What's your MAIN reason for studying Japanese?

Japanese Language
1
  • I live in Japan
  • Iā€™m a big fan of one or more aspects of Japanese pop culture (i.e. anime)
  • I have Japanese family members (biological or not)
  • I want an intellectual challenge or I want to learn for the sake of learning
  • I donā€™t live in Japan but Japanese would be useful for my career/future career
  • Iā€™m really into one or more aspects of Japanese traditional culture (i.e. martial arts)
  • I want to travel to or move to Japan for a reason not covered in the other answers
  • I have to more than want to (i.e. language requirement for East Asian Studies major)
  • Other (please specify)

0 voters

21 Likes
2

If I am being honest, itā€™s mostly vanity. I want to be able to just bust out the language randomly and feel superior

69 Likes
3

To people who canā€™t speak it?

8 Likes
4

That was a kind of fake answer, haha. I mean there is definitely some vanity involved but I will probably vacation in Japan every 5 years or so, and I just like the people so much.

But I do think itā€™s random for some white dude to just bust out some Japanese!

1 Like
5

I was just gonna say, if they donā€™t speak it, itā€™d save you time to just look up canned phrases.

17 Likes
6

I have Japanese speaking friends. :smiley:

3 Likes
7

I answered that Iā€™m really into one or more aspects of pop culture because my #1 reason is to be able to read Japanese books.
I also like some aspects of traditional culture, like dolls and textiles.
I also want an intellectual challenge!

13 Likes
8

Not even that. Just, 怌恓悌ćÆćŗ悓恧恙ļ¼Ÿć€ is often sufficient.

13 Likes
9

Other: I used to live in Japan and not only donā€™t want to lose what I learned but would like to improve on it.

11 Likes
10

Mostly because I watch anime and play a lot of videogames from Japan. Not everything gets translated, or it gets translated poorly, so it could be fun/useful in those cases.
Also partly because I want to do something useful with my free time, other than spending it on just entertainment.

As far as foreign languages go, I think it sounds and looks pretty cool too, so thatā€™s a plus.

12 Likes
11

I went with the ā€œpop cultureā€ option, but multiple factors are involved.

  1. Iā€™ve always been fascinated by Japan, in general.

  2. I love languages, and have a knack for them (though Kanji is kicking my rear end).

  3. I love any excuse to learn.

  4. I love challenging myself.

  5. I recently discovered Downtown no Gaki no Tsukai ya Arahende, and subbed videos can be hard to find; despite the differences between the Kansai and Kanto dialects, I think knowing the language will make it easier for me when I try to watch a video, and find that it has no subtitles.

12 Likes
12

Other: Be a better professional wrestler <3

7 Likes
13

I relate to this.

There is a student club at my university that wins every competion they attend to. The other day there was some guy sitting next to me wearing proudly his club t-shirt. I told him ā€œhey, do you know there is a huge grammar error in your latin motto [written in the back of you t-shirt]?ā€.
I explained to the guy, he thought it was funny, and it made me feel so superior :monkey:

6 Likes
14

I live and work in Japan, I did 6 years of Uni here (bachelorā€™s + masterā€™s) and wanikani is a great way to drill kanji everyday and stay on top of things!

4 Likes
15

Other, I work for a japanese company in my home country and the spoken language is japanese :grin:

3 Likes
16

Felt like multiple questions applied, really
I love the culture, at least what I get to see from a distance, and although I dont watch much anime/tv in general, I do read a bit and would love to read books or even manga in the original language

I enjoy learning or studying all kinds of language and thereā€™s such a feeling of global understanding, hearing someoneā€™s point of view about the world or where they live in their own language, itā€™s kind of a rush actually
Some of the craziest news stories Iā€™ve ever read, I read them in french or spanish

The mental challenge is nice, helps you reach a state of flow easily, which I enjoy

3 Likes
17

I live in Japan, I study for career purposes, and reading novels by Japanese authors, as well as translations into Japanese.

4 Likes
18

Because I intend to get N1, go to grad school here, and then enter the field that Iā€™ve always wanted to be in: museum studies and curatorship. Goodness knows Japanā€™s museums (outside of major cities) could use better English resources, and I want to be a part of that.

Being an ALT has been wonderful, but I cannot keep doing it into my 30ā€™s and 40ā€™s without some sort of regret over not following my dreamsā€¦

11 Likes
19

I went with the ā€œintellectual challengeā€ option, but more specifically I want to give my brain another toolset to use for thinking. But getting there is difficult if you donā€™t use a language, so my secondary reasons (like the culture, like manga, been there loved it, know japanese people, etc) will make me keep using it until I achieve my goal.

4 Likes
20

Shita ! I clicked just to see if there was multiple answers possible and it gave away the wrong reason.
So, really, I like the intellectual chalenge, want to eventually live there and I like Japanese traditional culture :slight_smile: