(I cant type in kana…I’m sorry.) Omoshiroi nihongo o omorimasuka?
I don’t think anyone could sustain a long-term study regimen for a foreign language without some level of interest in it. You don’t really need Japanese even if you live in Japan, so people with minimal interest just don’t study much. People who have jobs in Japanese are probably already at a sufficiently high level that even if they stop studying they’ll probably be okay.
BTW, this meaning of “interest” is 興味 (きょうみ). To have interest in Japanese would be 日本語に興味を持つ (にほんごに きょうみを もつ).
To think Japanese is interesting would be 日本語が面白いと思う (にほんごが おもしろいと おもう)
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I don’t… I’m not…
What even is “omorimasuka”? 重る? “To get heavy”?
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I think he meant 思いますか maybe?
Credit to them for trying at least.
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If @Joe777 means, pure interest without any other compelling factors such as, work, a relationship, reading/viewing materials, then yes. I happen to fall in this category. There is no “reason” for me to learn Japanese beyond that I want to spend my time and effort learning Japanese, and I love learning it. Don’t be put off if you don’t find a cause right away or at all.
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I don’t have a whole lot of interest in learning Japanese but seeing as I live here, I figured I’d make my life easier by learning the local language,
This is curious to me. Do you mind if I ask why you live there without having an interest in the language?
I feel like Japanese culture and language are so intertwined that it can be hard to have an interest in one without the other.
I thought it strange too. But then, I was just talking to someone yesterday who currently lives in Japan, and he mentioned that he has seen many expats (in the expats community) who are totally happy living in Tokyo without knowing much Japanese at all. It’s an interesting phenomenon. He himself is a fluent Japanese speaker (foreigner) though… It’s inspiring talking to him.
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The woman I married happened to be Japanese and circumstances made it so that I moved back here with her.
Figured I’d try to learn Japanese to not feel like a toddler at all times and also for better job prospects as I’d like to be able to provide my family a good life and not be content on an ALT salary my entire life
@Arkraptor Got a friend like that, he’s been here 5 years now, only knows 5 words, has 0 interest in learning the language at all and lets his girlfriend do everything.
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Yeah, it’s apparently quite common. In Tokyo at least, there is a wide support group for foreigners, and you can get by pretty well without speaking much Japanese.
Damn that’s pretty spooky, we have very similar circumstances. I met my soon to be wife while I was living in Japan on a working holiday visa and we are moving back there next year, so we have very similar motives. I guess the key is to turn that end goal into your motivation, though I imagine it could get tricky if you lack interest in the language. Hopefully that will develop as you learn.
It’s kind of crazy how many expats you meet that are completely content on handicapping themselves while living there. I met a number of people who had been there 3+ years with the same mindset.
It hasn’t for me in the past. I used to have just an interest in Japanese way back when I was in my senior year of high school, but it was more on and off again type of studying. For instance, I signed up for Wanikani way back in 2013, bought a year membership, got to level 8, and then quit for about 4 years. Having only an interest did not keep me motivated. Nowadays, I keep myself motivated with goals. I currently am working towards the JLPT in December this year. Probably going after the N5 or N4 depending on how comfortable I am by then. My reading and listening skills are not the best, but with that goal to slowly work towards, I’m able to find something small to do everyday when I’m not studying grammar.
Long story short, I’ve tried to keep myself motivated in the past purely through interest, but it didn’t really work out, and now I use goals as a motivator.
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I’ve been to Japan many times. Love the country, met awesome people. I think it’s the lack of communication due to their English skill that make me want to get into japanese.
I’m not really fan of anything like japanese video games / manga / anime / drama. Love their cinema though you don’t really need the language.
But the more I learn about the language the more I love it by itself and I can’t wait to be “fluent” enough to get to just exchange with people there. I just love people 
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At work today I was just randomly thinking about the WaniKani forums, as one does, and I said to myself, “I really appreciate that almost every question thread has a Leebo answer.”
And here we are.
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My interest has been enough for me to keep learning. The intensity of my study fluctuates but, for the most part, I’ve always been studying. I was hoping to take the JLPT N5 last year but at the rate I was studying I wouldn’t have been ready in time. Hoping to keep it in the forefront this year since I’ve been hitting grammar pretty hard. I consume a good amount of Japanese media (anime, manga, music, TV) and I’ve been noticing lately that I understand more of what I hear. So that’s been really nice. I hope to make many more trips to Japan as it is a beautiful country and my first trip left me wanting to see and do more. Getting a better grasp of the language will allow me to stray away from the tourist areas and truly see the country.
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I kinda understand tho. It’s quite hard to fit in learning Japanese when you’re working and have families. What would you sacrifice? Family time? Leisure time? They might not have the motivation to do it when life works out just fine without learning Japanese. Their goals may lie somewhere else…
Yes it’s very hard. When some younger people tell me I will finish high school and go to Japan to learn the language then settle there it’s gonna be awesome… I try make them think twice and if you can confirm I think it’s way better (if you don’t have family imperatives of course) to learn japanese where you originally live then try and go make a life in Japan.
@Joe777 unrelated… but why can’t you type in kana? If you’re at work and using Windows, you should be able to just turn on Microsoft IME as a keyboard and go
If you’re on mobile, there’s a trillion options. Use your phone’s built in Japanese keyboard (by first enabling it in settings), or getting a 3rd party app keyboard like Gboard etc.
Here’s a good article from Tofugu: How to Install Japanese Keyboard on Everything
I work in finance and can’t even plug USBs into my work computer, but I didn’t need admin privileges or anything to set up the Japanese keyboard so you should be able to do it.
While I agree that it can be more convenient to learn the language in your home country, moving there and consuming the language and culture every second of every day definitely makes what you learn stick much quicker. You can learn something and use it or hear it in context almost immediately.
But then again, at that age there are so many distractions that it can be difficult. You move to Tokyo and get engulfed with everything else it has to offer that learning the language can drift further and further from your grasp.