Hi, mildis. Of course, I don't mind becoming friends. I will send you a friend request myself, so you won't have to. I'm studying Japanese to be able to translate from it, so I got pretty good with translation (I think) after a lot of practice (I read visual novels in Japanese almost every day with the help of a program which captures Japanese text and allows to look up the meaning of every word in a dictionary). My knowledge of Japanese grammar is okay since I've read Japanese grammar books, my weak point is my vocabulary, I need to learn more Japanese words. Reading Japanese texts every day helps a lot. Thank you for your suggestion, I will remember to ask you if I have a question. Kazakhstan was a part of the USSR until 1985 and it affected its culture a lot, almost every one here speaks Russian, books are mostly in Russian language. However, lately the government made it a priority so everyone had knowledges of Kazakh language and used it, so I think I will start learning it seriously after I have confidence that I've mastered Japanese more or less. I'm not surprised that Kazakhstan is not all that well-known around the world, because I don't think that our literature and entertainment industry are that developed to be known anywhere except for our country. In the first place, Kazakhstan wasn't a very developed country until Russia made it a part of the USSR, a large percentage of the population was illiterate, there were very few writers, thinkers and philosophers, so, after becoming a part of the USSR and gaining literacy, the products of culture in Kazakhstan became a part of Russian culture rather than Kazakh. And after the collapse of the USSR there have been many economical problems, so not much room for the cultural development.
