callmedodge Wrote:Nah, I was just curious. It`s definitely not something I`d ever do in Japan. Far too risky.

I wonder though. Is it actually that dangerous or is there just so much hype about it nobody`s ever really risked it?

I honestly wouldn`t be surprised if the risk was exagerated through propaganda and that`s how they curb it as opposed to their actually being a high street risk.

Not sure what you mean by "risk." If you mean, what are the chances of getting caught with it? Well that would depend on whether your source would be safe. But its not like the US where they'll stop and suspect you of having it for no real reason.

But getting caught, and the penalities attached are not exagerrated. There was a huge media storm about some Kyoto or Tokyo Uni students getting caught with it, and the feeling through it all was that its rare to hear. Then there was a big storm where they had this whole campaign against it. You'd swear they thought no one did marry jane till then.

But apparently in my company someone was arrested and just BARELY got by with deportation. Why? His friends in Canada sent him a brick of hash because they thought it was funny. He didn't know. Little did he know that police had spotted it at customs and set up to arrest him as soon as he signed for the package. I guess signing the package counted as "knowing what it was" and criminalized him. Its ***** stupid, but welcome to the justice system in Japan, ESPECIALLY where foreigners are concerned. Every non-Japanese person here is someone just waiting/or in the act of committing a crime, in the eyes of the police, least that's the feeling I always get when dealing with them.

qwertyytrewq Wrote:I could be wrong but I remember reading somewhere that the highest proportion of people who speak English are Chinese people.

You are wrong.

Have you ever heard of England, USA, Canada, or Australia?

I think they have a higher proportion of people who speak English.

I actually remember reading during History class (so it's a legit source) that China has more english speakers than any other nation. The reason is because of its massive population and how every child has to learn english by law (from what I understand).

I study/speak 日本語 because it's just awesome, by far the best language spoken on Earth. This may just be my personal bias, but it's a very good one.

Marble101 Wrote:I actually remember reading during History class (so it's a legit source) that China has more english speakers than any other nation. The reason is because of its massive population and how every child has to learn english by law (from what I understand).

Learning in school doesn't always translate into actual English ability. Just look at Japan.

Marble101 Wrote:I actually remember reading during History class (so it's a legit source) that China has more english speakers than any other nation. The reason is because of its massive population and how every child has to learn english by law (from what I understand).

I guess your history teacher is right if he/she has a "broad" definition of language proficiency. Being forced to attend a language class isn't going to make you an automatic proficient speaker. I doubt that most of the Chinese population can communicate in English without severe difficulty. Even the international students going abroad to study have many problems in communicating, and they are considered the best speakers in the country.

The country with the most speakers, those typically using the language outside of the classroom, is in fact India.

You also have to consider exposure to the language. In India, every state speaks a different language (you get a weird hosh-posh in the cities, as many different people live there) while in America, pretty much everyone speaks English in public. So, a place like India, would foster multilingualism (more places to practice you language skills) vs. America (I have literally nowhere to practice my Japanese or Spanish).

But, on topic, I lean Japanese to better understand the world. And for anime.

I don't even know where to start.

Early on I learned that the fantastic abilities to communicate and learn languages were not to be taken for granted.

I have always loved languages and being able to communicate with other people. My parents (who are both lovely!) raised me in a country with a very different language than their own. As a result, we often had (and still have) a hard time speaking and understanding each other fully. There were so many misunderstandings and conflicts because of our language-barrier. I often felt alone and desperate due to the lack of communication. Often, often I would day-dream about knowing all the languages in the world so everybody could understand me.

When I first "discovered" Japanese culture - after a trip to Japan with my family- at the young age of 13 I was hooked. But our small town had no books or anything in Japanese. The only thing I found was a small, illustrated Berlitz dictionary which I of-course read back to back. Eventually more and more people became interested in Japanese and more things became available (I especially remember the summer I turned 18 and my friend introduced me to a store that sold Japanese movies. WOW! We hung out there all summer. ) A couple of years later I took off to Japan again (this time on my own) and took language classes there. It was so awesome <3 <3 <3 !

Nowadays (24 years old), I live in New York and spend as much time as I can at Kinokuniya. LOL!

And I love learning Kanji. It is a beautiful, systematic writing system I can never get enough of. As for the spoken language, I can't really explain why I love it so much. It is just so neat and warms my heart in a comforting way.

Some of you guys have such respectable reasons.

I mostly learnt Japanese as a form of escapism from my native culture and to find a new place to move to (mission successful). Well, that and because of being a filthy otaku.

