Marble101 wrote:

To be honest, I'm learning Japanese because of Anime. I seriously know nothing more about Japanese than Anime. But I figure that once I start learning Japanese [and viewing native content] I would learn more about Japan.

I got a volunteering job and during the interview I was honest with the interviewer. I learned it because I enjoyed anime and manga books. Nothing wrong with it but I know that if I can't get hooked to an anime or a manga, I'll probably never finish it.

I got into anime after starting to learn Japanese, which I did for career reasons.

My first university class was hilarious. The professor asked everyone to do introductions by giving their name and why they wanted to learn Japanese. Pretty much everyone but me said they wanted to learn Japanese because of anime or manga. I said I wanted to learn Japanese because I'm into international business and Japan is still the 3rd largest world economy and everyone just stared at me...

qwertyytrewq wrote:

That reminds me of a double-negative grammar in Japanese that I learnt recently: ないことはない

e.g. トロルしないことはないが、時間がないんです。

This sentence can be interpreted in two ways but they mean the same thing:

Ex. It is not the case that I do not troll, but I don't have time to troll.
Ex. I do troll, I just don't have time to do so.

... and the way Japanese constructs imperative is through double negation too:

eg: トロルしなければならない。 (I must troll.)

kitakitsune wrote:

I said I wanted to learn Japanese because I'm into international business and Japan is still the 3rd largest world economy and everyone just stared at me...

This was basically the reason for almost everyone to learn Japanese 20 years ago.  My Japanese professor in college said he much prefers teaching Japanese these days compared to when he started, since now most people are interested in Japan for cultural reasons rather than monetary ones.  Even if the culture happens to be of the pop variety.

(My Japanese professor was originally an anthropologist, so he's probably biased in favor of culture)

anime people are funny though
especially in introductions, when everyone's like "watashi wa kainzero-san desu" or something wrong

then the anime guy

"ORE WA KAINZERO" *giggle*

it's all good though, i don't care what reasons people have

Well there's generally more career opportunities, plus expat packages, plus 15-25% greater salary depending on the company...

I guess it's just felt like an uphill battle for me, compared to peers who got good jobs back home straight out of university. I know the opportunities and salary for a foreigner in Japan are going to be more limited than back home, too.

From my impressions there aren't a lot of British companies percentage wise that have dealings with Japan. Even having found one, joining a company with intentions of transferring later seems hit or miss.

Last edited by dizmox (2012 May 21, 7:58 pm)

dizmox wrote:

I guess it's just felt like an uphill battle for me, compared to peers who got good jobs back home straight out of university. I know the opportunities and salary for a foreigner in Japan are going to be more limited than back home, too.

From my impressions there aren't a lot of British companies percentage wise that have dealings with Japan. Even having found one, joining a company with intentions of transferring later seems hit or miss.

I think it`s more like to be the other way around. With Japanese companies having dealings with Europe. I could imagine knowing Japanese when going for a job with Sony or the likes would push up your chances purely for being able to deal with Japanese people.

I didn`t really have a choice in the matter anyway. Ireland is in the grips of a emigration epidemic at the minute. Literally everyone I was friends with in Uni has moved to Australia bar one guy who was lucky enough to get a grant for a PhD.

I just got lucky with a Japanese company who hires directly out of Ireland every 4 or 5 years.

I suppose I should contribute somewhat constructively to this thread...

I only got my job because I can speak Japanese. My employer was only after a Japanese speaking applicant, and thus the job was advertised (in Japanese) through a Japanese employment agency in Australia. Unfortunately I was somewhat "duped" by the ad, and the Japanese component of my role is somewhat limited to 3 or 4 five minute phone calls in Japanese a week. The remainder of my week is Microsoft excel and paper pushing, which is cause for my great dissatisfaction with what I am doing...I work for a very large 商事会社 (albeit a 100% subsidary, which in my opinion is where the problem lies...)

In saying so, I studied Japanese because a) it was the first foreign language I ever studied at primary school and b) I was so fed-up with business-only subjects at university that I needed to do something different. I have zero interest in anime and mange (can barely stand the stuff) and limited interest in Japanese music (being exposed to Japanese music on tv and in stores while living there confirmed this), but I like the Japanese language itself. Also I now have a number of close relationships built entirely in Japanese, as opposed to English, which is definitely unique for me and something that contributes to the enjoyment I get out of knowing Japanese.

