Like many things for me, it all started with a girl...

These days just for fun, Japanese is now my second native language, an intrinsic part of me.

ta12121 Wrote:P.S. anyone hear a metal gear sold fan?
you're going to laugh your butt off

I don't play any video games, but 「同士に核を使うんですか！？」hahahaha, that video is hilarious.

thecite Wrote:

ta12121 Wrote:P.S. anyone hear a metal gear sold fan?
you're going to laugh your butt off

I don't play any video games, but 「同士に核を使うんですか！？」hahahaha, that video is hilarious.

That reminds me of this awesome モノマネ. カロリーメイト、旨すぎる！

I wanted to read the second Strawberry Panic light novel, but it was out of print and cost $200~ used at the time. They also weren't going to translate the third one. I heard there were a lot of catholic schoolgirl lesbian tropes who own helicopters in it, and I didn't want to miss out, so I decided to learn Japanese. As motivation, my mother bought all three of them for me.

Unfortunately, after the first time through RTK I fizzled out. Then a couple of weeks ago I found out that they published a translated omnibus of them, and I was really pissed. I'm far too stubborn to submit and read it in English, though, because I'm sure that if there's one book in the entire Japanese language that has prose with such depth and elegance that it can't be translated into the English language, it's Strawberry Panic.

So after on and off longings to start studying Japanese again amid the year I spent with French, I finally gave in. Also, there's perhaps slightly more legitimate reasons, like fascination with the differences of perspective between languages, and a desire to learn an "exotic" language which is very different from English, but the Strawberry Panic one is the most important.

hmm before my only connection to japanse was anime but then after 2006 or 2007 there's no good anime being made at all... they're all not worth watching/etcetc (maybe all is an exaggeatio nbut let's just say it's hard to find even one show worth watching in one season ) so i don't watch any anime that came out after 2006 except for like minami-ke. I obviously did try to watch obut they were shitty i don't understand why ppl like them. like toradora, ef, bakemonogatari, higashi no eden etcetc.

so anyways I did most of my japanese learning watching japanese talk/variety shows which ar e really fun and educational at times. I got into them from youtube when I was tryin to find stuff to get into and now I love japanse talk/variety shows so much i don't even have time to watch the japanese dramas (I try to only watch the good ones).

I also got into Japanese music and man they have some good music once you get past the (in other words avoid/skip) people who cannot sing.

howtwosavealif3 Wrote:hmm before my only connection to japanse was anime but then after 2006 or 2007 there's no good anime being made at all... they're all not worth watching/etcetc (maybe all is an exaggeatio nbut let's just say it's hard to find even one show worth watching in one season ) so i don't watch any anime that came out after 2006 except for like minami-ke. I obviously did try to watch other stuff but they were shitty i don't understand why ppl like them. like toradora, ef, bakemonogatari, higashi no eden etcetc.

The current season has some good shows. The last 2 years have been terrible.

Reasons:
- I'm interested in Asian cuisine and since there is pretty nothing Japanese I knew before, so that's why my interest grew. Udon was really great, when I tried making it for the first time.
- Kanji. People from the West seeing you can read and understand "strokes and dots" are always surprised and think you're a genius, although kanji were a piece of cake with Heisig's method and approach. Generally, I like to see their faces when you read something in Japanese, or even better, if they could hear one talking..
- Culture, of course, but as written above, especially cooking and perhaps literature (f.e. Murakami's novels are master pieces. I also like their 'light novel' format.)
- Exploring Japanese media, i.e. newspapers, also films (things like 告白)
- I have lots of time and.. yeah, I admit, Japanese was an experiment (out of boredom actually) at first but now it's out of the "experimental stage" lol

NOT reasons:
- Girls. Definitely not.
- J-music. Yak. Not my cup of tea.
- Tatemae-people. It's quite difficult finding those Honne-people, it seems.

Reasons:
Something new and different to my life(this isn't really a language I'm "suppose" to know even)
Kanji is cool, it keeps me learning and at a good solid pace
Culture is interesting and I will study it more in-depth and eventually experience it.
Media is really fun: manga,novels,samurai movies,traditional films,games,artbooks. There is so many different media out there.

Not Reasons:
I'm not crazy about J-Grils or anything, so it's not really a reason why I learn.
My goal for this language isn't to be a master of it. But just to reach native level(equivalent of a university student in Japan), in all skills.

Quote:My goal for this language isn't to be a master of it. But just to reach native level(equivalent of a university student in Japan), in all skills.

What's the difference?

ta12121 Wrote:Not Reasons:
I'm not crazy about J-Grils or anything, so it's not really a reason why I learn.

Are you crazy dude? J-Grills are pretty much the best reason to study Japanese!
Check it out, SMOKING HOT:
http://thumbnail.image.rakuten.co.jp/@0_...den674.jpg
And yet there's no smoke

Asriel Wrote:

ta12121 Wrote:Not Reasons:
I'm not crazy about J-Grils or anything, so it's not really a reason why I learn.

