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I study Nihongo because... - ta12121 - 2010-05-10

Mcjon01 Wrote:
ta12121 Wrote:i enjoy learning it more now since I've gotten soooo far into it. NO reason to stop until I've become completely fluent.

P.S. anyone hear a metal gear sold fan?
you're going to laugh your butt off

Hahaha, what the hell? What is that, one of the joke videos from the Secret Theatre? I can't believe I've never seen it before.
yea it is. It's subsistence for metal gear solid 3. they have a bonus theater a long with all the scenes from the game. So yea, couldn't stop laughing at this, random ending.

I study Nihongo because... - Evil_Dragon - 2010-05-10

ワロタ

I study Nihongo because... - CompGeek812 - 2010-07-15

I originally got into Japanese when I was studying swords as a kid. While a lot of people become smitten with the crushing Broadswords or beautiful Damascus blades I became entranced by the elegance of the Japanese craftsmanship. That led to learning the history and mythology behind them and the Bushido code which as a kid seems like the ultimate awesome.
Started hitting up the Vietnamese bootleg store down the street from where I was living for Japanese movies which were so much cooler than what I was used to watching (mainly because the guy at the counter didn't check ID on any of the movies). Then I rented Akira (which is a fantastic movie to watch when you are ten) and got hooked on anime; never been the same since.
Long story short(er) now I'm just another Computer Science geek hoping to land a job in Japan for a change of scenery (or join the military and pray like hell I land in Okinawa). Though I hope to eventually become a polyglot and travel around to satisfy my wanderlust. (Other long term goals include posting more, bad habit)

I study Nihongo because... - CompGeek812 - 2010-07-15

ta12121 Wrote:One thing i noticed from when i was an amateur. Is that the language itself sounds much more beautiful then when i first started because now i can understand so much more.
Reminds me of Mark Twain working on the river.

I study Nihongo because... - dragonroot - 2010-08-15

I study Japanese because I feel a bond with these people. The bond has started off small (I think at the time I first saw the first 'Ring' movie), but was steadily growing through the years as I was getting to know more and more about the Japanese people. At some moment I've decided to delve into the language a bit, maybe to get to know what was it all about. First I was shocked and thought it would take literally forever to master this language. I was digressing away all the time, but since I already had a bond with everything Japanese, naturally I was always coming back. After some time I actually became serious about taking a more systematic approach. I asked around and found out about Heisig approach. I first did about 200 kanjis lazily (without pad and pencil, and reviewing only from kanji to keyword). Then everything started to fall apart, I couldn't continue like that, so I've googled a way to review, found RevTK and started off again anew, this time doing everything right, with the writing, stroke order and correct reviewing. Right now I intend to finish RTK1, come hell or high water (I'm at 600 kanjis, been doing that for 3 months). Eventually I'm actually thinking about going to Japan and maybe even settling there, even though I have never had any actual encounter with any Japanese person at all (which freaks me out a bit). Any Japanese person I see on the street makes me treble. I naturally feel that those people are very close to me, and I also perceive them as completely harmless and inherently not dangerous to me (as opposed to other people which I still keep invariably positioning as possibly dangerous and mean if I don't know otherwise).

I never studied any other language just because I liked it much enough before. I learned English mostly just because I needed it (even though I found out it to be quite interesting in itself), and I also studied Portuguese, out of dire necessity too. With the latter I firstly felt no bond whatsoever and it took me a lot of time (a year or so) to bond with it. Now I do have a deep feeling for it too (which interestingly enough still never happened with the English language), but I would still study Portuguese only when I actually need to use it from time to time (where I would get a bit more in each such situation). Japanese is the first language I do just because I want to know the language itself. Of course, the hidden strings are still attached here (as I've described my feelings above), but the difference is that this comes from the heart, not from merely some intellectual belief, and this makes the process naturally very interesting, rich and wanted. I wish everything in life was motivated like that.

I study Nihongo because... - EratiK - 2010-08-15

I had a spare decade and thought, "what the hell, let's get fluent in Japanese".

I study Nihongo because... - Snowflake - 2010-08-15

That gave me a chuckle, EratiK. When I think about it, though, that very well may be my timeline.

Dragonroot, how nice that you feel an emotional connection. So, Japanese is your 4th language? Impressive!

