How many of y’all are learning Japanese not for the sake of anime? Whenever anyone asks why I’m learning it’s always like ‘oh you must love anime’ etc. and I really don’t. I just wondered how many others are in this boat!
it doesnt matter. i started because of anime/manga but now i rarely consume that type of content. the idea that japan = anime feels just absurd at this point.
but anyway, maybe you should focus of what you ARE interested in rather than what you arent interested in.
I like manga but I do not like to watch anime or much tv at all.
For a goal, I think at the minimum it is good for people to have a practical reason to learn Japanese… because the years of grinding should pay off to keep the motivation going. I can’t imagine spending so much time on something with no end result except ordering at a restaurant in Japan 5 years and thousands of hours later.
Vast majority of content I consume is Japanese. Music, YouTube, drama, movies~ plus I want to interact with music fans more on social media and when I visit.
I don’t help myself considering I have two manga tattoos but they’re the only series I like, other than that I don’t care 😂
In this boat. But started enjoying anime later.
While I do like anime, I originally studied Japanese for academic reasons. I continued because I married a Japanese girl and want to be able to talk with her family.
I am also in this boat. I follow maybe one show every two years or so but American anime fandom and how that’s colored “Japanese Cultural Appreciation” is loathsome to me as a Japanese-American. I’m learning so I can emigrate to rejoin my mom’s family and reconnect with them as my grandparents are getting older and need more help at home + housing crisis in Japan is inverse to our own here in Atlanta.
i feel that. while i do love anime and manga (which does help with my studies) i got to learning japanese because i love the language. after trying out a variety of different ones (like korean, chinese, Thai, Spanish, etc.) i just found everything about it, from the way it sounds, its history, the way its written and its general structure to be extremely fascinating
I’m not an anime fan, just like the language, the culture, and the challenge.
I like anime a lot.
But rather quickly I fell in love with the language itself. I just really like how it sounds and the Kanji.
anime is just like any other medium. i like some, depending on the story.
it’s what introduced me to japanese, and it’s how i decided i enjoyed the language’s “musicality” and that i would like to learn it, but if i’m going to consume media in japanese, it’s probably going to be video games
For me it started out as learning some key phrases for an upcoming vacation.
6 years later, I’m learning because I live in Japan.
Honestly it starts with anime/manga but is eventually taken over by the kick you get while learning a new language
I can’t exactly say that if I didn’t get into anime that I would still have started learning Japanese, and I certainly do still enjoy anime and manga, but I’m not learning the language for the sole reason of watching anime without subtitles or whatever.
Side note, manga in Japanese is so much cheaper than in English so that’s really cool I think 😎
I happen to love anime, but it’s not the reason I am learning. I was already able to enjoy anime without knowing Japanese. But I guess it was one of the places I first heard the language and thought it sounded pretty. I am learning it because I find the sound and look of it to be beautiful, and because it is a challenging language for me as an English speaker. I feel so proud when I can read something!
I like anime and manga but i learn it cause it’s fun and easy to learn for me(my main language is close to japanese logic) plus i think,in the future there will be a opportunities(You know their birth rate is so low and their older population is high)
I work for a Japanese company.
I mostly read books in Japanese.
I don’t care about anime that much. It’s not that I dislike it, I just don’t care about it.
Swear this same question was asked 2 weeks ago
i started learning because of the architecture. My now ex ended up showing me anime like jojo, aot, and megalobox. That was a while back now but everytime i tell someone that im learning japanese its always that as well lol
Honestly, started thinking about learning the language 3 years after getting into anime, but not even because I wanted to watch with no subtitles, but because I just really like how the language sounds.
AND I get the bonus of not needing subtitles, even if I don’t watch much anymore. Also plan to translate some stuff that doesn’t have any translations. Like latter parts of Nekojiru Udon manga. I want everyone to enjoy this thing.
I also don’t watch any anime … but I’m a middle aged Asian woman, so no one assumes that’s the reason I’m learning Japanese 😀 It does make it a bit difficult to find content for listening comprehension, especially given that jdramas are not nearly as popular and easy to find as kdramas or cdramas
I like anime but thats not my reason for it I just think the country is interesting and I wanna see what it’s like because there’s nothing quite like experiencing something firsthand
Unfortunately a lot of the useful tools and resources take advantage of things like anime jp subs.
Still very possible to learn from stuff like J-dramas but being tolerant of some anime can help with learning. You don’t have to be a mega fan. The main issue with substituting j-dramas for anime is lack of availability when compared to anime.
Still though when there’s a will there’s a way.
