Hey I’m a highschool student graduating in 2 weeks, and going to college in late August. I’m committed as a food marketing major, and was wondering if I should take Japanese. I’ve heard it’s really hard and nothing like English, but I’m interested in it and think it would be cool to learn. I like anime and all that but heard that doesn’t really matter.
So, do you think it’s a good idea or should I switch and take something else?
38 comments
Japanese as a major is realistically speaking one of the worst majors you can pick. As a minor? Go for it.
>I’ve heard it’s really hard and nothing like English
Correct. If your only language is English then Japanese is one of the most difficult languages to learn on the planet.
The U.S. Foreign Services classifies it as a Category IV ~~Kaiju~~ Super Hard Language (literally their description): https://www.state.gov/foreign-language-training/.
>if I should take Japanese
Unless you want to move to Japan one day, there is very little practical reason to learn Japanese, especially considering the abovementioned difficulty. There are far more *useful* languages to learn, from Spanish to Chinese. But if you want to learn it as a hobby, then sure, go ahead.
However in my experience most people who started learning because of anime gave up very quickly after encountering some basic Kanji and simple grammar concepts like te-form.
On a side note… if you are studying *food* marketing as a major, you *have* to come and visit Japan. It’s complete insanity here lol.
it won’t be practical or useful unless you go into an industry or company that’s related to or in japan
but if you’re just plain interested and want to take it on the side or as a minor, then go for it
yes it’s incredibly different than english
This summer, google Tae Kim and try to follow along
If you are able to blast it and be happy, then perhaps taking Japanese as a supplementary course might be cool
When I say ‘blast’, I mean you read through it and still come back the next day with enthusiasm
My advice as a human is for you to make your studies focused on food
Marketing to make sure you have your goals prioritized but I don’t discourage challenging yourself within reason
Liking anime matters, it’s my whole motivation for learning 😅 You’ll probably meet some more anime and manga fans if you take japanese, so that might be fun.
Something like psychology or creative writing would probably get you further, careerwise. But I think it’s totally valid to just pick something you enjoy as a minor. I enjoy learning japanese a lot.
From my experience, you should not take any college courses in the Japanese language, at least if you’re not physically in Japan itself.
If you’re in the US, you can expect your classmates to all be socially stunted children who might not even observe current social standards in personal hygiene. Interaction with them will not help you learn the language.
If you earnestly want to learn the Japanese language, do it yourself.
If you’re fine with spending an hour every day outside of school on studying (you can also just watch anime with Japanese subtitles and use a dictionary), then go for it. Otherwise you will be overwhelmed and probably quit.
I started learning Japanese just out of pure interest (after having tried 3 languages before), but I found that I was enjoying it quite a lot and so far consider it one of the best decisions I’ve made. In terms of true practicality, it’s unlikely it’ll be all that useful to you or me, but I’d say definitely give it a try if you’re interested. I consider it a fun and fulfilling hobby and it’s certainly cool being able to read native material for example.
Then again, if you’re just interested in learning _a_ language, then perhaps give something else a try, something you could find more useful. Or try Japanese, up to you 🙂
But my only piece of advice is that if you don’t enjoy learning whatever language you pick, don’t bother continuing, you won’t get very far. Speaking from experience lol.
I see some people saying that there are other more useful languages to learn for career paths, and that is true to an extent. Though if you want to learn for the sake of learning and if you think you can stick to it, then go ahead.
I mean, i took 4 semesters of beginning and intermediate Japanese in college, then later did an advanced class at university. My major was Biology and Biotech. I learned the language knowing it wouldn’t exactly help my career plans, but I really wanted to learn. It’s helped me navigate sites in Japanese and read books and manga, too. Not useful in professional settings, but I still enjoy it.
Interestingly, I almost didn’t learn Japanese in college; i was planning on learning Portuguese since I already knew Spanish since childhood and wanted to learn other Romance languages*, but I missed the registration for that class and picked Japanese instead.
