掲示板 Forums - Why are you studying Japanese?

I'm a ニッポン旧車　「vintage japanese car」　enthusiast. I have collected, restored, competed in motoring events and shows with my 4 Datsuns over the past 15 years. Durig that period, I've met many Japanese collectors, enthusiasts and jidosha yumeijin (most like to speak english!). I collect Japanese vintage car magizines and books and try my best to use them as a resource. I have been featured in 2 articles in Japanese vintager car magizines and can't read a word they've written about me and my collection. Very furstrating!

I would like to travel to Japan to gather materials for a project of mine. As well as, accept the former offers of hospitality I've recieved.

Photos of my cars and scans of my articles at - http://public.fotki.com/DatsunVic/

i work for a japanese company that gives incentives for every level of JLPT passed. but even during college, i was interested in learning japanese when i got hooked to anime and japanese music (in anime).

Why do I study Japanese? When I was 12 and just starting high school in New Zealand, my mother made me write down Japanese as one of my optional classes. It was a new subject then and I wasn't interested, I really wanted to do art instead, but she insisted. Well, Mum was right because 20 years later here I am in Japan, still studying Japanese!

No one has mentioned their results on this site I notice... I passed 2級 and am very pleased with my score, so onto 1級! Thanks to マイケル for providing a great study resource which I'm sure made a great contribution to my score this time round :-)

Had studied French and Latin in high school and wanted to do something as different as possible. First year of college, visited a Russian class and a Japanese class, and the people in the Japanese class looked like more fun. Continued taking classes for the rest of college, I've been studying it by myself on and off ever since.

Mine was actually pretty similar to マイケル. Took Spanish in highschool and hated it. When I saw my college only offered romance languages, German, and Japanese. My interest in video games pulled me in to Japanese, and I liked it so much I signed up to do an exchange. So, now I'm really trying to master what I can before I can go over.

[quote author=CoasterjunkieX link=topic=137.msg547#msg547 date=1209683700]
Mine was actually pretty similar to マイケル. Took Spanish in highschool and hated it. When I saw my college only offered romance languages, German, and Japanese. My interest in video games pulled me in to Japanese, and I liked it so much I signed up to do an exchange. So, now I'm really trying to master what I can before I can go over.
[/quote]

that makes three of us :)

mine is quite similar to mike and coaster - except i didn't hate Spanish and I'm still studying it since i am half Hispanic.

I don't really even remember why I started out wanting to learn Japanese, to be honest (I've been in an accident, and lost parts of my memory). My best guess would be that... I wanted to learn a second language and be able to speak in "code" that nobody else (unless they knew Japanese, for instance) could understand. I've been studying for about a year or so now, but I didn't get serious until New Year '08 (I guess it's my new year's resolution).

Last year, my imouto (then a college 一年生) came in and said, "So, neechan.... want to take Japanese with me?" I've always liked Japanese culture (along with several others - but it's right up there with my other favorite, Celtic) and I had a lovely gap in my class schedule, so I agreed. A year later, I enjoyed it so much that I made an effort to fit it into my schedule this year, and I'm hoping to keep it up long enough to at least minor in it. Might be a bit hard, what with me being a chemical forensics major, and therefore having far too many labs and such for my own good. >< If only I could even contemplate studying abroad...

On a side note, I took four years of French in high school, and didn't run away - they only offered the first year at the community college I started out at, so I couldn't continue, and I'm not suicidal enough to try to fit two languages into an already packed schedule now that I've transferred. @_@ I didn't even need a foreign language for my GEs, since I already took American Sign Language out of curiosity long before Japanese.

Everyone's posts have been so interesting. Such a variety of reasons! I'm amazed.

My story/reason's a little long, so bear with me ^^
In college, my boyfriend at the time switched his major to Japanese, and he introduced me to the culture and language, both of which I found fascinating. After college, I realized I wanted to switch to Japanese all along, but I was too afraid of the loans piling up. The more time I spent thinking about it, the more I realized, I wanted to break the mold of being a stereotypical American who only knows one language and knows nothing about other cultures. This aching need coupled with my budding love for Japanese culture merged together. Now I'm back at college studying Japanese, and trying not to care about the loans I'm going to have to take out eventually and how old I'll be once I graduate >.>

My classes for now are online (this way I get to take them for free through my work), and it's frustrating to learn this way, but eventually I'll be in real classes, then after I get my degree the plan is to join JET.

I really appreciated reading everyone's stories and I wish everyone luck with their studies!

My reason is really odd, as there isn't really one.

A little story of how it began, I was walking around town with a friend - and went into a computer store. Seen a "Learn Japanese!" CD-Rom, thought what the heck, and bought it.

Been learning it ever since.