Are you crazy dude? J-Grills are pretty much the best reason to study Japanese!
Check it out, SMOKING HOT:
http://thumbnail.image.rakuten.co.jp/@0_...den674.jpg
And yet there's no smoke

lol, I thought that was a psp for a second

haha just noticed that. I put J-Grils, instead of J-Grills, when I meant to say J-Girls. haha

dizmox Wrote:

Quote:My goal for this language isn't to be a master of it. But just to reach native level(equivalent of a university student in Japan), in all skills.

What's the difference?

The difference is that mastery is much higher than native level. A real master is someone who knows much more than what is required of him — it's the difference between a black belt 1st Dan and someone who surpassed the 10th Dan.

Reasons...
1st reason: I'm already familiar with some parts of Japanese media and culture:
-Anime:
Frankly, genres that I would never touch in another media before somehow accessible to me here. For example, Hajime no Ippo. Why in the world would I be interested in a sport like boxing. Yet, I was completely fascinated and interested in the story and the boxing. And even things like Someday's Dreamers whose target audience of teenage girls (as far as I can tell) is compelling to me with its subdued tones.

-Movies: This is a biggie. Kurosawa is simply the best movie director that I have had the privilege of watching. I mean, Seven Samurai, Tengoku ni Jigoku, Rashomon, Nora Inu, The Bad Sleep Well, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, The Hidden Fortress, the Lower Depths, Throne of Blood. While I appreciate them already for their eminent cinematography and choice of angles and image aspects, what would be even better is to watch them in their original form. I also like my Takashi Miike, Kenji Mizoguchi, Nagashi Oshima and others.

-Manga: My fascination in manga mirrors that of anime in that it got me into many things I wouldn't be interested in. I would love read all of Fukumoto's works, or things like "A Distant Neighbourhood" or many other things. Series that I have accidentally started on, I would love to know in their real form.

-Literature: Another large point. I've always wanted to see whether a language influences the writing. I want to know how a character-based language is reflected in the story. Does a different (non-English) language do anything different. Does a non-English culture reflect in the form of the novel? And, I want to read one of the most famous books from Japanese literature, the Tale of the Genji. It is supposedly the oldest novel in the world. I understand its written in old-style hiragana which means I would need to learn even more characters!

-History: I know a good deal about Japanese history just through fairly accidental exposure (For example, did you know they had their own "untouchables" in society, the eta (who handled the dead, 'unclean' services) and that discrimination against the eta exists even today?).

2nd Reason: There are so many damn resources for Japanese. Frankly, other than the really mainstream languages like Spanish, etc, I've never seen so many resources. y

Rather accidentally, many of my interests have kind of surrounded Japan and pushed me to take the extra step of learning the language. It's almost natural once it gets to this point, isn't it?


-Saborkan

People ask me this question all the time, and I never really know how to answer. I can't give the answer most seem to expect, as I've never really had an interest in anime, manga, or Japanese literature or movies (except for a recent interest in Miyazaki's work). I've always been interested in learning another language, but I took 2 years of Spanish in high school, never acquired an actual passion for learning it, and promptly forgot nearly everything immediately after graduating. I had a free class slot free my sophomore year in college, so I figured I'd try again. I had never had more interest in Japan or Japanese than the average American, but my university offered it so I took it. I studied for about 8 months without really getting that all important passion for learning before I agreed to volunteer in a program at my university where Japanese students study English for five months, staying in the dorms on campus. I quickly became good friends with many of the students, and my desire to learn just kept growing from there, culminating with my 3 month language study abroad program I took this summer.

My reasons for studying now... There are several. I feel like accomplishing something as huge as becoming fluent in Japanese would make me more confident in myself and make me a better person in general. After staying in a completely different culture for several months, my mind has been opened up so much; it really gives you a better perspective of the world. I think a summer abroad should be a highly recommended, if not required thing for students.

I used to love the idea of kanji, but I abhorred trying to study it, until I found RTK. I'm only about 350 characters in, but I'm still going more or less strong, and it really has made me see what a beautiful and fascinating system it is. I was so surprised to find myself actually enjoying studying kanji for the first time.

Then there are the selfish reasons. I enjoy seeing the amazed looks on people's faces when I can read some Japanese text, or translate some words. I don't want to be the typical monolingual American. I get a sense of fulfillment seeing my progress at something many people believe is impossible or at least extremely difficult. The girls... I see more as a perk than a reason.

Something interesting I have noticed... While taking the 2 years of Japanese offered at my university, and even while taking Japanese language courses in Japan, I never really studied beyond what coursework was given in the class. Since returning from Japan, however, I realized that I would have to start doing self study if I didn't want to forget everything I had spent so much time acquiring. Since realizing that, I have been studying WAY more than I ever did while I was actually enrolled in courses. It doesn't even compare. Has anyone else had a similar situation?

