PParisi, welcome to Reviewing the Kanji! It's truly ironic (and rather unfortunate) that you didn't find Heisig until you were no longer in Japan, but better late than never, eh? Hopefully, it might give you a new a direction for your studies.

Hm, I guess I'm learning Japanese for two main reasons; 1) I want to understand things that are in Japanese(anime, books, manga, tv, and people if I ever go to Japan) and 2) I love the language and I love studying it.

Usually people scorn others who are learning for anime or whatever, but really, is it so much worse than learning Japanese just for a job? It your learning for a job, that just being practical, it requires no love of culture and language... I don't live in Japan, so the only reasons for me to know Japanese are personal.

I started out learning Japanese from an interest in 囲碁, as I soon discovered that, while the English literature for beginners is quite well-developed, good advanced material required a knowledge of Japanese, Chinese, or Korean. I was also watching some Japanese anime at the time, I picked Japanese. Since then, my interest diversified into movies, more anime, some literature (Woman of the Dunes was quite a book), and the language itself.

Right now, I wouldn't say that there's any particular reason why I'm studying Japanese - inertia was a good term for it - but I'm constantly looking for new and interesting ways to use the language. I do have an internship in Japan starting next month, but I would say that I got the job out of interest in Japanese, rather than learning Japanese for the sake of the job (it's actually quite similar to a job offer I had in Boston, but how could I turn down an essentially free trip to Japan?).

A very interesting thread. Makes one look deeper into oneself and think...

I've had a latent interest in Japan and all things Japanese for a long time, it must have started about 13 years ago with a Japanese textbook my mother presented to me for some reason. I have worked through it at the time and achieved a basic understanding of how the language works and - surprisingly! - some ability to read (or rather, succesfully decipher) Japanese literature. Then other interests took priority... I would come back to Japanese once every 3-4 years and play around with it for a bit without getting too serious. Gradually, a deep interest in Japan started to develop. I had a vague idea that I might want to live and work in the country for a few years, just to try it out. But then, at some point of time, I realised that 'playing around' would not get me anywhere and actually gave up on the language study altogether for a number of years.

Then came a point when I realised that life goes on and if I am still serious about ever living in Japan, I might as well check it out: if I hate the country, it'll be a closed chapter. If I like it, I'd better start working on properly learning the language and getting myself over there.

So I bought a ticket and flew to Japan for a few weeks in late '05. Have been a frequent visitor ever since. Took up the language study again - this time much more seriously, worked my way through Heisig (well before the creation of this marvellous resource), etc.

To me the language has become at this stage a very urgent first-rate priority: I am looking to relocate to Tokyo (touch wood!!!) in early '08 and the job currently being negotiated (or any other potential job, if this one falls through) involves interacting with the locals in a native-proficiency level environment and would typically be filled in by a local... Needless to say, this is a huge challenge so I'm working hard on it right now.

Now, I'm definitely in a minority on this forum as I positively can't stand anime or manga (with an odd exception that confirms the rule, such as Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu - which has some brilliant language in it - I recently managed to find an electronic version of the book and was pleased to find that it's actually a Book, not a manga...), so there would be very little incentive for me to learn the language in isolation from the country.

So to me it's all about the ultimate challenge of being able to establish and maintain my existence in Japan. If I manage to go out there next year, there is no return date - as I have no place to return to - having been on the move all my life, I don't have a notion of 'home'. If I ever become disillusioned with Japan, I'm most likely to find myself looking out to new horizons than looking back...

Megaqwerty Wrote:PParisi, welcome to Reviewing the Kanji! It's truly ironic (and rather unfortunate) that you didn't find Heisig until you were no longer in Japan, but better late than never, eh? Hopefully, it might give you a new a direction for your studies.

Thank you, Magaqwerty! I am usually a day (or several years) late and a dollar (or several thousand) short in everything. I am enjoying using the site and I hope, once I get the hang of it, to start posting some stories for general consumption.