i just started learning japanese, but when i started telling people, i was told that there are more useful languages, like spanish or mandarin. i thought that since japan has a pretty prominent reputation and fascination in the west, it could be quite useful. not to mention i just like the language and want to commit to it.
i know i should continue if i want to, but i want some advice from people who have been learning for quite a while.
25 comments
If you are in America, spanish is far more useful. I already speak spanish 😉
But if you like it, learn it.
Well, do you want to work with Japan? then yes.
If not… then probably not. obviously.
Are you looking to speak another language for personal satisfaction? Or to increase your marketability using another language?
Japanese isn’t very useful outside of Japan. There’s not many Japanese emigrants, so there’s no real ethnic enclaves with a high percentage of Japanese speakers. Many businesses will also communicate with people outside of Japan in English. With that being said, it’s not very “economical” to study Japanese because of its limited usage outside of Japan, and the *numerous* hours you have to put in to learn to read.
On the other hand, I find it extremely satisfying studying the language. I’ve learned so much about Japan and East Asia in general just from studying Japanese. Being able to read 漢字 is also a great plus. It’s a very culturally-loaded language so I learn more about it every time I study, and is a great way to keep an open mind. I definitely study mainly out of personal satisfaction.
If you like the language, just do it.
What’s the harm? When I tell people they have made the same remarks- but they don’t speak any foreign languages themselves.
Obviously Spanish/Mandarin would be the most beneficial; but I think an enjoyment of the language is one of the most important things when considering time to learn and willingness to learn.
A language you don’t enjoy and thus won’t employ is less useful than a language you love.
The biggest value in learning a language is mental plasticity, followed by accessing new media and culture. I wouldn’t worry about utility, but instead seek joy.
Do you like the language? Do you enjoy learning it? If you do, don’t mind what other people say. Any language is useful for you, no matter what you do with it. Other languages give you new perspectives about everything. Maybe you won’t like a “useful” language.
If you want to learn a language just for some specific purpose (like getting a job or living in the country where it’s spoken), in that case you probably should choose that language.
I mean it depends on your definition of usefulness. Japanese can absolutely help you get new social connections, for example.
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Useful?
If you spend 5000 hours on something like a job skill, it will be more beneficial than 5000 hours learning Japanese.
Don’t let people comments demotivate you, you do you and learn whatever you want.
Spanish may be more useful but if it’s something you don’t want to learn then you are going to force yourself to do something you don’t like. Keep in mind that you have to study whatever you like no matter how useful the language is. That’s my opinion.
Advice on its usefulness? If you’re into Japanese media (games, anime, manga, TV dramas, etc.), but also into Japanese history and culture, it’s useful. Otherwise, that depends whether you want to work and live in Japan or not :P.
>how useful is learning japanese?
About as useful as studying the culinary arts: it can lead to establishing new friendships and connections, and it makes for an interesting conversation piece, but it will be of limited use in the workplace outside the field.
Hell, you can even write a thesis on the optimal amount of times to baste a turkey roast and still suck at cooking one.
アニメ. That’s why I’m learning. I love watching anime and love the culture. Visited Japan once for 3 weeks and fell in love.
translation is the only thing that you can take advantage of it. Also japanese companies pay well if you study something related to videogames and its technologies.
Aside of that, japanese is one of the kings of cultural media so you’ll understand anime, videogames, books etc.
Don’t pay attention to people around you, you’re already doing more than they’re doing which is learning a second language :)!
これにして諦めないで頑張って！(>.<)y-~
Depending on how esoteric your interests are in Japanese traditional and popular culture, there will come a point where deep dives necessarily require Japanese proficiency since said dives in English won’t be all that deep.
If one is interested in learning Japanese then it becomes very useful for not not knowing Japanese.
Edit: But seriously, I’ve heard the same garbage comments, my mom basically called me a fucking weeb (and I’m 30) whereas some other friends told me to learn Spanish. The big reveal here is that I’m not learning the language to satisfy them, but to satisfy myself.
Spanish would be more useful in United States due to the higher amount of Spanish language people comping to us. But we do a lot of trading with Japanese just not as much visitors throughout the United States
My granddad asked me the same thing when I said I was learning Japanese: “Why not Chinese? More people speak that!”
The thing is, there’s no objective ‘usefulness’ to any language. If you’re interested in Hungary and want to travel there, Hungarian is a useful language
It’s true that more people speak Spanish or Mandarin than Japanese, but it depends to what extent those languages and the countries they’re spoken in interest you!
Japanese is only spoken natively in Japan, but the population is huge and its media influence around the world is also huge! If you’re interested in it, that’s the only reason you need to learn it!
So what if the language you want to learn isn’t useful according to someone else? It’s useful to you because it makes you happy.
I mean that depends on what your goal is. Are you learning the language for your friends or for yourself?
I live in Germany, so French, Spanish or Italian would be way more “useful” if I ever plan to live or work in these countries. These countries are way closer then Japan.
However I always liked japanese media. Grew up with Anime, reading Mangas and more recently got into JRPGs and watching Vtuber. For me it’s more of a Hobbys to get more from the media I enjoy. I also have currently zero plans to ever live in Japan so talking (output) isn’t really that important for me (same with english, I suck at actually talking in english to other people)
I got the same spheal when choosing a language in high school. I learned spanish; never used it later. The number of speakers is a nearly useless statistic.
Completely useless, I’ll be honest. Unless you come from a third world country where ties with Japan are strong (ie Japan uses your local cheap qualified J-speaking labor, I’m talking here about countries like Vietnam, Thailand, India) or countries with close proximity to Japan (Korea, Taiwan) your Japanese will be as useful as a a butthole on an elbow. Fun, but useless.
It doesn’t really matter how “useful” it is in general, but for you personally.
I’ve been learning Japanese for quite a while now and I think it’s a great language to learn if you’re just starting out on your language learning journey. It’s much more fun to learn since you have anime, light novels, and dramas. There’s also tons of material to ease you into it that will help you with skills that will transfer to learning languages after. I think if you’re going to learn any language you just need to really enjoy doing it and immerse yourself in it as much as possible. I listed below some resources to help you get started. Hope that helps and best of luck to you!
* Audio Books: Learn Japanese with Paul Noble (similar but quicker to pick up than Pimsleur if you want to just start speaking and get some simple grammar)
* Books: 80/20 Japanese quickly gets you the basics of grammar and sentence structures
* Apps: Anki and Memrise (for time spaced repetition vocabulary)
* Youtube: Matt vs Japan (helps understand pitch accents) and JapanesePod101
* There’s also a ton of support out there on discord with chatting or even speaking.
Most people in this sub learn Japanese because of anime, and it’s not a silly reason at all. If you do like the japanese culture, media, anime, manga, why not learn the language? In this regard, personally, Japanese outshines Chinese by a large margin. Every video game, anime, etc they do has a better japanese equivalent. People keep saying Chinese is an useful language cuz China is a growing superpower and whatnot, but let me tell you, don’t learn a language because it’s useful, that won’t motivate you in the long run, trust me. Learn a language because you find it interesting. I’m biased towards Japanese so take this with a grain of salt. That said, I find ching chong utterly ugly, you speak in strictly defined tones, keeping you away from emotion nuances in the speech. In japanese you have so much more freedom to express yourself in the way you like, word order, intonation, honorifics and an easy straight-forward pronounciation. Reject ching chong, embrace 日本語.