I think this is my reason:

I'm guessing I might be the only one here with this reason...I am a freelance musician/flute instructor and started teaching using the Suzuki method. As I gradually learned more about it, I started getting interested in going to the source - the teacher who developed the flute version of the Suzuki method is still alive and teaching in Matsumoto. Originally I was just going to go for part of a summer, but I still wanted to know some of the language before I got there. I signed up for a 100-level Japanese class, mostly because I got to take it for free because of one of my teaching jobs. During my year in the Japanese class I heard about the JET program and decided to apply for it. So first my one summer in Japan became one year, then two and finally three. While I was in Japan I kept studying Japanese but never got as good as I wanted to. After I got back I really let it go for the last 3 or 4 years. I kept feeling annoyed at myself for letting my level slip so much, but never did much to get it back. For some reason, about a month ago, I felt really motivated to get started again, so here I am

astendra Wrote:I think this is my reason:

why does day[9] always look stoned on his dailies

I guess I started learning because I got into anime and I want to be able to watch without subtitles. I also want to read the original manga / light novels.

Oh, and yellow fever, can't forget that

I'm sure this has been discussed already but just to clue me in:

If one were to say that he is learning Japanese for anime, manga or any other sort of entertainment media, there would be some people who would voice their disapproval, saying his reasons for learning another language are "shallow".

Okay, let's try to be objective here. I will now ask 2 questions:

1) What is an APPROVED and NON-SHALLOW reason for learning another language?

2) Why is learning another language for money, NOT SHALLOW?

If learning/knowing Japanese benefits your life in such a way that it is worth the costs involved then you really shouldn't give a crap if other people consider your reasons shallow or not.

nadiatims Wrote:If learning/knowing Japanese benefits your life in such a way that it is worth the costs involved then you really shouldn't give a crap if other people consider your reasons shallow or not.

If you were addressing me directly, then I certainly don't give a crap. I was just interesting in the viewpoints of other side.

If it was just a general comment directed to nobody in particular, then I agree 100%.

Last year, my friend introduced me to anime. When we were supposed to we working in the library on an english project, we used his headphones to watch Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. From then on I was hooked. After FMA, then Death Note, and then Code Geass (though I must say, everybody's head looks like an onion).

While watching these, I started listening to their openings and endings (since they use JPop and are animated really well, I watch them while I don't watch American cartoons theme songs or credits). Soon, I found myself singing along. Then I found myself looking up the translation of the song. Then I found my self looking up "those little squiggles" that were printed above the subtitles.

Things sort of snowballed together, and today I am learning Japanese.

[Zgarbas]

nadiatims Wrote:If learning/knowing Japanese benefits your life in such a way that it is worth the costs involved then you really shouldn't give a crap if other people consider your reasons shallow or not.

this.

but...It's not that people think it wrong to study japanese because of anime, it's just that there is a certain stereotype(sadly true to lots of people) with anime kids who kind of give the Japanese learning community a bad name. Because of that stereotype once you say that you're learning Japanese thanks to anime you're automatically assumed to be one of them...

My favorites are the ones who are totally the stereotype but are very loud about their weeaboo-hate.
"stupid weeaboos think they know Japanese but use romaji SO LAME I only use kanjis! Didn't even bother with hiragana cause that's for TOTAL NOOBS". Oh man, I love those kids.

btw, haters gotta hate. There's no shallow or non-shallow reason to learn a language. I do think it's kind of silly to learn a language for monetary reasons(like the gajillion people who are studying Chinese right now because it's good for business) because I think such reasoning gets in the way of the fun of learning a language, but each with their own =).

Marble101 Wrote:Last year, my friend introduced me to anime. When we were supposed to we working in the library on an english project, we used his headphones to watch Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. From then on I was hooked. After FMA, then Death Note, and then Code Geass (though I must say, everybody's head looks like an onion).

While watching these, I started listening to their openings and endings (since they use JPop and are animated really well, I watch them while I don't watch American cartoons theme songs or credits). Soon, I found myself singing along. Then I found myself looking up the translation of the song. Then I found my self looking up "those little squiggles" that were printed above the subtitles.

Things sort of snowballed together, and today I am learning Japanese.

That's the right attitude, study it because it's fun. When you learn from fun material and make the learning fun, there is no limits to your progress.

Quote:btw, haters gotta hate. There's no shallow or non-shallow reason to learn a language. I do think it's kind of silly to learn a language for monetary reasons(like the gajillion people who are studying Chinese right now because it's good for business) because I think such reasoning gets in the way of the fun of learning a language, but each with their own

I find this a bit perplexing. I guess I value productivity more than doing something "for fun", especially when it comes to doing something of this caliber as far as the time and effort required is concerned. Perhaps this mainly stems from my dislike for people who attempt to get away in life by just doing whatever the hell interests them regardless if that interest is Mongolian Culture and Heritage in South America or something as pointless. What they seem to think is that the world has been created just for them to do whatever the hell they want to do.

Life is not all fun and games although that's what the privileged seem to think. Learning a language to use it productively is the pinnacle of reasons to learn one. That said if there is zero interest outside of being able to cash on the skill that sounds a bit far-fetched to me and probably is rarely that simple. There are easier ways to get rich or die trying. I guess this hater will keep hatin'.