Same. Friends keep trying to introduce me to it, but I just do not get it. No judging, just nit fir me I guess.
For me it was history and culture. Anime and manga hadn’t really taken off yet.
Yeah I have approximately zero interest in anime, and zero interest in manga. So they were not even part of why I got interested. There are plenty of us!
I like anime, sure, but what really got me learning is my huge interest in Japanese restaurant culture, along with whisky and sake
Ya, me too — setting Studio Ghibli aside, I often find that the main themes and dynamics of anime and manga just leave me bored. 「俺は最強だぁぁ！！！」 — meh, don’t care. My first Japanese novel was Murakami’s 『羊をめぐる冒険』 (“Wild Sheep Chase”), first in translation and then in the original. FWIW, his themes are … definitely different from what I’ve encountered in a lot of anime / manga.
I started studying Japanese simply because I had a foreign language requirement for high school graduation, and Japanese was the most interesting option — Latin (dead), French and Spanish (super popular and crowded, hard to get a spot in the classes), German (somewhat interesting for family ties), or Japanese (new that year, total question mark).
Once I was in, I enjoyed the challenge of it, the puzzle of getting my head wrapped around thinking in such a different mode. Kept it up for four years of high school (albeit two years at night classes, since it got canceled at my regular school for too few students), then picked it up again from my second year at uni, did a half-year home stay in the north, and was finally fluent (dreaming in the language even).
Now I work in localization (technical, business). Who knew that my curiosity in signing up for ninth-grade classes would turn into a career path. 😄
Me too. I watched a lot of anime in my childhood and read manga too but never was interested in Japanese. From year to year I became less interested in and in the end did I had not any contact to japanese stuff anymore. But one day did I got japanese music recommended, it was babymetal and voilà, I started to feel that I have to learn this awesome language in my life. And I couldn’t stop
Same. I watch anime and read manga, but it’s not the reason why I studied Japanese. The reason is much simple: I wanted to study the language, culture and history so I can travel to Japan and show my utmost respect to the people there.
I think people getting into it for reasons separate from Anime/Manga is a lot more common than most would think.
The vast majority of my foreign friends here in Japan also have very little interest in Manga/Anime at all. I think things like broader culture, linguistic interest, or life necessity are most people’s primary reasons.
Anime and manga fans are just very visible in internet culture which magnifies the perception that most immigrants and learners are Otaku. In reality, most of my non-native Otaku friends very rarely have even an N5 level. The ones who achieve fluency either through, or for the sake of, anime/manga media consumption are actually the minority, I suspect.
I started mostly because one of my folks grew up there. Then after visiting numerous Asian markets and seeing the writing it stuck with me. Found love with the food and culture. Stayed for the video games, visual kei, and the occasional manga.
I really didn’t know anything about Japan when I started studying Japanese, rather I had heard it was one of the most difficult languages to learn as a native English speaker, and that the US does a lot of international business with Japan, so I (mistakenly) believed it would be a valuable skill that makes me marketable. Regrettably, I often made fun of weebs when I was in high school.
But after many years, I’ve warmed up to some anime and manga. But it seems like most other Westerners here are way more into it, even when they claim not to be. As a big fan of procedural crime drama and detective shows, I do like to read and watch Conan.
Same here. I don’t watch anime but I love learning Japanese and want to go to Japan some day 🇯🇵
Nope. While I do like some anime and manga, I started down the path to learning Japanese because I was, and am, absolutely fascinated by the Meiji period. In less than 40 years Japan bootstrapped itself from high medieval technology to being an industrial powerhouse and fighting the Russian Empire to a standstill.
Japan was the only non-Western nation to successfully industrialize without a Western power helping out significantly.
​
And that’s why I started down the path of learning Japanese. I still SUCK at Japanese, I speak worse than a toddler. But I’m still beating my head against it because now I’m interested in the language itself too.
Nope. But there’s nothing special about that either.
I got interested because of Nijirô Murakami when I saw him in AIB. 🥰
No, you aren’t. That is neither good nor bad. People get into languages for a million reasons and they’re all pretty valid. Doesn’t really matter imo.
I got into Japanese because of history and cinema and got into anime and manga to practice, and got hooked on it somehow after hating most anime before that. Go figure.
I enjoy anime from time to time but that wasn’t why. I grew up around Vietnamese family as a kid and just continued to learn about different cultures and languages. Music played a huge part and then just loved how Japanese sounds. It just love it more than most other languages.
