I want to learn Japanese because I went twice in my life to japan and they were both life changing experiences as well as causing a shift in my personality and way of thinking for traveling outside my comfy bubble from a podink town in Missouri. Both times I could feel my life change when I get back yurning for more and wanting to experiences life, being poor.most my life really put a damper on the urge to constantly travel or move. But imho learning is the next best thinjlg.so yearning for more trips is making my urge grow and grow.
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> What made you want to learn Japanese?
Anime, Games, Manga and other content that is not translated or very badly translated, that I want to read.
> What keeps you going?
The Japanese Light Novel on my bookshelf that I still can’t read. 🙂
I thought Japan was cool and thought Japanese people were incredibly nice. Now I’m living in Japan and wanting to continue my life for the foreseeable future here.
I have days where I think my Japanese is terrible but a Japanese person is always there to act astonished at how good your Japanese is lol. The only problem is that the better you get, it seems the amount of 日本語上手!’s go down lol
cars (especially those built during the 80s to early 2000s) and countryside. sadly havent been to Japan yet but from what ive seen it looks like a country with an amazing atmosphere to drive around and enjoy life in.
I’m learning so i can fulfill my dream to go there, rent a fun car (or even ship my own over) and just drive around the entire country.
At first, it was because of anime but now it’s more of living life. Experiencing new things. Changing up the old routine for something new.
> What made you learn Japanese
Got a job in Japan from college placements.
> What keeps you going
The job. And survival in Tokyo in general.
>What made you want to learn Japanese?
I’m a huge fan of gaming history (obscure and retro stuff in particular), and there’s a lot of areas in Japanese gaming history that remain largely untranslated and undocumented. I’ve been contemplating it for a couple years at this point, but Action Button’s [video on Tokimeki Memorial](https://youtu.be/xb-DtICmPTY) finally inspired me enough to give it a proper try.
>What keeps you going
It’s a challenging and rewarding language that reminds me of just how much fun and sense of accomplishment I had when I just started learning English from scratch (also not my native language). It’s also a perfect excuse to waste less time on social networks and actually do something productive with my life =)
>What made you want to learn Japanese?
Kiryu Chan!
>What keeps you going?
Kiryu Chan!!!!
A couple reasons
1. I started when I had just finished my gcse exams (in the UK when you finish these exams you leave school early) so I wanted to find something to occupy the extra time
2. An interest in language. I always had a fascination with etymologies (the origins of a word), but with Japanese the etymology is also part of the Kanji character itself which makes it very much fascinating
3. Video games. The main one I want to play is Yo kai watch 4, some of my friends also recommended yakuza and persona. Once I’m at a high enough level I’ll also probably play through the 逆転裁判 (ace attorney) series in Japanese since that’s one of my favourite franchises
What keeps me going is easily achievable goals. I started using Anki every day with a deck of the most common 6000 words, at 15-20 cards per day. Everything else I leave as optional, since if I have to “force myself” to do stuff then it isn’t as fun anymore, but doing Anki every day helps me retain a good level of consistency, and every time I do some immersion I understand more and more. My weak point is grammar but I’ve also come across some youtubers that seem very reputable in this area, so they’re my next port of call
> What made you want to learn Japanese?
the culture, games and music mostly (the idea of being able to watch an anime without subs also sounds funny to me)
> What keeps you going?
idk if this sounds a bit silly but im a huge fan of japanese music mainly Ado and vocaloid and my dream would be to be able to listen to their music and fully understand what is being sung, a way more ambitious dream would be to move to japan alltogether, after visiting it once during a trip through asia i fell in love with the country and it’s culture
edit: not having to go through the efforts of finding translations or playing games with japanese voices are also big motivators
> What made you want to learn Japanese?
Anime, Manga, Light Novel all in Raw. And FGO
> What keeps you going?
I have technically stopped it now to have enough time to concentrate on University (My last year) and internship. I will come back to it as soon as 2024 starts.
I thought the writing system looked cool.
Turns out the writing system *is* super cool but also immensely frustrating. What keeps me going is that the grammar is really interesting.
Also I want to be 日本語上手’d next time I go to Japan.
Right now? Nothing keeps me going. I’m in a big slump and haven’t touched it in a few weeks unfortunately.
So if anyone has got any tips for me
Other than my Japanese wife and friends? Momento Mori.
I’m going to die soon, in a flash in fact. I’m going to spend my brief existence doing what I want to do and nothing and no one is going to stop me.
In the country I live in, having a JLPT cert guarantees you a job that is x5 of the minimum salary here or more than that. So it’s gonna be a life changing income for me
>What made you want to learn Japanese?
Tsukihime R
>What keeps you going
Tsukihime R pt. 2
damn you nasu…
I want to be able to get through counter/restaurant service without embarrassing myself when I eventually visit!
Since young I had a great interest in Japanese culture. My decisive point was a inadequate fan translation of Haikyuu. Here in Brazil Haikyuu wasn’t published til mid 2021, so when the manga was running our only option was fan translation. When this specific part of the anime was launched, a very large part of the fans was demand that the subtitles was the same and this made me realize “If the translations are not so reliable, why not I learn myself and read straight from the source?’.
Learning Japanese is actually fun, is there a long road to walk, but whenever I can read something more than the last time it’s so gratifying. And I’m aspiring to be a translator in the future too but this is a proto idea yet.
One day I randomly wondered how people can read a different script like Japanese (esp Kanji) so I ordered a book of Amazon and started learning. It was pretty random but it was a great decision!