Started learning to read visual novels, but as I started my goals spread slightly. I aim for a reasonable level of proficiency, such as the ability to read well and communicate reasonably well. It also doesn't seem like the country itself isn't a world away any more, so I'd love to continue studying it and visit Japan someday.

Additionally I'll keep JLPT 1 as an early goal of mine, and one of my first reasons to start studying. In the end though, it was my long-lasting love of manga, visual novels, Japanese literature, anime and the culture that lead to me picking the language up.

Onara Wrote:Nowadays (24 years old), I live in New York and spend as much time as I can at Kinokuniya. LOL!

there's a bookoff a few blocks away... in case you'd like to buy all those things and more for 1/4 of the price... ;D

You all have very interesting and even stimulating reasons; I myself have had many similar ones but at the end, they all co-exist somehow.

After getting into anime at a very young age, I watched some occasionally. This inspired me to get into drawing hence I drew it everywhere and even got some people around me interested in this peculiar style.

As I learned more about the country itself, I started getting a great deal of respect for the Japanese. Their history, their traditions, their innovations, humility and respect for one another, ... Japan gave me hope that decency still existed in our modern age and inspired me to have new thoughts and perspectives on it.

Japan has always been like a daydream to me: as if it didn't truly exist, but yet stood for everything I admired in my life. Its way of thinking and being that 'little' island so isolated from the rest of the world yet so brilliant in its own right reminds me of myself.

So I wanted to be there, and I'm now going straight ahead, right on the path to fluency in its language. I think that's the only way to truly appreciate its culture: to learn the actual language and come to appreciate its quirks, goofs and peculiarities.

Coincidentally, learning Japanese has also given me new methods of studying which I have now successfully adapted in my uni-studies. I could go on talking about it for days but another kanji/sentence/text awaits!

Good luck to you all!

I was bored and needed another hobby, in addition to playing bass/guitar. The reason for this new hobby being Japanese is the fact that I signed up for a Japanese course at my previous school. Despite not actually learning much from it, it fueled my interest in the Japanese language. Funny thing is that I started to watch anime after deciding to study Japanese, so I am by no means an otaku...

And Japanese is one of the most interesting languages I've heard.

Hmmm. I've been asking myself this question for years.

Of course, living in Japan, it's useful to be able to speak (and especially read) the language, but it's not really essential. There are certainly times when it's not even advantageous. People really love to hear about how different you are, which is to be expected, I suppose. If you say you eat double-cheeseburgers for breakfast, that's interesting. But rice? Eh, boring.

It's kind of the same with language. What makes you really interesting is speaking English. It's like if David Blaine goes to a party. Everybody's like, holy crap, David Blaine! Levitate! Do card tricks or something! And he's like, no, I just want to have a conversation like everybody else. Oh. I see. Well, that's kind of a bummer. It's the same thing if you don't look "Japanese." People want to hear that English--that's the magic, the trick you can perform. If you don't perform it, people are a little disappointed. You're just one more dude at the party.

I think the real reason I keep studying isn't so I can have better conversations or understand the fine print on my electric bill, but just self-satisfaction. Learning Japanese is sort of an interesting intellectual exercise, like playing chess. But as for it's utility . . . well, I don't know. Of course, it's helped me to get a job here and conduct daily life, but insisting on speaking Japanese has proven more of a barrier to friendships than an asset, which I wouldn't have expected.

Because I love Japanese culture, I love manga and anime and song Japanese songs. Just as simple as that

I started learning japanese to combine two passions of mine. I love the japanese culture and I can't live without books. Being able to read all those crime/mystery novels (I read somewhere there is a huge market of those in japan) would be fantastic, since there isn't much translated yet.. just thinking about these huge bookstores I saw pictures of... XD

imabi Wrote:I study/speak 日本語 because it's just awesome, by far the best language spoken on Earth. This may just be my personal bias, but it's a very good one.

I agree, it's a fascinating language, and I'm rather tired of learning the same old romance and germanic languages, and after about the fifth you can pretty much read the rest... Japanese manages to be beautifully simple and ornately complex at the same time, it's interesting to use syllabaries and logographical writing systems, to get used to an entirely different conjugative model, to digest the idea of particles and in many cases learn things that can't actually even be expressed in English. As impressive as English may be, Japanese just seems so much more magnificent. And as a free bonus, you get a big head start on debatably the only hard part of Chinese!

