I don't know what the hell that student is talking about. I think they're different animals. And none is better than the other at the higher levels.
I can't speak for Japanese literature/fanfic, but for everything I've read in Chinese (I'm a chink) they elicit different feelings than something in English. What is something I always found interesting, and I think Japanese in somewhat similar, is that the use of kanji can have multiple subtle meanings so there's a lot more interpretation by the reader that may not even be what the author intends. The language itself has its own ambiguities, in that regard. In contrast, I've always found the sort of things you can do with the English language to be super fun and interesting, but it's like having a whole stockroom of weapons and you have to be a lot more careful with what you use to elicit a reaction from the reader. The way you can play with the order of words, the way you squeezethingstogetherifyouwant, the freaking AWESOME variety of metaphors and adjectives you can utilize, all these things. There's less subtlety on average (and I always found Asian literature to be very subtle, which some people confuse for being bland), but you get a better, more individual feel for how an author wants to put things together. For me, a great majority of Asian literature reads kind of the same in terms of style-- it could be cultural, but I think in part it has to do with just the way the language is built.
Let's take an example from one of your fics:
"Miyagi checks the ball with Rukawa and as soon as it's in his hands again he's a blur racing down the court faster than anyone I've ever seen and he's going in for the lay-up but Rukawa and Sakuragi - no slouches in the speed department either - are already there to block him but one no-look pass later and the ball is in Mitsui's hands and then it's not, it's sailing in a perfect parabola through the air and through the net with barely a whisper of sound to acknowledge that it's good, not just good but great holy shit."
You could never emulate the "feel" of that sentence into Chinese. And no one could write something that great except for you. That's how I feel. I can try my ass off to write as well as you (and lord knows I've tried. The entire Hiroshi backstory chapter I slaved over trying to not just hit Inoue's voice, but also trying to get even an iota of your "awareness" of how the language transverses to the reader) but I never can. However, I can write my own way: and that hot steaming mess that comes out the other side is something that I believe, even tinged by the voices of so many other great authors I've read and tried to emulate, is still distinctly me. At the same time, I can write something in Chinese or Japanese, but I think I lose a bit more of my "voice" at the cost of having something that's just overall more poetic.
tl;dr: Slap that kid and make the student read your shit. That'll convert 'em.
no subject
I can't speak for Japanese literature/fanfic, but for everything I've read in Chinese (I'm a chink) they elicit different feelings than something in English. What is something I always found interesting, and I think Japanese in somewhat similar, is that the use of kanji can have multiple subtle meanings so there's a lot more interpretation by the reader that may not even be what the author intends. The language itself has its own ambiguities, in that regard. In contrast, I've always found the sort of things you can do with the English language to be super fun and interesting, but it's like having a whole stockroom of weapons and you have to be a lot more careful with what you use to elicit a reaction from the reader. The way you can play with the order of words, the way you squeezethingstogetherifyouwant, the freaking AWESOME variety of metaphors and adjectives you can utilize, all these things. There's less subtlety on average (and I always found Asian literature to be very subtle, which some people confuse for being bland), but you get a better, more individual feel for how an author wants to put things together. For me, a great majority of Asian literature reads kind of the same in terms of style-- it could be cultural, but I think in part it has to do with just the way the language is built.
Let's take an example from one of your fics:
"Miyagi checks the ball with Rukawa and as soon as it's in his hands again he's a blur racing down the court faster than anyone I've ever seen and he's going in for the lay-up but Rukawa and Sakuragi - no slouches in the speed department either - are already there to block him but one no-look pass later and the ball is in Mitsui's hands and then it's not, it's sailing in a perfect parabola through the air and through the net with barely a whisper of sound to acknowledge that it's good, not just good but great holy shit."
You could never emulate the "feel" of that sentence into Chinese. And no one could write something that great except for you. That's how I feel. I can try my ass off to write as well as you (and lord knows I've tried. The entire Hiroshi backstory chapter I slaved over trying to not just hit Inoue's voice, but also trying to get even an iota of your "awareness" of how the language transverses to the reader) but I never can. However, I can write my own way: and that hot steaming mess that comes out the other side is something that I believe, even tinged by the voices of so many other great authors I've read and tried to emulate, is still distinctly me. At the same time, I can write something in Chinese or Japanese, but I think I lose a bit more of my "voice" at the cost of having something that's just overall more poetic.
tl;dr: Slap that kid and make the student read your shit. That'll convert 'em.