What are the Japanese learners of here's non Japanese related hobbies? I like improving my memory, chess, wrestling, powerlifting , studying other languages, helping vulnerable people, philosophy, inventing stuff, travelling, defending people in a legal manner and cinema.
I have noticed that the higher my Japanese level has become the less interested in Japanese I have become. Other people share my theory that higher competency = less interest in the culture but do people on here share it?
MindTrick
Member
From: 澳洲
Registered: 2012-09-01
Posts: 24
A wide range of hobbies you have there. Mine are programming, tennis, photography, improving my other languages, physics and mathematics, and games that require a lot of thinking.
I can't really comment on the second question, my Japanese is still at a low level 
. But currently my interest hasn't really changed since I started Japanese. It did fluctuate here and there but that's about it.
quark
Member
From: Canada
Registered: 2011-10-11
Posts: 201
My hobbies are knitting, baking, drawing, and watching movies (horror and so-bad-they're-good in particular). I also volunteer at a sexual health clinic and am saving up money to buy a guitar and lessons.
I definitely watch a lot less anime now than I did before I started learning Japanese, but I think that's because I spend a lot of time with my computer/Anki. My Japanese is still hovering around the Intermediate level, but I do definitely perk up a bit whenever I hear any mention of Japan.
six8ten
Member
Registered: 2011-02-26
Posts: 106
And here I thought it was going to be a discussion of the concept of "hobby" in Japanese. Back when I was teaching English "What are your hobbies" was one of the standard interview questions for prospective students. Quite often I heard "sleeping" offered as an answer. By far the strangest answer was "cleaning my ears". How often would you have to clean your ears for that to qualify as a hobby? Keep a journal about it?
To answer the question, current hobbies- I'm taking a Japanese sword class on Sundays, and going to a Seidokaikan dojo three days a week after work. Add in a little bit of PC/video games, Japanese study, and some reading, and it doesn't leave much time for other things I would do if I had more time.
Ampharos64
Member
From: England
Registered: 2008-12-09
Posts: 166
Reading (I'm interested in medieval literature and love translating), playing videogames (and collecting worryingly expensive figures of characters from them), and looking after my chinchilla. I'd like to breed chins some day, I currently go to shows and would like to be able to show chins I'd bred myself (yep, people really show little fluffy rodents).
Higher competence sometimes seems to lead to less interest in the culture? That's interesting, maybe it's that interests tend to become more narrowly focused, as people learn what aspects of the culture most interest them, while at the start, it's all new and associated with the language, so all feels interesting?
I'd assume if you were learning the language to begin with because of a specific interest, that interest at least would likely stay, ie. I'm learning Japanese because I want to be able to read the literature. As long as I'm still interested in books, I'd still be interested in Japanese books, I guess.
I'm a programmer, and spent years dinking around with various languages, esp. functional languages like Lisp and Haskell. Other interests include drawing, painting pastels, strategy games (Catan, Pandemic, etc.), and music.
I don't see my interest in Japan fading, but anything's possible. 中学生の頃から、I've loved the culture and language. Fell in love with it after watching grainy VHS tapes of ガッチャマン and ダーティーペアー. I've meant for years to crack down and learn the language well enough to speak and comprehend it. Now's the time.
After this? Dunno. Chinese, perhaps? Or back to my sketchbook?
undead_saif
Member
From: Mother Earth
Registered: 2009-01-28
Posts: 635
Music in general, playing the guitar, robotics, smartphones (not trying apps lol), modern physics, cosmology, philosophy, learning about other cultures and cars.
I don't know if I can consider video games and manga as hobbies, because even though I love them I barely have the time to do any of them. And obviously with that many hobbies including Japanese, I can't do all of them regularly. I also go to the gym but I can't wait till I have a good body (not the one that needs constant practice to keep) to leave it!
The more I learn about Japan, the more I become interested in the language. Actually, learning languages used to be a hobby for me, but I recently noticed that I'm no longer enthusiastic about learning any other language except if I like the culture. Other than Japanese, I want to improve my production and talking in English.
Last edited by undead_saif (2012 September 04, 1:49 am)
Stian
Member
From: England
Registered: 2012-06-21
Posts: 426
Programming, computer gaming, bass guitar, working out, and that's about it when it comes to hobbies.
And I've always had this weird fascination for languages, which led to me picking up Japanese. I want to improve my German too, but can't really do that now as I'm working on my Japanese and I'm going to start studying in England in a few weeks...
SammyB
Member
From: Sydney, Australia
Registered: 2008-05-28
Posts: 337
guitar, drums, composing (mostly crap) instrumental hip-hop, juggling, beat-boxing, weightlifting, and WASTING TIME ON YOUTUBE...
Last edited by SammyB (2012 September 04, 6:03 am)