I just like Japanese, I’ll never remember how it started. I never actively watched / sought out anime but I’m a big TV and movie person so if I come across a good anime I’m happy to see it, but it probably happens 1 every couple of years currently. I did really like manga for 2 or 3 years — Shounen Jump was an amazing discovery in a pre cellphone and broadband internet age, where it felt amazing to be able to carry a *bunch* of great shows in your pocket (er, backpack), and later taking forever to download a chapter online via dial up was nice for me too, although even then it was only a few stories.
Big exception to the anime thing: Toonami and Adult Swim was pretty big as well around that manga time. I don’t know if I associated it with Japan.
EDIT: I don’t know how I forgot, I was obsessed with Yugioh (mostly the game) as a kid, it was practically my identity. Maybe that was a domino effect, even though I don’t remember anime itself being involved by the time I started thinking about Japanese. The first memory I have of being interested was just picking up two language books at a library, one for Japanese and one for Dutch.
It was one of many reasons but don’t really watch much anime anymore.
I mostly do it for music and games now.
I’m a big anime fan. I’ve been watching anime since I was a small child. That being said, I’m not learning Japanese because of anime. I’m learning because of Japanese music that I’ve started listening to.
It’s no different than people learning English to watch English TV and movies or understand English rap music.
I liked it when I was a teenager and occasionally watch super popular ones like Demon Slayer, but that really has no effect on my interest in the language. I grew up in an area where there was a lot of Japanese tourists as well as native speakers around and that’s what piqued my interest in learning
I learn for the sake of beautiful literature (Mishima, Murakami, Dazai, Kawabata etc.) and I’ve been training traditional samurai swordfighting called Katori Shinto Ryu
I’ve been a Budo practitioner of various flavours for most of my life, and throughout my teens I did watch some anime, but not a great lot. Japanese culture in general fascinates me and I hope to visit one day.
A few years ago I decided I wanted to try an learn some. At least the basics to see if I could get as far as passable reading comprehension (not quite there yet…). I haven’t watched an anime since the 1st season of Attack on Titan released.
I’m also not into anime, but I do receive this question a lot. I don’t judge anyone who DOES learn Japanese because they like anime, but in my opinion it’s an odd assumption on everyone else’s part. There is no other language that people assume others are learning for the sake of that country’s cartoons.
I’m learning because 1. I think it’s a beautiful language, 2. I’d like to travel to Japan someday (if I can ever afford it), and 3. I like multiple aspects of Japanese culture (some of those aspects do include Japanese media like jpop and jdrama, but not anime for me specifically).
For me it goes hand in hand, I’m learning it primarily because I’m bored and haven’t challenged myself to learn something since I left college engineering and I just genuinely enjoy learning, but also it’s because I realized if I just do a little bit everyday, I’ll be able to learn from watching anime, among other Japanese content. On the other hand, I would have never decided to start if I wasn’t exposed to Japanese with anime.
The only animes I like and have watched are 10-15+ years old. I do, however, like video games (not just japanese games tho), so that’s been most of my immersion. I study Japanese for the challenge of it, an appreciation/curiosity of Japanese culture, and as sort of a bucket list, “learn a language before you die” sort of thing.
Ahaha, I’m just the typical scum that wants to be able to watch anime and read manga in the original language
I too am in this boat, I started learning it because I played a game that consisted mostly of people from Japan. Really liked this game and wanted to make new friends from across the world, so I decided to start sometime last year, lol.
Never really liked anime or manga – nothing to do with why I became interested in Japan. Later I tried to get interested since so much native content is anime or manga, but just doesn’t do it for me. I don’t mind a Miyazaki film, but otherwise just meh. To each their own, though.
Plenty to love about Japanese culture besides anime and manga.
My son lives in Japan and I like learning new languages. I don’t care for anime. I have made some kids day when I read the katakana on their anime shirts.
I was fascinated with Marie Kondo‘s cleaning method (Before it became a Netflix series and now she is selling things that ‚spark joy‘ instead of getting rid of stuff – oh, the irony).
It’s like a learner learning English and assuming a learner wants to watch American football
My main reason was that I didn’t want to pay for translated mangas–they take a long time to translate and are more expensive than the raws, which I can get second-hand for $5 instead of $15.
im learning japanese because of a game called katamari damacy even though i procrastinate a lot
Definitely me lol. Learning Japanese for family reasons. It would be much easier if I liked anime
Otaku media is what originally drew my interests to Japan as a whole to begin with. I still watch/read it now and then, but it’s not even in my top 5 reasons as to why I’m learning.
