Remove "Japanese Only" subcategory from "Japanese Language" category

Japanese Only and the other categories generally have different purposes (and therefore different audiences). I find the Grammar, Kanji, Speaking, and Listening subcategories useful for learning. However, that doesn’t seem to be the primary purpose of the Japanese Only subcategory (I know people can ask questions to learn, but that’s not it’s entire purpose). Additionally, as someone going to look for tips and not to read Japanese topics (I’m not at that level yet), I find it jarring seeing a whole bunch of English and Japanese topics mixed together.

Would anyone else like to see Japanese Only moved to another category?

  • Keep “Japanese Only” in the “Japanese Language” category
  • Move “Japanese Only” out of the “Japanese Language” category

0 voters

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I agree, with the current categories it fits better under Campfire. Either that or split into different level ranges so it can be easily used as learning material.

It’s weird, because I feel a sense of both agreeing and disagreeing with you at the same time.

Basically, the counter-argument is that the Japanese Only category is a sort of immersion learning. It’s the same sort of learning you’d experience by trying to read a book in Japanese by yourself. It’s entirely different in scale and method, but the purpose is consistent in the overall sense that you will theoretically be learning while you are reading.

^ It’s weird that “Japanese Only”, the medium with which people can learn Japanese a lot, is not in a subsection of a forum that is meant for Japanese-learning related section.

I think putting that into the subsection of Campfire is a whole lot worse, though.

Not sure why it didn’t just get its own special category.

Yeah, I don’t understand why it didn’t just get its own section like on the old forums.

It does make sense to have it in the Japanese Language category, though. It just needs to be a bit more organised

It does make sense to have it in the Japanese Language category, though. It just needs to be a bit more organised

That’s fair, but the current disorganization makes the current approach hard to enjoy. If there was a way to exclude subcategories from view (instead of just “all” and viewing a specific subcategory) that would be nice.

I feel like Japanese Only should be its own category, with its own unique subcategories.

It should absolutely be separate, right? It was so separated from everything else on the old forums, and had a more prominent place on the front page. Plus, its purpose is not to discuss the Japanese language, but to speak about all manner of things in the Japanese language - unlike every other part of the Japanese Language category.

I’d make a poll for it, but putting a poll this far down feels a bit silly… :sweat_smile:

@seanblue can you still add a poll to the OP?

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Ooh yes, this. A poll would be good.

But yes, I think, like in the old forums, Japanese-only would be way better as its own section.

I don’t mind API not being its own section. But also Japanese has so many subsections now that it’s a bit awkward in general, imo?

We have the Japanese Only section within Japanese Language because it’s very much a part of that. You can do whatever you’d like in there as long as it’s in Japanese, and it’s really just there to help you practice and get corrections from our native speakers.

If you don’t like seeing the Japanese Only posts you can mute it, so it won’t give you notifications or appear in the Latest tab.

But for now we’re going to keep it there, unless there’s some really, really strong argument for moving it.

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Well, for what it’s worth, here are my arguments.

  • They’re fundamentally different subject matters.
    The Japanese Language section contains (well, contained) discussions regarding the language. The Japanese Only forum contains discussions in Japanese, about completely different things. You go to them for different reasons, and to talk about different things. And due to this…
  • They have different target audiences.
    People who want to talk about the language go to Japanese Language. People who want to write and read Japanese go to Japanese Only. Different people - or the same people, but at different times.
  • It makes it (nearly) impossible to browse discussions about Japanese.
    This is the main one for me. Let’s say you want to flip through people’s questions about Japanese, or just talk about the language and its idiosyncrasies in general. Not specifically grammar, not specifically kanji, not specifically speaking or listening - but all of them. Then you’d just go to Japanese Language in general, right?
    Well, as it stands now you can’t do that. Instead, half the posts are in literally a different language, and the subjects have nothing to do with the language. Sure, you can mute the subcategory, but… do you really want to do that? What if you participate in both sections? Then you don’t want to ignore one of them.

In fact, I personally can’t come up with any argument that they should be together.

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^ seconding this.

I switch gears when I entered the Japanese Only forum exactly because it’s meant for a “practice zone” rather than a tips & tricks zone, discussion zone.

Logical as it may seem, the … whole atmosphere, the whole “okay I have readied myself to do this” is different from glancing through the different titles in English.

As someone who’s wondering what people are discussing about the language, every time I see a title in Japanese, I naturally skip past them, I ignore them like a bunch of ads. They are irrelevant because I’m not here to do some practicing.

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Again - there is this awesome “Mute” feature which you can use. If you Mute Japanese Only you won’t see it in the Japanese Language category.

Wait, I addressed that specifically right in the middle of that, didn’t I? I did.

Basically, if you mute the Japanese Only category you’ve got new problems. There’s no binary “I don’t want to see this” paradigm - as @xallever mentioned, you want different things at different times. Now I want to talk about the language, so I’m going to the Japanese Language section. And now I want to practice Japanese, so I’m going to the Japanese Only section. If I mute the Japanese Only section, I won’t get notifications or see “latest” bubbles for threads I perhaps participated in or otherwise would care about.

Why should they be together?

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Maybe the name is throwing this off. If the title Japanese Only was changed to Japanese Writing Practice, would you feel the same way? Would it not belong in the Japanese Language section?

The Japanese Only section is fundamentally for practising reading and writing in the Japanese language. It definitely belongs where it is in my opinion. Though I believe it should be organised with sub-categories (if that is even possible) for each level range so that it can more easily be used as a learning resource.

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It really isn’t about the name. I don’t know how to make any clearer than what I’ve said before or how @obskyr puts it.

It’s a bit like putting the reviewing and the learning of WaniKani lessons in the WaniKani forum.

If you go to the forum to discuss about WaniKani, it’s not necessarily to do WaniKani even if it is all related to WaniKani.

If let’s say I’m in a forum to discuss about WaniKani related things, and suddenly in between, there are threads that all say: Lesson 1 - 5, Lesson 6 - 10, etc. I’ll ignore them until it’s time for me I want to do those lessons.

No, it still wouldn’t fit. “Japanese Language”, like all its subcategories, is talk about the Japanese Language. Japanese writing practice isn’t.

All but one fit this pattern.

  • Japanese Language: discussion about the Japanese language (or at least it should be, I feel).
    • Grammar: discussion about the grammar of the Japanese language.
    • Kanji: discussion about kanji in the Japanese language.
    • Speaking: discussion about speaking the Japanese language.
    • Listening: discussion about listening to the Japanese language.
    • Resources: discussion about resources for learning the Japanese language.
    • Questions: well, not discussion about questions, but questions are a part in discussion, and they’re about the Japanese language, which is the category.
    • Japanese writing practice: not discussion about Japanese writing practice - in fact, unlike all the other subcategories, not about the Japanese language at all.

The category immediately sticks out just seeing the name in the list, even.