Why do you want to learn Japanese?

[Okonomiyaki-Chan]

I got hit with this question earlier while just reading some things earlier and figured it could start up a nifty conversation. It can be any number of reasons ranging from simple to complex, but any reason is plenty! In some way, you want to learn a language to make your life better, and that is a pretty big thing! Gotta be proud of it! So, why do you want to learn Japanese? I'll go first:

I started out wanting to learn Japanese simply because I'm a big old weeb who wanted to be able to play games and read manga that were never translated into English (or are not easily available i.e. Urusei Yatsura). Now I've gotten to the point where I've read a good bit about Japanese culture and I am genuinely interested in studying the language so I can understand more and more about the country and its history. I also plan on trying to teach English at a university in Japan, so communication is a must. Of course, I still want to play Japanese games, but a strong understanding of Japanese will also allow me to work on fan translations for those in the gaming community who are unable to learn the language themselves. These are the kinds of goals I've set for myself!

So, how bout all of you?

[fixagel]

Probably most people will come out with the same answer (not all of course) but like you I would love to play games and read manga without the need to wait for a fanstralation or localization that may never come due to one reason or other (mostly its because XXX manga/game is not that popular).

However never have really put that much effort into it, but would love to some day eventually .

 

[Ravenstorm]

Everyone always tried to press me to learn Spanish, but I have zero interest in Spanish. If I'm gonna learn something, I want it to help me live a more fulfilling life somehow.  The first game that made me want to learn Japanese was Fire Emblem 5 on an emulator. I tried so hard to learn everything like hacking the game files. I was so overwhelmed by Japanese AND trying to rom hack, that I had given up for a while.

I'd say every year I try again to pick up where I left off. Since I keep a lot of notes, I can easily do so. Some kind of catastrophic event in my life seems to occur that puts me off track though. Still, I'm not giving up! Last year I had the most progress in my life, since I actually manged to learn the Hiragana table (didn't try to write though, no point). I know people can do that in 2 hours or so, for me though, it was a grand achievement since I managed to retain it. I really should jump onto katakana. Finding a new job seems to have killed my learning interests for now though.

Either way, I know I can learn and have a path ready to go, I just need to get back on it to play those Japanese games! Anime is translated almost instantly, and manga isn't really enjoyable for me since it's monochrome, so it's all about the games! I do want to be a fan translator at least as a helper, I don't think I'd ever have the time or patience to go it full time though.

Another dream of mine is to make Japanese learning games, to help people learn it faster. Trouble is getting enough people to actually let me know their learning styles, create something, and then have them tell me if it helped them learn quickly. Most people seem to focus on criticism that doesn't improve something's core purpose, and simply give negative feedback. I tried with a couple people before, and I got feedback like "the music is too loud, make a volume slider" and avoided answering when I ask, well, did you learn anything? I made the volume slider, got back to them to ask if they learned anything again, but zero response. So yea, I guess that's a another dream on hiatus.

Nice to see a new topic! The more people post, the more I'll put time into growing the club because I can get an idea of what people like.

[Super X]

I have always been interested in Japanese culture (wish to see Japan one day). Another reason is that I want to watch anime before subs come out (I can't wait lol).

I have put this in my to-do-list. There are some things that need to be done before learning Japanese so I guess it will take some time.

[Okonomiyaki-Chan]

Glad to see we've gotten a few responses here. I figured it would be best to keep trying to open up new topics in the club's discussion board to keep it thriving. Could help keep people interested in the club as well as entice more and more people to join up.

5 hours ago, Ravenstorm said:

Everyone always tried to presses me to learn Spanish, but I have zero interest in Spanish.

...

Another dream of mine is to make Japanese learning games, to help people learn it faster. Trouble is getting enough people to actually let me know their learning styles, create something, and then have them tell me if it helped them learn quickly. Most people seem to focus on criticism that doesn't improve something's core purpose, and simply give negative feedback. I tried with a couple people before, and I got feedback like "the music is too loud, make a volume slider" and avoided answering when I ask, well, did you learn anything? I made the volume slider, got back to them to ask if they learned anything again, but zero response. So yea, I guess that's a another dream on hiatus.

I understand the sentiment regarding Spanish. I took three years of it in high school and learned jack. Seriously, I cannot tell you how many times we learned about verb tenses. I wanted to jump off a cliff with how much repetition there was and how little learning was going on. Aside from that, I never particularly found Spanish culture interesting to me. That might just be on me.

Constructive criticism seems to be scarce in recent years. Everyone has an opinion and they will do everything in their power to make it heard, but I'll be damned if they can't offer any criticism to help you improve something. Seems to be relegated to educators. Sorta fits into the whole idea of people liking the idea of creating something, but not having the ability (or drive) to do so (i.e. games, books, movies, music, etc.). I get the sentiment there, too. Trying to develop anything is very difficult. Just ask my billions of failed attempts at making games. I've relegated myself to game modifications.

Hope we start seeing more and more people interested in this club. Would be nice to get a little community going.

[aranni]

I've wanted to learn Japanese since I was a little kid and watched my first episode of Pokemon. In recent months, a dream turned into reality and I started. But there is so much to learn and so little time...

[Ravenstorm]

Every little bit counts! Who knows maybe in the future we can just wear glasses to (ACCURATELY) auto translate a language of our choice, haha! Probably not too far off, hopefully in my lifetime! I still want to learn though, I like to keep my mind active and challenged so I don't get lazy.