As for me, I have a few reasons: 1) I love the sound and musicality of the language itself, 2) I find many aspect of the culture intriguing and look forward to learning more (maybe even visiting one day!) and 2) it's a good challenge because it's so different from English. Learning Japanese is quite the workout for my brain. And it's fun!

I study Nihongo because... - captal - 2010-08-16

Snowflake Wrote:That gave me a chuckle, EratiK. When I think about it, though, that very well may be my timeline.
Me too. I'm in year 3 and it's feeling like fluency might hit around that decade mark!

I dont' remember why I study Japanese anymore. I study because it's become part of my day to day routine, because my girlfriend speaks it, because my friends speak it, and because I'd have too much time in the day if I didn't do something in Japanese.

It's slowly moving from studying Japanese, to living Japanese- one day at a time.

I study Nihongo because... - vonPeterhof - 2010-09-25

I am not sure how I ended up studying Japanese, since I have had an aversion to Japanese culture for most of my life. In my earliest days it was probably due to the fact that I am half-Korean. I did get into the Pokémon craze, but that did not really stimulate any interest in other anime or video games from Japan, and after the craze died down I decided to stay away from anime (at the time I only made an exception for The Grave of the Fireflies, because that was not a "typical anime").

Another thing to note is that, since I grew up in the former USSR, rabid anti-Americanism was the norm for me, so when I became a teen and started "rebelling" against the society around me I became obsessed with American culture and started seeing the US as a libertarian paradise. That was when I started to think of Japan and the rest of East Asia as "the anti-America", a place with a despicably rigid and opressive society and culture, which made me hate it even more. On an unrelated note, around the same time I acquired a strong interest in languages and decided to study as many languages as I could. I had no qualms about studying non-Indo-European languages, since I had studied the Kazakh language having lived in Kazakhstan for 10 years, but Korean was the only East Asian language I really wanted to study at the time.

When I started college in the US most of the friends I made were nerds, and naturally some of them were anime fans. I resisted all their attempts to induct me into their society, but they did introduce me to tvtropes.org. Unfortunately, with the start of the crisis my family's financial situation worsened and I could not continue studying in the US and had to transfer to a university in St Petersburg, Russia, where my family currently resides. A combination of my natural shyness, everyone in my year already knowing each other and the need to study more to cover the difference in curricula made me completely isolated, which is probably the reason why I started spending most of my free time on tvtropes. Due to the nature of that site and the composition of its contributors, I became familliar with lots of anime titles. I really missed my otaku friends, and a year in the US dispelled most of my misconceptions about that country, so I became more open-minded towards Japanese culture. So I started watching anime in large quantities.

One day my interest in anime and my interest in languages conspired, so I thought "why don't I learn the kana?" This lead to "why don't I learn some basic Japanese?" and eventually "why don't I learn the damn language, even including the kanji?" which lead to my discovery of RtK, Anki and AJATT. So here I am now, studying the language with no real goal, out of pure linguistic interest. However, my interest in Japanese culture outside of anime has definitely increased and the thought of somehow tying my future career to Japanese crosses my mind from time to time.

tldr: Love studying languages, used to hate Japan, suddenly became sad and lonely, started spending lots of time on tvtropes.org, got into anime through that site, decided to study Japanese out of linguistic interest, no longer hate Japan.

I study Nihongo because... - EratiK - 2010-09-25

captal Wrote:
Snowflake Wrote:That gave me a chuckle, EratiK. When I think about it, though, that very well may be my timeline.
Me too. I'm in year 3 and it's feeling like fluency might hit around that decade mark!
I have since revised this judgement (thanks to Zorlee & Cie), and I now think that with enough dedication (in my case) it will be easily done in between 3 and 5 years (for me, a sink-in time must be counted in to achieve fluency. Even Khatz said people could tell when he was having 5 days without AJATT. To me that means he lost structures stored in a short term unconscious memory. I feel "fluency" is more rooted than that).

I study Nihongo because... - activeaero - 2010-09-25

I just quit my job with the FBI after 7 years of service and moved to Tokyo last week on a student visa as sort of a mid-life mini retirement. I've been self studying for 2 years but now that I'm here I realize how bad I suck, and I don't like sucking. There is also an amazing bar maid at the golden gai bar I've been visiting. She doesn't speak a lick of English so that is pretty good motivation too. Tongue

I study Nihongo because... - adoette - 2010-09-27

Oddly enough, I first got interested because I saw a girl in my freshman college Spanish class reviewing her Kanji. She told me she was studying both at once and I told her she was insane.

