try my best to express myself in English. 

Long time no see

I haven't posted entries for a long time.

Now I am preparing to leave for Vietnam.
I will leave Tokyo on September 22nd.
I will go through Korea and China to visit my friends.
I will finally arrive in Ho Chi Min City(Sai Gon) around October 10th.

Hopefully, I'd like to set up a software company that exports software to the countries like Japan and US.

I have been learning Vietnamese for three months. It's so much fun. This is no wonder since I am a natural language mania, so...

Open up your mind, Mr United States!

US Latinos are 'finding a voice'

The United States' 43 million Latinos are the fastest-growing minority group in the country. For Emilio San Pedro, travelling from coast to coast talking to fellow Latinos has also allowed him to reflect on his own identity.

Cheer up! The hispanic people in US! I feel that the US is becoming more and more introvert these days. Have a look at the very restrictive number of issues of H1B visas for professional people. The US might not be "a country of freedom" as the current US President might think.

By the way, are there any difference between the words "Hispanic" and "Latinos"? Is this the matter of political correctness like the relationship between the words "Black" and "African Americans"?
I am not sure.

This is a good article written by Marc Andreessen.
Birth of Newspapers, part 1: The very first newspaper

All early forms of media had lots of people who suffered from doubt, were skeptical, were dismissive, or just didn't get it -- and in fact there were a lot of dead ends and failures from a lot of innovators before the true form of any medium and its business foundation became clear.

But all of that doubt, skepticism, criticism, and failure were in each case accompanied by enormous social, cultural, political, and business transformations when things did finally become clear.

Currently, I am helping out one of my client businesses that is trying hard to create a totally new medium which has never existed before. The president of the company appears to be very lonely as nobody understands where he is heading for. He has been in pain in the process of producing something brand-new. As Marc says, no media have
never created without going through a long period of trial. His message is quote encouraging.

Language mania

What I love the most in the world is learning languages.

While I do like to learn computer languages, learning natural (that is, normal) languages gives me even a greater joy. I don't think I am a good writer, but manipulating letters and lingual sounds is such fun. I love learning grammar, too.

I wish I could make money just from learning languages. Probably, I should develop some websites or software that help people learn languages with pleasure. That could be the purpose of my life.

When MacOS conquers the world

This is hillarious news. Good job, Apple!

Apple's OS Edge Is a Threat to Microsoft