So not sure where to put this but I've been thinking about how I got to the point of where I am today.

-First off I was offered to live in Japan when I was 14 but promply rejected it. and I think this is the most prominent reason I'm learning it now; Regretting actions not taken.

-But even after that I never was really interested in the Japanese Language.

- I used to look down upon Anime otakus and I think I still do to an extent. But only on people that are obsessed with Anime to the point they are in college and have conversations as if Anime was real but not to the extent of what I did in High School.

-I couldn't eat Sushi because I thought who would want to eat raw fish.

-I took Japanese because I wanted a language other than Spanish to learn in college.

-I had no desire to really learn the language my first year of study. I left my oral exam at the end of my second semester with my Japanese teacher shaking his head in disgust. He actually told me I should never go to Japan. Great confidence booster!!! ( btw I have him again and he seems quite pleased with my progress I made on my own. )

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So I never was really interested in Japan It has always been there in the back of my head because my dad (who is Peruvian not Japanese ) has always lived in Japan. But other than that I never saw myself getting as far as I am today.


So what has changed to the point where I would be determined to master not only the speaking but writing and reading of the Japanese language?!

There is no reason. I do not have a reason to learn Japanese. I can justify it but in all honesty any pseudo-reason i come up with is not the real reason I am learning this language. But i don't believe we need a reason to learn the language. Will I get any use of the language?! Hell yeah. I converse with Japanese people around me in Japanese and I am studying abroad next year. Does that make it worth it?! It's fun so yeah. Even if you spend only one year in Japan in which time your Japanese level is somewhat decent that's still a significant event in your life. We can all make it to Japan if we want; just pack your bags and walk around Tokyo.

The more about the language I learn the more I feel open to experience new things. The more I want to learn. The more I want to just conquer the language in a way that is completely unnoticeable. I don't want to stand out because of my massive mistakes in the language but because of my personality. I want to get to the point where I don't hear any 「日本語が上手ですね」 I want to enjoy my life doing things I like to do and be able to talk to the people around me whether I be in America or Japan.



I just want to learn Japanese... that's all.

edit: が上手

誰かがそちらに日本国に住むように頼みましたか。なぜでしたか。せっかくですから残念ですね・・・。

"I just want to learn Japanese... that's all"
That sums up why I keep learning it and why I've gotten so far(seems crazy at times. I used to think knowing 500 kanji was so amazing, now I know almost 3000 and I don't think it's surprising anymore.

We learn because we enjoy. That's about it

I never used to like japanese or anime or anything like that. I definitely looked down on it. I thought it was so strange that people could like it. But now I do, so it's kinda strange in itself lol.

But none the less, I definitely believe I can get far with Japanese(fluency in all skills).

How long will it take me? 3-5 years I estimate as I'm aiming for complete fluency.
Currently heading to 1 year and 6 months in a few days

"I never used to like japanese or anime or anything like that. I definitely looked down on it. I thought it was so strange that people could like it. But now I do, so it's kinda strange in itself lol."

^ SAME for me as well. I didn't touch manga until yesterday. And I have been neglecting it for two years into my study.

gyuujuice Wrote:"I never used to like japanese or anime or anything like that. I definitely looked down on it. I thought it was so strange that people could like it. But now I do, so it's kinda strange in itself lol."

^ SAME for me as well. I didn't touch manga until yesterday. And I have been neglecting it for two years into my study.

reading manga is really fun, especially since I'm reading rurouni kenshin(got the whole manga set,so still plenty of reading left, I'm only on volume 9/28)

Nowadays I usual have two types of "studying" 1 is via the srs,do all my reps,add all my cards and the other is immersion,shadowing,reading,playing games,etc all in japanese. Working miracles now for me.

(It doesn't feel strange to understand Japanese now and it doesn't feel strange to understand it at this level as well)

Hehe, I can't stand most Japanese food and don't really like fish. I have 0% interest in the culture as well. I think that makes me a bad がいこくじん「外国人」ね。Lol, my motivation is more communication than anything else.

P.s., If your obviously not Japanese you're going to get 日本語を上手ですね every time you meet someone new. After that, if you're good, they'll stop being surprised and just enjoy hanging out with you.