Turns out she kinda was, because while I don't speak much Japanese (or Spanish these days though I used to be near-fluent) the most common mistake I make is sticking a Spanish word in a Japanese sentence. The just sound so similar...

What shifted me from interested to dedicated was Kimono. I have a huge appreciation for textile arts due to a childhood of watching the Southern women around me sewing, embroidering, and crocheting. I'd like to see someone try and say that the kimono isn't the absolutely most beautiful form of textile art.

Someday I hope to go to Japan to study how they actually make them. Since I lack the artistic skills to do the kind of silk painting required I'll never be able to make my own, but still...

I study Nihongo because... - Cheesemaster64 - 2010-09-27

I LUV MANGA AND ANIME AND HENTAI AND JAPANESE GIRLS R 2 CUTE.

I study Nihongo because... - Korvar - 2010-09-28

Samurai for me. Kurosawa films, the Lone Wolf and Cub manga (I really want to get hold of a Japanese-language version somewhere), Japanese-themed role-playing games... I think I might have to blame "Oriental Adventures", a Dungeons and Dragons supplement published in 1985, for introducing me to the idea of a fantasy Japan.

I want the snob value of saying "I only watch Kurosawa/read that manga/watch that anime in the original." Smile And get the opportunity to watch/read/understand stuff that hasn't been translated yet.

I want to read the text on those old pictures of Samurai slicing through a hail of arrows and actually find out what's going on.

I want to run a role-playing game set in some Japan-like setting where you say exactly what your characters say, in Japanese. This one is complete madness because, even disregarding how long it will take me to get that fluent, where am I going to find people who play RPGs and are also mad enough to learn Japanese?

I want to learn calligraphy, at least enough to produce props for the aforementioned "never going to happen" game. Wouldn't it be cool to say "...and on the body of the ninja assassin you find a letter..." and then hand the players the actual letter?

I want to open a furniture flat-pack, and use the Japanese instructions because they're easier to follow.

I want to not be a monolingual Anglo-Saxon, as so many of us are.

But what keeps me going is that day by day I'm learning more Kanji, those weird squiggles that used to be meaningless. Each day I see more of them as words. That's so cool! It's like gradually opening a door into another world, one that was completely inaccessible. I mean, I love my own culture's history and language, but instead of only having access to one, having access to two? Genius!

I study Nihongo because... - raeesmerelda - 2010-09-28

Short answer: Sailormoon ate my soul in 6th grade.

Longer answer: Above, plus when I transferred colleges, I needed a language and had forgotten all my 5 years of Spanish (that was, what, 4+ years ago?). Then I found out I liked it more than I thought, and now I can't stop, even though I'm apparently hideously allergic to the place.

I study Nihongo because... - Tokeyra - 2010-09-28

I can't be the only one that started having an interest after playing Final Fantasy XI for a while, can I? Sure, I had an interest in Japanese culture from my general geekdom of playing RPG's and watching anime, but I never was too interested in actually learning the language itself until I got into FFXI for a while. Seeing the language spoken often on there, and often being frustrated with interacting with Japanese players and only being able to use the lacking auto-translate function to say simple and broken phrases like "{Hello!} {party} {Do you need it?}" sparked an interest, I guess you could say.

I study Nihongo because... - breakies - 2010-09-29

I think it was for my case, due to two major things:

-Japanese culture. I started reading manga because I like drawing, and I find manga easier to draw than others techniques (I'm not a artist, eh). The first was called Evangelion, and I've slowly but surely read more and more and more.
I've watched also some anime and Miyazaki, but I prefer paper to movies.
I've got friends who like manga and Japanese culture too. One of them invited me in a Japanese restaurant, and I started to appreciate the food. After, this friend makes me discover bento, and now I've ten bento and I received the last one today.

-End of my studies. In my school, I had the opportunity to do Japanese instead of Spanish - my third language - but I thought it was pretty time-wasting and I had already a lot of work to do. I'm a kind of hard-worker, and the major problem when I finished study was I was bored.