I live in Burma. I used to go to language university here back in 2016 and took japanese as a major. Then, proceeded to dropout and didnt even finish the first sem because i wasnt interested. 2020 covid 2021 coup happened. I picked up Japanese again around 2022 april. Am i interested in now. Still no. Im just studying and keep going forward now just because theres no nore future for me in this country. So,i have get out of here asap. I intented to go to japan this oct intake but i dont have passport yet. So, probably next jan. One more funny thing. There’s 1 family who used to live together with us when i was like 3 4 years old. They have 1 daughter who is like 6 7 yrs older than me. Shes been in japan since like i was 12 13(turning 23 this august). She came back to my country in 2020 as a visit. She said shes going to be awarded Ph.d in next 3 months and authorities there said she could take one student together with her like u dont have to wait for COE. U get instant pass. She said she would take me together with her because shes still thinking that im still at university lol. Thats the one and only time where i have ever felt regreted in my entire life. Yes, tl:dr. The reason im learning Japanese rn is to get out this country asap.
I wanted to read Haruki Murakami’s novels in Japanese. Reached that goal a while ago but it is bittersweet as I don’t enjoy his novels as much anymore.
I continue studying because now I want to live there:)
In the early 00’s, I came across video clips of Sailor Moon in Japanese. I’ve been a huge fan since I was a kid, so it fascinated me. It slowly grew from there, learning about the culture, the history, the language. It’s the only language that’s clicked with me, so I try to keep up with it, even if I backslide on occasion
>why
to read
>what keeps me going
to read more stuff
Me and my family are moving to Misawa at the end of the year.
> What made you want to learn Japanese?
Had an interest in Yu Yu Hakusho bordering on the autistic.
> What keeps you going?
Developed an interest in the Japanese language bordering on the autistic.
High school sucked. I hated all my classes/teachers were all jackasses except my Spanish teacher, then my Spanish teacher left and while I was recommended to go to almost native speaker level I kinda just cheesed my way through.
I decided I’d just give up on learning Spanish completely because nothing was sticking. I couldn’t even hold a conversation to save myself. Then I found out my local community college was allowing dual enrollment where we can enroll part time at community college and be at high school. They offered Japanese 101 and I signed up. Life fuckin changing. I was already into Japanese punk and leisurely watched anime and shows in Japanese and some of the vocab/kanji stuck.
It costed almost half of my schedule at my HS to be cut (standard 7 classes, down to 4). Mom wasn’t happy at first I closed to sacrifice 3 classes to study a language that wasn’t applicable in my area where I live.
My professor at that time was very supported and since it was a small class, it got to the point everyone and her were really tight knit. I call my classmates from there あに or あね. When we finally got to the final oral presentation. I was nervous but I did a somewhat alright job. She told me I really had a good shot at becoming fluent one day and pushed me to take the JLPT. I said I would when I get to uni. I moved on to do 102 with another pretty good teacher.
My schedule then changed a bit because I finished a requirement for HS graduation which put my schedule down to 3 classes, so I need to do a 4th one and replace the finished class. I did teaching assistant for AP level japanese. Yes, it was weird for a beginner in Japanese to being assisting a class that is way more complex but even the teacher I’m assisting was very helpful and encouraging. She helps me with Japanese homework for 102 and I always remember the small “yays!” She gave me when I finally read a kanji I never even studied in class or understood what she said. It’s like she’s seeing a toddler learning to walk kind of thing.
And as you can tell what pushes me to keep doing Japanese is that support I constantly get. I’ve always been the honors kid at school which when I do well no one really cares-it’s expected. But Japanese had kept me on my toes and even if my family can’t understand why I chose the language, it’s cause the people who taught me the language showed me support that I’ve rarely gotten these days
90% of my music taste is music with Japanese lyrics, so I figured it’d be cool to know what the fuck they’re saying.
Also, a series of novels I really like has a sequel which is likely never going to get translated to English, so that too
Dad was from Japan, I’m half Japanese. I actually don’t care for anime, never got into it. But I still get called a weeb all the time. I just love the culture and everything as a whole. Currently trying to get in the food truck business, going to be doing Japanese street food. Knowing the language has been really helpful.
I want to go to Japan someday! I took a year of Japanese in college, but it’s been a while since I graduated and I feel I’m stuck here. Watching anime and listening to music keeps me going. I’m holding onto that dream of going before I die. It’s very expensive though.
Might be like so many others but I was really into animes, mangas and the Japanese culture always fascinated me (still today). Somehow even if I can’t speak the language properly yet, it feels familiar. I also really wanted to learn a language very different from my own (French) or English to challenge myself.
what made me want to learn? I’m a degenerate anime weeb.
what makes me keep going? I finally can understand my anime.
At first? It got me out of gym class. My junior high school added it at the last minute, after class schedules were set, and the only time slot that worked was at the same time as gym. They just decided to let anyone who signed up for the Japanese class out of the gym requirement. I was already interested in languages, and we weren’t allowed to start until 8th grade, when we had to choose German, French, or Spanish. Japanese sounded much more fun, but a free pass to skip gym class? SIGN ME UP!
Then I fell in love with the language and culture, but it all started with my hatred of forced athletics.
I just like watching anime.
I just love the language. I love how it sounds and how artfully it is written, and I like exercising my mind and knowledge with it. I also want to be able to research deeper about the Japanese shows and games I love, and understand the original humor better.
I started learning because I wanted something to learn, and I kept listening to J-pop so I thought it would make a good review.
I keep going because I found out that it significantly helps my neurological disorder.
During an episode, it stops it so long as I keep speaking in Japanese.
Really don’t want to run out of things to say!
I don’t understand exactly why it helps.
My ex girlfriend.
Nothing keeps me going. 🙁
Babymetal lol
no fucking idea why I started
what keeps me going is knowing that 90% of you guys will fail