I became interested in learning Japanese when I traveled to Japan when I was 7. It was a family trip to visit my great uncle, who was teaching English at Nanzan university. He spoke about 7 different languages. I just wish I had his talent with languages.
do you want the im an original and special person award?
Nope, you are far from the only one. What an asinine question.
Does it count if I got influenced by samurai? 😭😭😭
For me it’s because I want to play final fantasy 14 on Japanese servers. The Australian servers are not popular enough and the lag from American or European servers is too high. I’m not there yet, but it’s a goal. 🤣
For me it was video games, though anime and manga are cool too.
I minored in Japanese after living there for a few years. I took huge a few classses and they were usually split about 50-50 manga lovers vs other reason.
You’re not the only person. Something annoying tho is people thinking you learn it because of anime when you say you’re learning japanese, but not really. I just enjoy the country its culture and the language. So many people seem to learn japanese “because of anime” and it sticks to the skin to all learners sometimes… kinda annoying
You’re not alone. I started learning Japanese because… I just think it’s a cool language.
I’m not going to Japan for a holiday, I don’t know anyone in my social circle who is Japanese, I don’t encounter Japanese speaking people regularly, I am not really a fan of anime or manga at all, but have tried to consume some in an effort to learn the language. But really had to force myself to look at it.
It’s just a cool language. And I want to learn it.
I’m also not really into anime or manga but I figured I should probably find out what “やめてー！行く！行く！行く！” actually meant.
Yes, you are literally the only person who got interested in learning the language of a culture with many dimensions outside of anime and manga who didn’t get into it because of anime and manga.
“Am I the only person who…”
No, in 99% of the cases you are not the only one.
Yep you’re the only one. Aren’t you unique!
I started because my wife and I booked a trip to visit Japan, only planned to learn a few phrases but really enjoyed the learning and the country so just kept going
Yes, congratulations, you’re literally the only person ever to do that. The millions of foreigners who do business with Japan only do so because they wanna watch AOT without subs and think katakana is a JoJo’s reference.
Yes you actually are. That’s crazy that you’re the only one. I think we should make you president or perhaps king?
不思議の国のアリスを読んでいる間に､もう紹介されたウサギが「が」をまだ使っていることに気づきました。日本語で､もう知っているトピックに「は」を使いますね。でも、日本語の小説は､キャラクターをもう紹介したら､まだ「が」をよく使いますか。I’m assuming that the particle doesn’t have the purpose of introducing new info here, and it also isn’t…
33 comments
Same. Friends keep trying to introduce me to it, but I just do not get it. No judging, just nit fir me I guess.
For me it was history and culture. Anime and manga hadn’t really taken off yet.
Yeah I have approximately zero interest in anime, and zero interest in manga. So they were not even part of why I got interested. There are plenty of us!
I like anime, sure, but what really got me learning is my huge interest in Japanese restaurant culture, along with whisky and sake
Ya, me too — setting Studio Ghibli aside, I often find that the main themes and dynamics of anime and manga just leave me bored. 「俺は最強だぁぁ！！！」 — meh, don’t care. My first Japanese novel was Murakami’s 『羊をめぐる冒険』 (“Wild Sheep Chase”), first in translation and then in the original. FWIW, his themes are … definitely different from what I’ve encountered in a lot of anime / manga.
I started studying Japanese simply because I had a foreign language requirement for high school graduation, and Japanese was the most interesting option — Latin (dead), French and Spanish (super popular and crowded, hard to get a spot in the classes), German (somewhat interesting for family ties), or Japanese (new that year, total question mark).
Once I was in, I enjoyed the challenge of it, the puzzle of getting my head wrapped around thinking in such a different mode. Kept it up for four years of high school (albeit two years at night classes, since it got canceled at my regular school for too few students), then picked it up again from my second year at uni, did a half-year home stay in the north, and was finally fluent (dreaming in the language even).
Now I work in localization (technical, business). Who knew that my curiosity in signing up for ninth-grade classes would turn into a career path. 😄
Me too.
I watched a lot of anime in my childhood and read manga too but never was interested in Japanese. From year to year I became less interested in and in the end did I had not any contact to japanese stuff anymore.
But one day did I got japanese music recommended, it was babymetal and voilà, I started to feel that I have to learn this awesome language in my life.
And I couldn’t stop
Same. I watch anime and read manga, but it’s not the reason why I studied Japanese. The reason is much simple: I wanted to study the language, culture and history so I can travel to Japan and show my utmost respect to the people there.
I think people getting into it for reasons separate from Anime/Manga is a lot more common than most would think.