My main reasons to learn japanese were japanese pop, I remember I loved singing the songs but had no idea on what they meant. Now my main reason is because I love the language, and since I'm getting good at it (shadowing really helps!) I want to have a job that will allow me to use it everyday.

Other than that, I want to start reading novels and manga. And of course, I'm gonna continue watching dramas which are a huge motivation.

As for my types of studying:

-SRS (1 hour every morning, enough to finish all reviews)
-shadowing (30 minutes at least everyday, unless I have tests)
-reading one or 2 news articles everyday
-reading Unicom JLPT 2kyuu grammar book 30m-1 hour before going to sleep (and will add the sentences to the srs - I already have quite a few there from Sou matome - I'm just waiting because I have around 600 unseen cards and want to add after having those "learned".
-Immersion (podcasts, dramas)

My reason has always been clear and always the same:
poetry, good novels and good movies.
Not only in Japanese, but in Japanese particularly.

Just to let you know, it's 「日本語お上手ですね」

You'll still hear that line no matter how good you get, but obviously it will stop being a complete lie and be coupled with some more convincing remarks. Yesterday on Shared Talk somebody got me to say something in English to prove I was an イギリス人, so I took that as a sign of progress

fakewookie Wrote:Just to let you know, it's 「日本語お上手ですね」

Yeah, for not proofreading. I've only heard 日本語上手ですね. I haven't noticed an お in the middle (or more likely I didn't hear it or tuned it out).

Interesting, by the way. I'll remember it for later.

Cranks Wrote:Hehe, I can't stand most Japanese food and don't really like fish. I have 0% interest in the culture as well. I think that makes me a bad がいこくじん「外国人」ね。Lol, my motivation is more communication than anything else.

P.s., If your obviously not Japanese you're going to get 日本語を上手ですね every time you meet someone new. After that, if you're good, they'll stop being surprised and just enjoy hanging out with you.

sadly but true, your always going to get that phrase said to you.

Great post! Thanks for sharing. It reminds me that there is always learning for the sake of learning, which is where I have been with my Japanese many-a-time. Sometimes it feels like such a useless language to me, but then I see how much it is helping my memorization, my study of Finnish (ok technically more useless, but at least I live in Finland...), and my general study habits. Learning can never be bad, even if it's something that I could care less about, right? At least I learn HOW I learn, which better prepares me for the future.

welldone101 Wrote:my study of Finnish (ok technically more useless, but at least I live in Finland...)

I wish my native language was as useful as Finnish! I'm fluent in Icelandic (280,000 native speakers) and Danish (5,000,000 native speakers). What a waste!

NinjaViking Wrote:

welldone101 Wrote:my study of Finnish (ok technically more useless, but at least I live in Finland...)

I wish my native language was as useful as Finnish! I'm fluent in Icelandic (280,000 native speakers) and Danish (5,000,000 native speakers). What a waste!

Don't forget English!

Feel the same way. Never have liked Anime, Japanese movies, TV, etc. I do like the culture, but have trouble finding Japanese language stuff that I want to read. I travel to Japan sometimes, and that's why I really want to improve my ability, but it's tough to immerse myself when I'm in the US. Been watching some American movies dubbed into Japanese. Not at the level where I can understand 80% (more like 50% or less), so it's tough to really enjoy, but at least I enjoy the subject matter.

jettyke Wrote:

NinjaViking Wrote:

welldone101 Wrote:my study of Finnish (ok technically more useless, but at least I live in Finland...)

I wish my native language was as useful as Finnish! I'm fluent in Icelandic (280,000 native speakers) and Danish (5,000,000 native speakers). What a waste!

Don't forget English!

Ah yes, I'm fluent in English as well. It's a bit more useful than either Icelandic or Danish, though. Gimme a few years and I'll be fluent in Japanese as well!

welldone101 Wrote:Sometimes it feels like such a useless language to me, but then I see how much it is helping my memorization, my study of Finnish (ok technically more useless, but at least I live in Finland...)

Ah, Finnish. That's a language that is hard to keep up once you move out of the country. I used to be perfectly fluent in Finnish but now I'm so freaking rusty.