Tzadeck wrote:

kitakitsune wrote:

I said I wanted to learn Japanese because I'm into international business and Japan is still the 3rd largest world economy and everyone just stared at me...

This was basically the reason for almost everyone to learn Japanese 20 years ago.  My Japanese professor in college said he much prefers teaching Japanese these days compared to when he started, since now most people are interested in Japan for cultural reasons rather than monetary ones.  Even if the culture happens to be of the pop variety.

(My Japanese professor was originally an anthropologist, so he's probably biased in favor of culture)

Somehow, I liked your anecdote a lot....

Anyway, languages open many doors that would normally be closed. I do occasionally wonder whether people -really- take advantage of the things that are now open to them through their knowledge of a language and not just use it for some kind of limited function. Most things are simply not translated into English (and especially other languages) and because of this, there is a supernal barrier to knowledge. Unless we get something like the babel fish from the Hitchhiker's guide that allows audial as well as visual translation, there is only one way to open these boundaries.

I'm greedy because I want access to everything out there. Learning a few languages is one of the -easier- methods for increasing access. Obviously things like money and time are even more valuable for extending the boundaries but may be more difficult to increase/obtain. I hope people take advantage of their knowledge and what it enables them to do instead of binding it to a single type of use. Not to mention that it also opens the hearts of a whole new population for you (depending on the language)

-Saborkan

Last edited by Saborkan (2012 June 07, 11:02 pm)

Necrojesta wrote:

It's frustrating because all of us on this forum can say, if you're willing to learn 200 odd kana and 2,000 kanji and aim for fluency... you're clearly not doing it for your love of anime.

How did you come up with that conclusion?

Is it not conceivable that some people on this forum may indeed do it for the love of anime?

In fact, your assertion has been proven wrong in this very thread:

Marble101 wrote:

To be honest, I'm learning Japanese because of Anime.

Bokusenou wrote:

I don't see what the big deal is. When people learn I know Japanese (usually from seeing me reading J-lit), they often ask if I'm a fan of anime, which I am

Shadeless wrote:

After few years of enjoying manga/anime I wanted to give back to community so I joined few scanlator groups and worked as a cleaner/editor until it started to take too much time and effort to do on weekly basis, so I stopped it. Instead of spending time on that I started learning japanese so I can read raw manga

ta12121 wrote:

I got a volunteering job and during the interview I was honest with the interviewer. I learned it because I enjoyed anime and manga books.

Last edited by qwertyytrewq (2012 August 06, 2:19 pm)

I would say I'm learning it for anime too, since that's the main reason I even considered it at first... However now there are so many more things in play, and I'm doing it for a multitude of reasons, including a simple love of the language. I think his point is that nobody will learn Japanese solely for watching unsubbed anime, there's always other underlying reasons.

I'm sure someone's gonna come and tear that argument to pieces though...

Necrojesta wrote:

It lacks logic, but the general gist of what he said was that I loved anything Japanese, hated anything western and from his words 'learning the kanji to read the Go manual', I enjoy Go and he was taking a jab, he assumed it was a Japanese board game that I only liked because it was Japanese.

I love that as a reason, though. : )


It is a little annoying, I agree, for the same reason it bugs the topic creator, that I don't like people making assumptions about me. I haven't encountered it much at all though, rather it's 'You're studying Japanese? You must be really smart!' (even when I tell them, entirely truthfully, I hardly know any Japanese). Which is an assumption I don't object to all that much. XD
Unless others assume they could never do it since they're not smart enough (as if I am, then >_<), that makes me sad.

I also really agree with Ash_S, about it feeling disheartening if someone was interested in only one aspect. Learning a language is a pretty major endeavour, so it feels kind of a waste to not be interested in exploring lots of different aspects of the culture that knowing the language opens up to you.

I'm learning it because I want to read 源氏物語. Even if it takes me 50 years (it might...), even if I can only manage to read it in modern Japanese while looking at the original alongside it. I love videogames too, but that alone wouldn't have motivated me. It's a definite, plus, though.
It's for somewhat economic reasons too, I love to translate, but no one is going to be all that eager to pay me to translate Middle English.