The vast majority of my foreign friends here in Japan also have very little interest in Manga/Anime at all. I think things like broader culture, linguistic interest, or life necessity are most people’s primary reasons.
Anime and manga fans are just very visible in internet culture which magnifies the perception that most immigrants and learners are Otaku. In reality, most of my non-native Otaku friends very rarely have even an N5 level. The ones who achieve fluency either through, or for the sake of, anime/manga media consumption are actually the minority, I suspect.
I started mostly because one of my folks grew up there. Then after visiting numerous Asian markets and seeing the writing it stuck with me. Found love with the food and culture. Stayed for the video games, visual kei, and the occasional manga.
I really didn’t know anything about Japan when I started studying Japanese, rather I had heard it was one of the most difficult languages to learn as a native English speaker, and that the US does a lot of international business with Japan, so I (mistakenly) believed it would be a valuable skill that makes me marketable. Regrettably, I often made fun of weebs when I was in high school.
But after many years, I’ve warmed up to some anime and manga. But it seems like most other Westerners here are way more into it, even when they claim not to be. As a big fan of procedural crime drama and detective shows, I do like to read and watch Conan.
Same here. I don’t watch anime but I love learning Japanese and want to go to Japan some day 🇯🇵
Nope. While I do like some anime and manga, I started down the path to learning Japanese because I was, and am, absolutely fascinated by the Meiji period. In less than 40 years Japan bootstrapped itself from high medieval technology to being an industrial powerhouse and fighting the Russian Empire to a standstill.
Japan was the only non-Western nation to successfully industrialize without a Western power helping out significantly.
​
And that’s why I started down the path of learning Japanese. I still SUCK at Japanese, I speak worse than a toddler. But I’m still beating my head against it because now I’m interested in the language itself too.
Nope. But there’s nothing special about that either.
I got interested because of Nijirô Murakami when I saw him in AIB. 🥰
No, you aren’t. That is neither good nor bad. People get into languages for a million reasons and they’re all pretty valid. Doesn’t really matter imo.
I got into Japanese because of history and cinema and got into anime and manga to practice, and got hooked on it somehow after hating most anime before that. Go figure.
I enjoy anime from time to time but that wasn’t why. I grew up around Vietnamese family as a kid and just continued to learn about different cultures and languages. Music played a huge part and then just loved how Japanese sounds. It just love it more than most other languages.
I became interested in learning Japanese when I traveled to Japan when I was 7. It was a family trip to visit my great uncle, who was teaching English at Nanzan university. He spoke about 7 different languages. I just wish I had his talent with languages.
do you want the im an original and special person award?
Nope, you are far from the only one. What an asinine question.
Does it count if I got influenced by samurai? 😭😭😭
For me it’s because I want to play final fantasy 14 on Japanese servers. The Australian servers are not popular enough and the lag from American or European servers is too high. I’m not there yet, but it’s a goal. 🤣
For me it was video games, though anime and manga are cool too.
I minored in Japanese after living there for a few years. I took huge a few classses and they were usually split about 50-50 manga lovers vs other reason.
You’re not the only person. Something annoying tho is people thinking you learn it because of anime when you say you’re learning japanese, but not really. I just enjoy the country its culture and the language. So many people seem to learn japanese “because of anime” and it sticks to the skin to all learners sometimes… kinda annoying
You’re not alone. I started learning Japanese because… I just think it’s a cool language.
I’m not going to Japan for a holiday, I don’t know anyone in my social circle who is Japanese, I don’t encounter Japanese speaking people regularly, I am not really a fan of anime or manga at all, but have tried to consume some in an effort to learn the language. But really had to force myself to look at it.
It’s just a cool language. And I want to learn it.
I’m also not really into anime or manga but I figured I should probably find out what “やめてー！行く！行く！行く！” actually meant.
Yes, you are literally the only person who got interested in learning the language of a culture with many dimensions outside of anime and manga who didn’t get into it because of anime and manga.
“Am I the only person who…”
No, in 99% of the cases you are not the only one.
Yep you’re the only one. Aren’t you unique!
I started because my wife and I booked a trip to visit Japan, only planned to learn a few phrases but really enjoyed the learning and the country so just kept going
Yes, congratulations, you’re literally the only person ever to do that. The millions of foreigners who do business with Japan only do so because they wanna watch AOT without subs and think katakana is a JoJo’s reference.
Yes you actually are. That’s crazy that you’re the only one. I think we should make you president or perhaps king?