There was a time I was fed up not to understand the (it seemed) basical kanji there were on Bleach and Naruto (the kanji on the top of hokage's hat in Naruto, the kanji numbers on captain's clothes in Bleach). I started to inform myself about kanji, I've searched the web during seven days, and I found Heisig method pretty seducing. ^^

Learning kanji was a way to full two needs: hard-working and having ability to read basical (or not) kanji on manga.
For the moment, I haven't really start to study the langage. I want to finish RTK1 and after, we will see.

I study Nihongo because... - Mushi - 2010-09-29

A post from Ero^Htik reminded me of my own Japanese language goals. I am Japanese,and I attended preschool in Japan, then came to the U.S., attending kindergarten and above here. My goal is to someday be able to read and write Japanese at the 3rd grade level.

Since I obviously didn't attend K-3 in Japan, I figure that there's a 4 year gap between where I am and where I want to be. I've been trying to fill that gap by exposing myself to an average of half an hour of Japanese each and every day. I figure that a typical Japanese schoolchild is exposed to upwards of 10 hours of Japanese a day, or about 20 times my exposure, so I estimate that it will be about 80 years (4 yrs x 20) before I attain my goal of reaching that 3rd grade level. I'm optimistic that I can do it, since people do tend to have longer lifespans these days.

I study Nihongo because... - Dakoina - 2010-11-17

I guess it all started when I started watching anime, years ago. Already wanted to learn Japanese then, but it's only recently that I really got into learning the language.

I already know multiple languages, but none of them is Asian. And, I'd like to amaze people with those speaking skills. Plus, the Japanese culture is intriguing too.

I study Nihongo because... - JessicaO - 2010-11-17

My best friend is Japanese and I've gotten interested in some of the culture by osmosis from her I suppose. She often remarks that English makes no sense, and after studying even just the beginning kanji I can see why-- Japanese is both a logical and beautiful language. The more I learn the more I want to master it.

My main reason is to be able to speak to Japanese people, especially if/when I visit or perhaps live in Japan someday! It would also be nice to be able to read all those beautiful Japanese art magazines and blogs that I come across.

I study Nihongo because... - gyuujuice - 2010-11-17

I don't really know... I have a langauge disorder so I wanted to make the "ugly" part of me to be the fun, interesting and cool part. So I guess I wanted to transform my image of myself. (>...>') I didn't even know さようなら or こんにちは was Japanese when I started.

Now, I speak better in both langauges but I still have to try hard. :C

I study Nihongo because... - buonaparte - 2010-12-05

Because I went to Brazil one day... and met Amaterasu there.

[Image: oggpxd.jpg]

I study Nihongo because... - darkauras - 2011-04-01

I've always been interested in Far Eastern cultures, and I say it like that, because when I was like six, I was interested and at the time Japan and China were pretty much the same thing to me. It wasn't because of anime or cartoons or anything like that. It was because of the dragons. Japan and China are two of a very select number of countries that respect dragons in their mythology. That was pretty much the only thing I needed to be convinced that they were awesome, and thus my interest was born. Years later, my interest has grown and evolved (though my love of dragons has not waned a bit).

As for why I chose to learn Japanese? Several reasons, some geeky, some not. First, I want to be able to say I'm tri-lingual, right now I'm bi-lingual, but being a tri has always been a dream. Second, as an avid reader of books, the fact that there are books I CAN'T read bothers me to no end. It doesn't matter that it's a different language, I can't read them and I want to. This problem must be remedied. I'd also like to be able to play certain video games *cough*tales*cough* that suffer from "no export for you." After that come the more mundane desires to be able to read and watch anime and manga without needing someone to translate it for me.

To be honest, I could really care less about being able to speak the language. Going to Japan would be nice, it isn't something I'm planning on at this point, and I don't intend to take the JLPT. If I can read a novel then that's enough to make me happy.

But really, it all comes down to the dragons.


Raeesmerelda: "Short answer: Sailormoon ate my soul in 6th grade."

That's the best reason I've ever heard. Except for dragons...XD

I study Nihongo because... - pudding cat - 2011-04-01

My mother is Japanese but emigrated in her twenties. She brought me up completely in English but I'd always hear her talking on the phone in Japanese and I grew up on Japanese children's tv sent on video by relatives. I started learning partly because I feel like I should be able to speak Japanese. I also enjoy it which is good Smile

I study Nihongo because... - KMDES - 2011-04-01

Video games.

I guess anime and manga too.