掲示板 Forums - Why are you studying Japanese?

In the beginning I wanted to learn japanese so I could watch anime without subtitles but now I'm have a bigger motivation. I want to become a translator and not only learn the Japanese language but also learn many other languages especially asian maybe even russian.

Always loved japanese movies/manga/food. Tried to learn a little but never really devoted much time to it. Spent 6 weeks last year going around Japan, and absolutely fell in love with the country and the people. I picked up quite alot just by trying to talk to people, but couldn't read at all. So When I got back, I made up my mind to try to actually learn the language :o I knew Japanese looked hard before I tried.. and now I realise how much there is to actually learn.. its pretty mind boggling. But I hope to get up to a half decent level, and I'm aiming for 4Kyu in december :D

When I was a kid I was a bit of a Nintendo freak. I decided that [i]I[/i] would make my own videogames. But the only thing I knew about videogames was that they came from Japan. So I started reading about Japan. I've been hooked ever since.

I became more interested in culture and history as time went on (as well as things like anime) and made Japanese studying one of my primary goals in college. The reason why I'm [i]still[/i] studying is that I'm going to graduate school starting in August and I'll need to be able to do research in Japanese at some point...

KaiTea, we have a lot in common. I also was introduced to the language in college through an exbf, but I was afraid to venture there, and got my degree in Theatre but was unsatisfied. 4 years later, I found myself being able to take classes at college for free because of my work, so I started taking Japanese right away, and now I realize I don't want to do anything else.

Oddly, because I can only take night or online Japanese classes, I'm going to quit my job in the next year and take out loans (again!) and go back full time to get a Japanese degree. I understand your worries about money, and I understand your fear about what the hell you're going to do with your life just knowing Japanese. And, and maybe this is just naivete talking, but I feel that if it's what you want to do, and it's what you love, all the other stuff will just fall in line later. What's the point of going through life not doing what you love just because it may put you in debt or give you a stable future?

Just my opinion anyways ^^

Just around 30 years ago, a prickly librarian noticed a very shy, very awkward, new student almost hiding at the back of the third grade class that was walking through the library. When it became apparent that the young girl hadn't made any friends among her new class mates yet, the librarian took a little extra time with her, and showed her a special set of books filled with folk tales from around the world that many of the other students never even looked at. It was really a shame because the story books had some of the most exquisite artwork being done for the time.

My favorite folk tales were [i]The Crane Maiden[/i] and [i]The Girl in the Straw Hat[/i]. The artwork and the stories inspired an interest then a love for the Japanese art and culture that has lingered since, touching on a variety of available pastimes from learning origami and kirigami, to learning how to play go and go-moku, but never quite reached the stage to attempt to learn the language on my own. (When I went through high-school and college, none of local programs offered any language courses outside of French, Spanish, Latin, Italian, and German (and very few even offered the last three).

Luckily, one of the students working as a tutor in a lab I was managing had decided to learn Japanese and wanted someone to study with. After I dug under a few sofa cushions to see whether I had the funds to get the texts and materials he was using, I offered to help him study. Our study sessions never really took off, but every month or so since then, I've managed to find a few days or hours to get back to studying a page or two.

Perhaps, by the time I've reached a level where I can take a JLPT or two, I'll be able to set aside enough money to take a few trips to Japan. I had looked into the Jet program, but was a bit saddened to find that I'm a bit over their age limit.

I'm 三世, a third generation Japanese in the US. Though I'm not even half Japanese and only a quarter. Kind of like Jero. ;) I grew up around the little bits of Japanese culture that stuck with my mom while we were living in the deep south. For as long as I've known 1 2 3, I've known 一　二　三 but it never really went beyond that until I had a desire to learn the language in my teen years. So I suppose the reason I want to learn the language is mostly because of ancestry, and partially because of the interest in Japanese culture that I picked up along the way.

In 1960, I found an origami book in my tiny town library. The book had some quite advanced models, all folded and pasted in the book in such a way that a person could unfold and re-fold. About 1980, I came across a kanji dictionary (really thick one) in a library. So I started looking up kanji from my origami books (then numbering about 100). It took me about an hour a character. In 2000 I installed an input method editor on Windows OS, turned on the writing pad and could look up characters in about a minute.

My goals are 1) be able to read novels and news; 2) watch movies.

Well, first i was born in Japan and lived there until about 3. From then I moved to the US. My brother first learned Japanese in high school 9th grade, and i was in 3rd grade at that time. From then he taught me a lot of the things he learned, and now I'm in 11th grade, and love Japanese. I'm in year 4 in high school, and already took jlpt lvl 3. Im studying for level 2 and plan on taking it before i graduate high school. I plan to move to Japan when i get older or if not take long vacations there.

I'm not sure if I have a firm reason why I'm studying Japanese. I've grown up watching animated pictures, cartoons, and anime, and i'll read more manga than a regular book. In a way, I'm kinda considered an オタク, because my dad's nerdy. He's obsessed with Star Wars, and he's very into comics, cartoons and movies. Some anime too, but I'm not sure if he knows the difference. And I guess I kinda developed similar hobbies, except I'm more obsessed with music, and I'm into manga, anime, and video games. We both are very into the Fantasy world even though you catch us talking about these things all the time.
What does any of this have to do with the question? Dad had his own Fantasy Wonderland, and I have my own Japanese Wonderland, or at least that's how I thought of it when I was little. I guess it's nice to be into another culture as well as one's own. From the music to whatever's on tv to my current curiosity about Shinto (is shinto still in, by the way?), I find myself getting into the Japanese culture increasingly each day.

I've become interested in writing systems and wanted to understand how Chinese script works but to understand it I woudl have to learn it. I was worried that the Chinese sound/tone system would be too difficult to learn so I decided to learn Japanese where most sounds are almost identical to the sounds of Czech which is my mother tongue. I have no special interest in the culture itself or its history. But I like bonsai, japanese gardens and the food.