You can make sexy conversations with teh japanese womens

slowly the kanji,
sink into this mind-ripple,
like snowflakes drifting down to the ground.
each one different, but similar
silent moments of frozen beauty, a clue ...
for this world, that there is another....

Haha
I'll add- you can make the sexy conversations with the japanese men,

I wonder what the gender ratio is on this site.  Women seem to be naturally better at conversation but do not to study Japanese as much as men.  I wonder if it is all about the posibility of romance and the fact Japanese men (generally) aren't thought of as attractive to Western women.  We all know what most Western men think of Japanese women

snispilbor wrote:

I like how there's a certain "logic" to Japanese which is missing in the European languages.

The main logic on this forum seems to be something like "日本語が話せる" ==> "日本人彼女"

I was really saddened when I realized this, but it seems like most Japanese girls (including my GF) would much rather talk in English.  English is sexy and exotic to them.  I used to go up to Japanese girls and try talking to them in Japanese, but now that I'm on the other side of the coin, I see guys constantly trying to hit on my GF on Facebook in everything from ok-but-boring-japanese to embarrassingly-bad-romaji, and I see that for hitting on Japanese girls, English is better every time.

I'm serious when I say that saddens me.  I've basically come to understand that further Japanese study is a pure luxury/hobby.  I used to have thoughts like "Man, I'm not only having fun, I'm also acquiring a super-valuable skill", but now I realize that that just isn't the case unless I do something extreme like become a Japanese salaryman.  It's kind of like losing an old friend.

I have also been told by Japanese girlfriends that I sound "cool" when I talk in English.  I assume this means I do not sound cool talking in Japanese.  If you live in Japan and want to meet girls, it helps alot to know Japanese though.
If you live outside Japan where there are alot of Japanese tourists then knowing Japanese helps get better jobs.  Not enough to warrent the time involved in learning Japanese perhaps.  You really have to enjoy it to become fluent.  I feel like it requires all of my spare time and involves a tremendous sacrifice of my other pursuits.  The enthusiasm cjswanson1355 has is a must.

woodwojr wrote:

Learning Japanese is a drag. I'd much rather just read a book.

In Japanese, of course.

~J

So would the rest of us.   If it were an option

bodhisamaya wrote:

woodwojr wrote:

Learning Japanese is a drag. I'd much rather just read a book.

In Japanese, of course.

~J

So would the rest of us.   If it were an option

I don't see how it's not.

I'd rather play Video Games...

In Japanese of course.

Personally I don't think learning Japanese is all that fun anymore. It was a ******* blast when I lived in Japan, every new thing you learned opened new doors. Currently, there's really no point. Sure, I can read more books in Japanese, watch movies and dramas in Japanese, play Japanese games.... but during my journey of learning Japanese, I've come to learn that it isn't all that. Japanese TV is overrated. It's wacky, but their comedians are actually pretty weak. 90% of the anime released is just... BS. The top dramas are really good, but the overall quality of Japanese shows doesn't really come close to the quality of American shows in general.

Basically, I don't have even close to the motivation I used to have. I'm mainly learning more because I'm already good at it, would be a huge waste to forget it and not get really good at it. Frankly though, I doubt I will use it that much in the future. I want to work in Japan some, but having seen their salarymen first hand, I know for a fact that I will never ever want to work there permanently.

I guess the main thing is: I already have a girlfriend who I speak Japanese with. I don't have the main motivation driving everyone else.

EDIT: I've also gotten so used to Japanese, I've been decent at it for pretty long. Learning a new word in Japanese feels like learning a new word in English... it's nice and useful, but it's just another out of thousands. Japanese doesn't sound wacky and cool anymore, it's just... Japanese. I guess the main perpetrator is me learning basic Mandarin. Chinese is just... mindblowing. It's so radically different and sounds amazing. I still have that lovely "double your skill every day" feeling in it. Learning a single mandarin word makes me tons better at the language.

Last edited by Tobberoth (2009 January 29, 7:11 pm)

Eh, I wouldn't say it takes years; it does, however, take the right choice of books. I personally thank Arms for this, as a fair bit of it is stuff that was of the right level for me, and the rest was so obviously not of the right level (big long compounds for military terminology, for example) that I learned to just get the sense of it and move on.

~J