I was very motivated to learn Japanese. I’ve been studying for over a year. I haven’t made much progress.
Recently I was trying to figure out what my real motivation was. I don’t read manga or watch anime, and I have no intent in the near future to visit Japan.
What other motivators do people have to learn Japanese? Should I bother with something that will take me several years to master with no end goal?
20 comments
If you don’t want to consume Japanese media, don’t have any pressing need to talk to Japanese people, or don’t find some intrinsic joy in the process of studying – yeah, why should you bother? It’s a lot of work – you could probably find something else to do.
If that sounds unappealing to you – the easiest way to find a point to studying is to get into Japanese media. Doesn’t have to be manga or anime, but that’s definitely the lowest hanging fruit, and unless you do enjoy Japanese media you’re probably not going to get that far anyway.
I for one study Japanese to be able to play Japan-exclusive video games that were never released in the west. I don‘t want to depend on someone‘s fan-translated patch.
If you don‘t have that kinda motivation or love for the pop culture, there is little reason to study it imo (if you don‘t intend to live there)
>I was very motivated to learn Japanese. I’ve been studying for over a year. I haven’t made much progress.
My questions for you would be:
-have you finished 2136 Jouyou Kanji
-have you been through the N3 or N2 grammar lists with examples (available online
-have you studied a similar level of vocabulary? Reaching for at least 5000 words?
I think that might be answer to how much visual progress you see.
I had the same problem too when starting off. Someone here mentioned of going into japanese media which I think it’s a great idea to at least talk to others whether its about day-to-day life, art, food, singing, games, etc. Finding those circles is a lil tough to sift through the algorithms, but I feel twitter does this best for now.
For me, snowboarding! They have such a unique style you don’t often see in the states. They do a lot of “ground tricks” and often have in depth tutorials on how to learn them. It’s been really neat to watch and learn, and they teach tricks sooo differently than they’re learned in the states. Here, you kind of just go for it and hope for the best. Start small of course, but still just “hucking it”. Japanese snowboarders learn a new trick similar to how I train complex behaviors to animals, working backwards! So you start with the end result, and keep tacking new moves onto the beginning as you get it until you can successfully do the whole thing. Maybe I’m being a bit nerdy, but it’s super interesting to me as it’s almost a foolproof way to learn a trick with little to no risk if injury. Anyways, the people I watch generally do a great job in visual instruction, but I know I would take away so much more if I could understand what they were saying as well. I’ve been lazy and slow at learning, but the motivation still exists. I’d also love to visit Japan to go snowboarding one day. Maybe you can research a current hobby or passion of yours in Japanese. You might find they have a unique or interesting take on it.
read japanese books/visual novels & play video games
Why were you very motivated in the first place? Is it just because it’s hard and you want to prove to yourself you can do it? Is there something else about Japanese that interests you? Nobody can install motivation for you and you’re going to not get that far in the end if you can’t think of any reason you want to learn.
The thing is, the more you understand Japanese the more you can enjoy “using it”.
I personally don’t have a real purpose either (don’t watch anime or read manga). I started studying because YouTube suggested I learned hiragana. I was just curious and now I’m 2 years into learning the language. I still don’t understand much, and that limits how much I can enjoy my time with it. Eventually, I’ll be good enough to understand and enjoy someone’s content on YouTube. And when that happens and I get hooked, I know it’s gonna be over, I’ll watch sooooo much of it. That’s what happened with English anyways.
So yeah, maybe I think of it as a tool that will open many doors for me (in terms of content). That’s why I keep doing it, even if slowly.
I do like Japanese media, films and games etc but I am far from obsessed. I adore the culture. But yeah sometimes I question what the hell I’m doing. But I’ve gotten pretty far and wouldn’t want to drop it now.
Ultimately, assuming you have a decent length life, you don’t need to grind too hard and you will get there eventually. Just chip away at it. And unlike learning any other European language, it’s basically another way to think and communicate entirely, and the buzz of that is what keeps me going.
I see so much of the ‘if you don’t love it don’t do it’ advice on the internet with regards to a lot of things, but hard shit is worth doing for its own sake. Keep your brain sharp, build self belief and expand your horizons.
I seriously recommend wanikani, when I don’t have the motivation about what to study, i at least know I’m cracking through the kanji by staying on top of reviews.
I feel like there’s a big stereotype about the types of people that learn Japanese, and just like OP, I feel that as someone who doesn’t watch anime, read manga, and has no major interest in visiting or moving to Japan, I really don’t fit in with that crowd.