*except French. A high school teacher ruined that language for me ðŸ˜
When it comes to any language major, its usefulness for any career is debatable. In our times and society, it’s often overlooked how useful and important foreign languages in business are because well, English exists as a business language worldwide. If you plan on moving to Japan and working there, being fluent and having graduated in Japanese is a huge bonus to land better paying jobs outside conbinis and teaching English and to live a better life there in general.
_However_, as a language nerd myself, I personally feel like knowing more than one or two
languages is amazing regardless the language’s usefulness in your daily life or its popularity. You can never know and learn _too much_. So, as a minor or learning as a hobby, I can only support the idea.
On a second _however_, however, the language you’re learning needs to be interesting and intruiging for you. Acquiring and maintaining a second or third or fourth language, without any interest in the culture as well, is gonna suck. Like, I absolutely hate maths and physics. No interest whatsoever. If you’d make me spend hours learning it, immersing in it, using it — I’d die of boredom.
Many learn Japanese out of classic otaku reasons and that’s perfectly fine. Anime and manga are a huge part of Japanese daily life as well and the easiest way to immerse in the language outside of Japan. Some learn because they enjoy Japanese culture and want to live there, others have completely different reasons and goals; but a goal is super important.
Is it hard? Well, the start can be intimidating. Once you get the stone rolling, it’s going to get more
manageable. There’s easier languages to learn as an English native for sure.
I love learning Japanese; but if I didn’t have any motivation pushing me on days where my discipline fails me, then I’d be in for
misery as well.
In your first course you’ll have to learn two new alphabets and a few Kanji characters, in addition to some vocab and grammar. I think it’s pretty interesting, but it might be kinda study heavy. If you’re worried about your course load at all, I’d recommend something that won’t require learning a new alphabet.
Does your curriculum require you to take language courses? If so, and Japanese seems interesting to you, then take it. I took Japanese in college, and while it was difficult, I also found it to be one of my more enjoyable classes.
You’re better of learning Japanese yourself although the class can act as a good guide. Remember, it’s what matters what you do outside of the classroom, not inside it.
Japanese isn’t really something you can just decide to “start up” because it’s cool, it’s a giant commitment that can take several years (and that’s assuming you are efficiently studying in your downtime), so you need to decide if it’s worth the commitment for you. If not and you end up still taking the course, you could end up wasting a bunch of time just to quit later. If you have the drive to continually keep going even when the “path” seems unclear, vague, or endless, then you don’t need any motivation – just the will to carry on each chance you get. If you have that and the commitment no matter how long it takes you will reach fluency.
Whatever foreign language interests you most is the best to take- but if you haven’t learned one before, set aside extra time to ‘learn how to learn’ and make/join study groups
It seems like you are interested in Japanese so I don’t see why you wouldn’t try it out.
Beginning courses are fairly easy to understand and if you feel like it’s not your cup of tea you can always just stop.
Also personally, I think it’s not really a question which you should ask Reddit. I see a lot of discouraging comments already and this just makes me mad.
Depending on the university, they usually have minimum credit amounts that you need in order to graduate. Those are often more than the credits offered by just the required courses, so you usually end up having spare credits you need to get by taking whatever classes you want (unless you’re double majoring or something like that, in which case you don’t have as many leftover credits to play around with).
So if that’s the case at your school, there’s really no harm in taking a Japanese course just to see if it’s for you. Maybe you’ll love it and want to continue (personally, I am minoring in it), or maybe you’ll hate it and decide not to do another class. Either way, you tried and got to explore the language!
If you’re going off of vibes, sure.
If you want something more practical for your career, pick a language popular in your country. If you’re in the USA, Spanish is a good one. French or Italian could be good if you want to work more in high end food marketing.
As someone who got a degree in Japanese and makes a good living.
Dont pay a college for it.
You are much better off using the resources here and self teaching.
Taking Japanese at a non-language college not in Japan will just teach you bad studying habits.