For me it's always been the kanji. I first got interested in learning Chinese when I was younger. I probably saw a video on someone doing calligraphy or something and it just seemed to pull me in. The patience and serenity shown in the practice and product are almost mesmerising. After starting Chinese I was convinced by my brother to watch some anime and have a look at learning Japanese instead. I put up an argument about how much more useful Chinese would be etc., but when I watched some anime I realised that Japanese sounds so much cooler than Chinese! (in my opinion anyway...).

I also just fell in love with the culture. Suddenly I'd discovered a place on the other side of the world with values and practices that I completely identified with and understood. It's like I was rediscovering home. Studying kanji late at night and watching anime into the morning became standard. I guess the fact that I wasn't actually in Japan, and that I didn't know many others learning Japanese, made the country and culture seem more alluring. If I think about it, it's like two lovers in a time before technology communicating by letter, compared to texting someone you like in the modern world - the distance and breaks between when I could do or study Japanese made it all the more enticing.

All romances have their speed bumps, and with me and Japanese there have been a lot of them. I've burnt out from studying so many times I can't even remember. I think over the past 5 years I've spent more time relearning old stuff than learning new stuff. I now have a sustainable model for learning am on track properly, but I couldn't have soldiered on through numerous failures if I didn't love the country...and those damn kanji. Those tiresome, time consuming, beautiful kanji.

左利きだから！ Wait, that might not have come out right...

kanjiking Wrote:those damn kanji. Those tiresome, time consuming, beautiful kanji.

I love that quote. So true

I'll throw in, since this thread has been bumped. Back when I was in middle school, I saw an ad in the back of the Comics Buyer's Guide for trade anime: if I sent some dude some blank VHS tapes and $8 for shipping, he would send the tapes back chock full of Japanese goodness taped off of satellite. I was a fan of Robotech, which I knew was heavily altered and hacked together from three Japanese series, and was curious to see what anime looked like un-altered. The tapes arrived full of Gatchman, Dirty Pair, and other assorted craziness. I was hooked.

I read and listen to a variety of things today, but anime and manga are still my first loves. More than any specific artifact, I just love the Japanese language. It's expressive and lyrical. The dance of kana and kanji on a page or screen is a thing of beauty. I love the experience of learning to think in a language that's structured so differently from my own, and learning to see things from the perspective of another culture.

The more I study, the more excited I get about learning Japanese. I'm almost halfway through きみにしか聞こえない. Using Rikaisama extensively to read and enter items into Anki, but it's getting easier and more fluid as time goes on. I've gotten to the point where I can have beginner's conversations with people, and tell stories about myself (thank you thank you THANK YOU icecream for suggesting this exercise!) I have a budding friendship with a new English learner in Japan that's being built almost entirely in Japanese, and am beginning to make friends in the Seattle area Japanese community.

And yes, I get a little jazzed when someone sees me with a Japanese book and asked, wide-eyed, "You can READ that?!" There's something to be said for embracing a challenge. （*^_^*）

A few years ago I was a huge fan of Japanese popular culture, and I tried to study Japanese back then but I had so much else going on at that time and didn't really have a good study technique either. Since then my interest in the popular culture has faded, but my love for the language remains. I have studied German on my own and that went so well that I gained new confidence and decided to take up Japanese again. I have no work at the moment and I need some challenging, meaningful and and fun to do in my spare time. So learning Japanese is perfect! It's also a great language to know in my field of work.

I'm still at starting out-level, of course I remember some things that I learned a few years ago but it takes some time digging it up. I know I learned a lot of grammar and a lot of vocabulary but never how to put everything together, everything was just a random mess of words, particles and endings. I learned kana and a few kanjis also but it wasn't really useful when I was so scattered in other aspects. But I will take things slowly from the very beginning and hope that it will work out better this time. I KNOW it will!

Honestly my main motivation is video games... I like anime & manga as much as the next guy but 95% of what I want to watch/read has been translated already.
But I've also been somewhat infatuated with Japan in general for most of my life.
Another thing is that I'm just bothered by the fact that I can only speak one language.

But mostly I just really love "childish" things like toys, cartoons, video games etc.
（＠´＿｀＠）

I've played alot of JRPG's and watched anime, so I was kinda interested in the language. Now that I'm in undergrad and have to take something like 14 credits of a foreign language. I winded up missing enrolling into one of the japanese language courses, I figured I would try to knock out RTK and some other self-study resources before next year and hopefully get out of the intro classes.

frony0 Wrote:

kanjiking Wrote:those damn kanji. Those tiresome, time consuming, beautiful kanji.

I love that quote. So true

Indeed.