Just a funny thing I’ve discovered – whenever I get something that comes with an instruction manual, or I go into the language options for a game or some electronics I have, I always think: “Huh… is there a Japanese option?”
I even have a small box where I collect packaging and instruction manuals and the like from Japanese stationary and stuff, just so I can use it as reading practice – and I almost never read that stuff in English.
It’s like, it almost doesn’t matter as much what the contents are, I feel like some kind of archeologist, trying to figure out what these strange glyphs mean and what kind of message they’re trying to convey to me. 😅
17 comments
Yes. That’s why I stopped playing all my games in English.Anything that has to be read, it must be done in Japanese for me.
Much more fun than English and since a lot of the stuff I play was originally written in Japanese, the dialogue ends up being so much more interesting
Like with how the green robot things in Tears of the Kingdom use keigo with you when they’re assiting you etc.
Ah, the honeymoon period!
Someday you may be trying to deal with some government paperwork in Japanese and you won’t hesitate to look for the English version.
I definitely feel like Japanese is a lot more fun to read because there’s so much I don’t know, but when what I’m reading turns into a boring slog, then I begin to miss the ability to skim through things in English.
Yes/no, but that’s mostly because I’m comfortable reading it.
Now I tend to favour the source language where possible. As they say, ‘poetry is that which is lost in translation’; Shakespeare is done no favours by being read in a language that cannot utilise iambic pentameter.
On the other hand, I find English ‘haiku’ (actually senryu) to be missing the point. So yes, reading some stuff in Japanese is just more interesting sometimes. And I quite like how kanji makes quickly analysing texts for their meaning somewhat easier.
TL;DR: I wouldn’t say that Japanese is just ‘more interesting to read’ as a rule, but I do agree there are aspects and situations where it is more interesting.
No, because my life is not devoid of interesting things. So, I don’t need to feel interesting by reading mundane things in a different language.
英語でも興味深いことは山ほどあるんだから。
Its so much fun to read it and find New words or gramma point by yourself idk
Gives me a Dopamin kick everytime and i feel really hyped and motivated to improve even more
Let me get a bit specific:
At first, simply finding you can comprehend Japanese is an excellent feeling, especially if you’ve followed news or any kind of articles in Japanese but needed a translation in the end.
But once you’ve gotten more practice and can comprehend a good amount… It becomes like any writing: if you find the subject it’s talking about interesting, then reading it in Japanese is interesting. Please note of course, that this is only if you can understand it- if you find something still has lots of words you don’t understand, it’s still boring (unless you like to look up tons of words- which is not my cup of tea). And continuing on that- even if you can comprehend something in Japanese, if it’s something boring… It’s still boring, just in Japanese.
It’s a somewhat documented phenomenon that, assuming they can understand it, language learners automatically like content more if it’s in the language they’re learning, because they’re conflating actual interest in the subject matter with the elation caused by seeing the work they put into learning bear fruit. So you’re not alone. 🙂
Reading is still hard work for me. How far in to your Kanji studies did you get before you started feeling this way?
Yes. For me one of the best things that one can learn is how to see something that seemed like “symbols impossible to understand” now as words.
The more I learn the more my brain recognizes kanjis not as strange symbols but “words” with many uses.
Yeah.
I found my head likes the extra effort and I think a foreign language has less emotional valence, so it feels quieter in a good way.
The slight fuzz I get keeps me a bit more interested and prevents me from speed reading, or just straight skipping bits. I also find it hard to watch sped up videos in Japanese (with my current level at least).
But the things you mentioned are kinda difficult for me. A novel or a podcast have some context, the kanji help narrowing it down if you don’t know the word (but know the kanji), so it’s cool. I was surprised to find out I could read and enjoy it, since my level isn’t that great, so I’d recommend to everyone.
But as the other troll user commented, menus and instruction manuals are not exactly a fun read, in any language.
probably everyone here
I’m learning Japanese but my kanji sucks, maybe when I don’t have to look up kanji ever 2 characters I will enjoy reading it more
Oh that’s an interesting way to put it. I just normalized reading japanese that it’s like reading latin alphabet by now. But I remember when I still struggled reading kanji or get used to sight-read kana and katakana. It definetly felt like solving a puzzle
This is just the meme
Reading: I sleep
Reading in Japanese: soyface
Honestly no, I find it to be quite boring. I don’t really have time to read a lot of fun media these days so the stuff I read is mostly related to my sons nursery school etc. not particularly interesting!
No, because I read it more slowly than languages I do read in.
It just so happens that a great deal of fiction I enjoy is either only in Japanese, or, when it be translated, the translation misses many things because the Japanese-to-English translation culture is awful.
I would not be learning Japanese if everything were translated, and translated to English opposed to “manga English”.