I watched hundreds of Japanese hopeful college students try to treat it like a “college course” for the grades that will allow them access to the next class in the curriculum. Only to stop taking Japanese beyond genki 2, because that is where the hand holding stops.
The bad thing about this is that it teaches a cram and forget style of language learning.
Language needs you to be confident in what you have learned, through repetition,use, and exposure, in order to move forward.
Learning to pass a class is the worst decision most people make.
Out of hundreds I met along the way to a degree only a dozen were in the graduating class. Only a third were n2 or n1. Half of those could hold a decent conversation.
Except for the beast of a super street smart n3 who had absolute mastery of what he ‘did’ know and tons of conversation/listening practice from playing Japanese games with zero english communities. But he was an anomoly and passionate in his own way.
People seem to think you’re considering *majoring* in Japanese but I don’t think that’s the case. You’re just asking if you should take Japanese classes, right?
If you need to do a language requirement and Japanese is the language you’re interested in, then go for it. Enjoyment is the best motivation that makes people do well in classes.
Just know that language skill is from immersion and the classes move decently fast. The way to succeed in language classes is to study often in my opinion
Take it but definitely don’t major in it as others have said.
Stop asking people to make decisions for you..
Only learn it if you’re gonna use it. And if you’re not planning on living in Japan you can just study it casually and pick stuff up by osmosis through anime/streamers/games/whatever rather than taking graded courses you’re paying tuition for.
Try learning Spanish first. Spend 1 hour per day for 3 months and see how far you’ve gotten. If you want to take on Japanese, that will have to be 4-5 hours per day to make the same progress.
if you want to take it for fun and/or **have too much free time** go for it
if you want to “brag” with it, or hope you can leverage a advantage for your job later, I would advise you not to take japanese (or any rare spoken language really)
the problem is the invest/return scale
as a young high schooler about to go into college life and adulthood, you have a lot of things to juggle. and a lot of them very important. it is highly likely that even if you were to achieve a high level of any not really relevant language, you would be hard pressed to find an advantage in that. a food marketing major might not be using a lot japanese or swedish in most of the jobs. and even “what if I will move to x” is really hard with japanese because, its unlikely and hard this will work out.
now if your determination is enough to become the next ad genious in the japanese food marketing place, then you will be bound for japan, and will learn the langauge, and be sponsored to do so living there, down the line, no matter what I say.
but in reality, you probably will not end up in japan or sweden. probably also not in china, which would make more sense to learn maybe?
anyway I am digressing. its less about which country to live in is best or which job you will have or even how hard the langauge is. all languages are somewhat hard.
and they all require a long ass time and commitment. and while its said that everybody should learn a second langauge, and it keeps the mind fresh and the brain in training. they did not neccesariyl mean while you are actively studying a much more useful course which will be important for your future.
concentrate on whats important first. if you happen to breeze through everything and get bored, you still can pick up japanese. if you have a new daily routing in your life and you find you have time for another subject, sure, pick up another language. if you end up living in japan you can still study it.
of course you could also start learning it before you make the decision and see whats it all about. but that wont change anything ive said.
but, tldr, only consider learning a language for leisure when you know you can invest the time it takes, which is probably not when you fresh start out in college
If very hard and nothing like english are turn offs for you, then yes, don’t take it. It takes a lot of commitment and possibly a year+ with little to show for it. I love the challenge, but I could see it being discouraging to many others who would maybe benefit from just taking Spanish or another similar language.
If money is no object to you and you never need to work a day in your life, sure. If you actually want to get a career in something, it’s the stupidest thing you can do. You will not be treated like a god if you’re a foreigner that can speak elementary school Japanese in japan.
If you want to tie it with food marketing, sure, but why Japanese specifically?
If you want an easy language, learn Mandarin. Arguably a better market as well, or at least a bigger one.
I’m assuming you are taking about Japanese classes in college?
I personally had bad experiences taking it in college with the whole textbook thing.