What originally got you interested in learning? I don’t fully remember in my case, since it was more than 12 years ago, but some of the reasons that come to mind were that I was fascinated by the idea of being able to read a script that other people couldn’t, since it looked so complex from a westerner’s point of view. There were also a few bits of media that I really enjoyed and I felt I’d be able to get more out of if I didn’t have to wait half a year for them to be localized, and could experience them in their original form
I was on and off with learning Japanese for many years, at many points asking myself the same questions that you are now. Even when I wasn’t actively studying, it always stayed in the back of my mind. I’d always had this aspiration to be a fluent Japanese speaker, but I guess I didn’t really know why I wanted that.
The big thing that pushed me over the edge to really take things seriously was a couple years ago when I started to find myself slipping into various Japanese online communities. Suddenly, the language stopped being a study topic, and being something I actively used to communicate with people. My listening and reading comprehension shot up, because I was having real conversations with real people about real things, and words just stick when you’re using them in practical situations. Nowadays, the single biggest motivating factor for me to develop my language skills is because the language maintains the relationships I’ve built. There are people I chat with on a daily basis who only know Japanese, and so our conversations force me to get used to phrasing the things I want to explain in their language.
My biggest bit of advice would be to think of what you want from this, and gear your study toward that. Language is mostly learned and maintained via usage, so if you’re not that interested in anime, books or travel, then I don’t see much point in going past a basic/general understanding, because it’s likely that you’ll struggle to retain anything further than that anyway, if most of your study is via textbooks. If there is something that you like to interact with in Japanese, such as a book or TV show, then just keep doing that, even if it means that most of your vocabulary ends up centered around that particular topic. Similarly, if you want to use the language to talk to people, then perhaps it would be worth finding Japanese-speaking friends or language exchange partners.
Unless you’re planning to do something with it, I don’t think it’s worth forcing yourself to get proficient in Japanese if you don’t actually have a goal. Even if you manage to get proficient, you’ll eventually forget what you’ve learned if you don’t use it, and then all the effort was for nothing.
For me, a love of kanji. The cuisine, entertainment, and arts are bonuses.
I would say yes because there neurological benefits to picking up new languages. Also, what format are you learning by?.
Are you mastering Kana first then taking on Kanji + Vocabulary and grammar?
Are you approaching it from as an endeavor that had 4 sub skills:
Reading, Writing, listening and speaking?
I’m learning cause I didn’t plan on moving here but marrying someone from here kinda makes it hard for you not to learn lmao. I want to be comfortable living here and not dependent on someone for translation help so that’s my reasoning.
I learn languages because I love languages. If the process is fun for you, then it doesn’t matter if you will actually use it. It is also good for your brain and to expand your horizons. You don’t necessarily need an end goal in order to enjoy the journey.
I’m a big fan of Japanese literature and, even though it’s unrealistic, I would love to one day be able to read it in the original Japanese instead of relying on translations.
I started listening to a band called Kalafina, it’s pretty good. It’d be pretty cool to be able to understand the lyrics. But not understanding lyrics is also ok for me since in songs, music, rhythm and the feel they convey are mostly important for me. I want to visit Japan one day. i like how Japanese sounds as well.
There is barely a reason to wake up in the morning but we still do.
I’ve had this conversation a lot with people because I didn’t get into Japanese through anime and manga and since most people do, it’s kind of thought as ‘weird’.
But learn whatever you want, there doesn’t have to be any divine reason. Some people like me just like learning languages cos it’s fun to be able to communicate with a new range of people you didn’t before.
I’m saying this while I am in Japan, but honestly even if you don’t want to, a week here or two weeks even will improve your Japanese so much. There’s a whole new world of Japanese that people ACTUALLY speak here.
Mind if I ask what “no real progress” means?
Are we talking like, you’ve done a single genki chapter, or you’re not happy because you’ve only managed n4, etc.?
It’s fairly common for people to hit a wall, I’d say there’s two big ones. The first is when you first start learning kanji, and the second is (imo) after genki.
I started learning because I was a massive weeb as a teen, and I wanted to be a jet. Fast forward a few years, I don’t watch anime, and I have a career in the states, all my reason for learning would be gone but I happened to meet someone who moved here from Tokyo and was learning English. It went from friends to relationship, and now I use Japanese almost as much as English when I’m home.
All of that being said, if you don’t know why you’re learning it, I don’t think you’ll manage too much. Either take a break or maybe look into a tutor, if it’s a perceived lack of progress holding you down, that can be worked on!
At first, I studied to learn how to play a video game since it wasn’t out in English. Now I learn just cause I fell in love with the culture. I made so many friends learning Japanese that it became like my normal routine.