I don’t watch anime, I started learning because my mother suggested it and then got interested in the country and culture
For me it’s Japanese music and the fact I live in Japan. It’s kinda a necessity!
44 comments
it doesnt matter. i started because of anime/manga but now i rarely consume that type of content. the idea that japan = anime feels just absurd at this point.
but anyway, maybe you should focus of what you ARE interested in rather than what you arent interested in.
I like manga but I do not like to watch anime or much tv at all.
For a goal, I think at the minimum it is good for people to have a practical reason to learn Japanese… because the years of grinding should pay off to keep the motivation going. I can’t imagine spending so much time on something with no end result except ordering at a restaurant in Japan 5 years and thousands of hours later.
Vast majority of content I consume is Japanese.
Music, YouTube, drama, movies~ plus I want to interact with music fans more on social media and when I visit.
I don’t help myself considering I have two manga tattoos but they’re the only series I like, other than that I don’t care 😂
In this boat. But started enjoying anime later.
While I do like anime, I originally studied Japanese for academic reasons. I continued because I married a Japanese girl and want to be able to talk with her family.
I am also in this boat. I follow maybe one show every two years or so but American anime fandom and how that’s colored “Japanese Cultural Appreciation” is loathsome to me as a Japanese-American. I’m learning so I can emigrate to rejoin my mom’s family and reconnect with them as my grandparents are getting older and need more help at home + housing crisis in Japan is inverse to our own here in Atlanta.
i feel that. while i do love anime and manga (which does help with my studies) i got to learning japanese because i love the language. after trying out a variety of different ones (like korean, chinese, Thai, Spanish, etc.) i just found everything about it, from the way it sounds, its history, the way its written and its general structure to be extremely fascinating
I’m not an anime fan, just like the language, the culture, and the challenge.
I like anime a lot.
But rather quickly I fell in love with the language itself. I just really like how it sounds and the Kanji.
anime is just like any other medium. i like some, depending on the story.
it’s what introduced me to japanese, and it’s how i decided i enjoyed the language’s “musicality” and that i would like to learn it, but if i’m going to consume media in japanese, it’s probably going to be video games
For me it started out as learning some key phrases for an upcoming vacation.
6 years later, I’m learning because I live in Japan.
Honestly it starts with anime/manga but is eventually taken over by the kick you get while learning a new language
I can’t exactly say that if I didn’t get into anime that I would still have started learning Japanese, and I certainly do still enjoy anime and manga, but I’m not learning the language for the sole reason of watching anime without subtitles or whatever.
Side note, manga in Japanese is so much cheaper than in English so that’s really cool I think 😎
I happen to love anime, but it’s not the reason I am learning. I was already able to enjoy anime without knowing Japanese. But I guess it was one of the places I first heard the language and thought it sounded pretty. I am learning it because I find the sound and look of it to be beautiful, and because it is a challenging language for me as an English speaker. I feel so proud when I can read something!
I like anime and manga but i learn it cause it’s fun and easy to learn for me(my main language is close to japanese logic) plus i think,in the future there will be a opportunities(You know their birth rate is so low and their older population is high)
I work for a Japanese company.
I mostly read books in Japanese.
I don’t care about anime that much. It’s not that I dislike it, I just don’t care about it.
Swear this same question was asked 2 weeks ago
i started learning because of the architecture. My now ex ended up showing me anime like jojo, aot, and megalobox. That was a while back now but everytime i tell someone that im learning japanese its always that as well lol
Honestly, started thinking about learning the language 3 years after getting into anime, but not even because I wanted to watch with no subtitles, but because I just really like how the language sounds.
AND I get the bonus of not needing subtitles, even if I don’t watch much anymore. Also plan to translate some stuff that doesn’t have any translations. Like latter parts of Nekojiru Udon manga. I want everyone to enjoy this thing.
I also don’t watch any anime … but I’m a middle aged Asian woman, so no one assumes that’s the reason I’m learning Japanese 😀 It does make it a bit difficult to find content for listening comprehension, especially given that jdramas are not nearly as popular and easy to find as kdramas or cdramas
I like anime but thats not my reason for it I just think the country is interesting and I wanna see what it’s like because there’s nothing quite like experiencing something firsthand
Unfortunately a lot of the useful tools and resources take advantage of things like anime jp subs.
Still very possible to learn from stuff like J-dramas but being tolerant of some anime can help with learning. You don’t have to be a mega fan. The main issue with substituting j-dramas for anime is lack of availability when compared to anime.
Still though when there’s a will there’s a way.