I feel you’d be better off learning it on your own using MaruMori.io, WaniKani, Crystal Hunters, and Nihongo Pro.
If you want to switch majors I’d suggest electrical engineering or computer science. Japanese as a minor makes sense if you want to just try it out for a few semesters.
Your better offer just self studying as a hobby. Buy Bunpro for 3-6 months, see how you like learning grammar at a reasonable price first
I’m late but yeah I’d recommend it, I just graduated high school a week ago and still plan to study throughout college.
From your post, it sounds like your major is marketing, and are thinking of a language to round yourself out.
This is absolutely 100% what you should do with your time in University. Rounding yourself out with DEPTH in interests is up there with socializing and finishing your degree 🙂
People who build proficiency in multiple languages tend to score higher on tests for analytical thinking and problem solving. Japanese will definitely change how you think and stay with you the rest of your life.
Hard? Japanese is considered a language isolate (vs part of the discredited Altaic group) and is the hardest Category 4 language for English speakers. Because of the need for brute force, ground zero learning, the classes go slower than European language classes.
The language and culture are very intertwined and are very unique. It’s difficult to describe; it is as if you gave one group of people the task of inventing a human language from scratch. It’s not just the mechanics (vocab, grammar, writing and idioms), but which feelings the speakers express, what thoughts they prioritize, where they fit in the world and more. So much is lost in translation. You almost have to develop a second personality to have a meaningful conversation.
I say go for it. If not a minor, even 2 years will give you most of the grammar and a solid base vocab.
You can IM me if you have further questions.
Do it, do it!
That’s EXACTLY how I learned my Japanese.
Zero regrets. So much fun. Great memories to be made. Study and then go stay abroad even it’s just a study abroad for a couple months. I’m sure you’ll have a blast.
I don’t know your situation but yeah I think you should. I don’t regret it because for me I have a use for my knowledge (indulging in my hobbies) if it fits your lifestyle then do it.
I signed up for Japanese I when I was 18 in college heading into my Sophomore year. Due to conflicts with required courses for my major, I had to drop it and never pursued it again. Fast forward 18 years later (2 years ago, now) and my wife says “You always wanted to study Japanese… why don’t you use the tuition reimbursement at your job and take the classes online at the community college?” I’ve finished all those courses and I’ve been doing independent study ever since.
If I knew then what I knew now, I’m still not sure I would fight to take it… Japanese is hard for native English speakers to learn! I couldn’t imagine putting the proper effort into it while taking my classes for my major (Comp Sci). That said, if I started 20 years ago, I’d be fluent now… so there are tradeoffs. I would recommend taking it after you graduate when you can do it as a hobby after work, unless you have a desire to use it professionally somehow. I’d definitely recommend studying it at some point and if you think that right now when you’re a full-time student is the only time you’ll ever have the chance, then try it out.
Are you in the USA?
**If you are in the USA, take Spanish.** It is an actual job skill in the USA. Also, the learning curve for Spanish is much more gentle than the Japanese learning curve, which is very, very steep. What I mean is, writing a simple thank you letter (without looking at google translate or a written model) in Spanish is something you can do in the first semester. In Japanese, you will likely require a year. At least twice as long for the same communicative ability.
I am saying this as an American person who has over 30 years of experience with Japanese.
Also, besides the fact that you can easily find places to use Spanish in your hometown, you can literally drive a car to an entire continent full of Spanish speakers. You don’t have to take a plane.
After you’ve flown a 16-hour flight across the ocean ten times, it stops being exciting and just sucks. The flight is just really long.
If it’s interesting to you, try it out! Yes, it’s difficult and very different from English, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to learn.
You might want to investigate if another language would support your chosen major better, but who knows where your future will lead anyway!
I took Japanese on a whim in college and ended up shifting my whole future basically because of that. Unusual, but it’s worked for me.
Don’t study Japanese as major because you like anime.
There is (presumably) no Japanese speakers in your area right? So why make your uni days harder for nothing?