I blame Japanese for it, lol. I still know how to sit in the sauna and be quiet, the two most important skills in the Finnish culture ^^. Swedish, Norwegian and Danish I can read easily, so I've been eyeing Icelandic just for good measure. The question is what the hell would I do with it. The answer is "just because it's fun to learn". But then what? Too bad I'm not a fan of Eve Online or maybe I'd move to Reykjavik to work for them or something. Or become a 火山学者　ハハハ.

Learning is fun but maintenance can be an issue unless you have specific things you will be enjoying in the language for years to come. No, not just "oh it will be fun to know that language". It has to be books you will be reading, shows you will be watching, friends you will be speaking with. Lack of these is the reason I've been steadily forgetting my Scandinavian languages.

haplology Wrote:Feel the same way. Never have liked Anime, Japanese movies, TV, etc. I do like the culture, but have trouble finding Japanese language stuff that I want to read. I travel to Japan sometimes, and that's why I really want to improve my ability, but it's tough to immerse myself when I'm in the US. Been watching some American movies dubbed into Japanese. Not at the level where I can understand 80% (more like 50% or less), so it's tough to really enjoy, but at least I enjoy the subject matter.

I remembered that I didn't like anything Japanese before. I just found it strange,all those weird characters/sounds,etc. Not sure what got me into this but I think eventually as I got older(17,18 years old). I started to notice I started getting interested in cultures outside of my own/languages as well. Now I'm 21 and still learning Japanese and I definitely feel that this is fun/interesting to learn. If only I had realized all this when I was I in grade 9. Seriously I had so much time in high school, feels like a waste now. But lucky I still got a lot of time now in college too lol.

Tell me about it. Looking back at all the time i wasted in high school. I could have been great. I could have learned Japanese and more Spanish. All i did in high school was chase girls around. I never studied anything in High School I just naturally got good grades from I guess paying attention in class.

I have a problem in college I spend 24 hours doing Japanese and almost 0 hours doing engineering work a day. I need to overlap some of my time more often. Errr but that means less Kanji.

NoSleepTilFluent Wrote:Tell me about it. Looking back at all the time i wasted in high school. I could have been great. I could have learned Japanese and more Spanish. All i did in high school was chase girls around. I never studied anything in High School I just naturally got good grades from I guess paying attention in class.

I have a problem in college I spend 24 hours doing Japanese and almost 0 hours doing engineering work a day. I need to overlap some of my time more often. Errr but that means less Kanji.

for me I wasn't really doing good in the first few years of high-school.But near the end I got how to get good marks. I was more into games back then anything else(always like playing them instead of doing school work).

Haha, same here. I spend like 90% of my time for Japanese and 10% other(school lol)
I'm going to use the srs though for my last year. I definitely believe this will save me time/I can get solid marks(80%+)

Learning to learn, learning for fun, learning to communicate, learning to understand media, learning to get "the win", all of these are pretty valid reasons to learn another language.

Personally, I sort of like that we have such varied reasons. Often, with things like business courses, for example, you get every saying "because I want to make a million dollars and date a pop star", or something. Language learners always have such different reasons. I like that a lot.

P.s., You know, I always say I do it FTW (for the win). I think that's just my type of personality really. I've always been competitive in what I want to achieve (usually with my own vision of success rather than anyone else - I guess others don't fit on the radar compared to my ultimate opponent: me.) Then again I don't really have a clear vision this time with Japanese - it's just "the win", no details, which I think is a little different. I blame on thing: over exposure to Naruto (the earlier seasons), lol.

Cranks Wrote:Personally, I sort of like that we have such varied reasons. Often, with things like business courses, for example, you get every saying "because I want to make a million dollars and date a pop star", or something. Language learners always have such different reasons. I like that a lot.

That's funny because that's one my secret reasons for learning Japanese.

NoSleepTilFluent Wrote:

Cranks Wrote:Personally, I sort of like that we have such varied reasons. Often, with things like business courses, for example, you get every saying "because I want to make a million dollars and date a pop star", or something. Language learners always have such different reasons. I like that a lot.

That's funny because that's one my secret reasons for learning Japanese.

that's a good reason as well. If I do become amazing in Japanese. Then I'm sure I would be able to get a job from it(translation,etc). I was thinking of doing transcription work but I gotta work on that heavily