I just like Japanese, I’ll never remember how it started. I never actively watched / sought out anime but I’m a big TV and movie person so if I come across a good anime I’m happy to see it, but it probably happens 1 every couple of years currently. I did really like manga for 2 or 3 years — Shounen Jump was an amazing discovery in a pre cellphone and broadband internet age, where it felt amazing to be able to carry a *bunch* of great shows in your pocket (er, backpack), and later taking forever to download a chapter online via dial up was nice for me too, although even then it was only a few stories.
Big exception to the anime thing: Toonami and Adult Swim was pretty big as well around that manga time. I don’t know if I associated it with Japan.
EDIT: I don’t know how I forgot, I was obsessed with Yugioh (mostly the game) as a kid, it was practically my identity. Maybe that was a domino effect, even though I don’t remember anime itself being involved by the time I started thinking about Japanese. The first memory I have of being interested was just picking up two language books at a library, one for Japanese and one for Dutch.
It was one of many reasons but don’t really watch much anime anymore.
I mostly do it for music and games now.
I’m a big anime fan. I’ve been watching anime since I was a small child. That being said, I’m not learning Japanese because of anime. I’m learning because of Japanese music that I’ve started listening to.
It’s no different than people learning English to watch English TV and movies or understand English rap music.
I liked it when I was a teenager and occasionally watch super popular ones like Demon Slayer, but that really has no effect on my interest in the language. I grew up in an area where there was a lot of Japanese tourists as well as native speakers around and that’s what piqued my interest in learning
I learn for the sake of beautiful literature (Mishima, Murakami, Dazai, Kawabata etc.) and I’ve been training traditional samurai swordfighting called Katori Shinto Ryu
I’ve been a Budo practitioner of various flavours for most of my life, and throughout my teens I did watch some anime, but not a great lot. Japanese culture in general fascinates me and I hope to visit one day.
A few years ago I decided I wanted to try an learn some. At least the basics to see if I could get as far as passable reading comprehension (not quite there yet…). I haven’t watched an anime since the 1st season of Attack on Titan released.
I’m also not into anime, but I do receive this question a lot. I don’t judge anyone who DOES learn Japanese because they like anime, but in my opinion it’s an odd assumption on everyone else’s part. There is no other language that people assume others are learning for the sake of that country’s cartoons.
I’m learning because 1. I think it’s a beautiful language, 2. I’d like to travel to Japan someday (if I can ever afford it), and 3. I like multiple aspects of Japanese culture (some of those aspects do include Japanese media like jpop and jdrama, but not anime for me specifically).
For me it goes hand in hand, I’m learning it primarily because I’m bored and haven’t challenged myself to learn something since I left college engineering and I just genuinely enjoy learning, but also it’s because I realized if I just do a little bit everyday, I’ll be able to learn from watching anime, among other Japanese content. On the other hand, I would have never decided to start if I wasn’t exposed to Japanese with anime.
The only animes I like and have watched are 10-15+ years old. I do, however, like video games (not just japanese games tho), so that’s been most of my immersion. I study Japanese for the challenge of it, an appreciation/curiosity of Japanese culture, and as sort of a bucket list, “learn a language before you die” sort of thing.
Ahaha, I’m just the typical scum that wants to be able to watch anime and read manga in the original language
I too am in this boat, I started learning it because I played a game that consisted mostly of people from Japan. Really liked this game and wanted to make new friends from across the world, so I decided to start sometime last year, lol.
Never really liked anime or manga – nothing to do with why I became interested in Japan. Later I tried to get interested since so much native content is anime or manga, but just doesn’t do it for me. I don’t mind a Miyazaki film, but otherwise just meh. To each their own, though.
Plenty to love about Japanese culture besides anime and manga.
My son lives in Japan and I like learning new languages. I don’t care for anime. I have made some kids day when I read the katakana on their anime shirts.
I was fascinated with Marie Kondo‘s cleaning method (Before it became a Netflix series and now she is selling things that ‚spark joy‘ instead of getting rid of stuff – oh, the irony).
It’s like a learner learning English and assuming a learner wants to watch American football
My main reason was that I didn’t want to pay for translated mangas–they take a long time to translate and are more expensive than the raws, which I can get second-hand for $5 instead of $15.
im learning japanese because of a game called katamari damacy even though i procrastinate a lot
Definitely me lol. Learning Japanese for family reasons. It would be much easier if I liked anime
Otaku media is what originally drew my interests to Japan as a whole to begin with. I still watch/read it now and then, but it’s not even in my top 5 reasons as to why I’m learning.
I don’t watch anime, I started learning because my mother suggested it and then got interested in the country and culture
For me it’s Japanese music and the fact I live in Japan. It’s kinda a necessity!