Why do/did you want to learn Japanese?

lgb · Post by **lgb** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 3:24 am

Number 1; but that's because I don't give a crap about codes or lording it over people, nor do I expect to go to Japan anytime soon.

Necronopticous · Post by **Necronopticous** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 3:31 am

Other - I'm a huge weeaboo.

elfhentaifan · Post by **elfhentaifan** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 4:13 am

since a university is nearby giving lessons at japanology i am going to study it.
Plus I always wanted to learn about east-mythology and history.
Im bored of the european stuff-mostly.

Though im afraid a bit, because i heard, that there is a weird community at those lessons.
I recently learned that they're called weaboos or so.
And i already hated them at my old school.

CIT · Post by **CIT** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 5:21 am

Actually I didn't start getting deeply into videogames until after I studied the language. I went to an international high school that had lotsa Japanese kids. I went to Japan with them once, and then decided to learn the language.

When I studied it at university there were a ton of anime/game/j-pop fans in a class with about 25 people, but every year they got fewer and fewer. Fourth year there were only 6 people left (including me).

Japanese is a tough language to learn and requires a lot of dedication, incl some extended time spent in the country. The writing system is totally retarded and the different levels of formality are super annoying. I've been studying for about 7 years (with varying degrees of intensity) and can read novels and play RPGs, but there's still a lot I don't know/get wrong.

UnscathedFlyingObject · Tue Mar 18, 2008 5:33 am

1 is the big reason for me. Right now, I know a lot, but I can't speak well. I'm on my way to memorizing all 1945 general use characters and starting to get the hang of most commonly used sentence patterns. I use the following books to study:

- Learn Japanese: New College Text II
- Learn Japanese: New College Text III
- Learn Japanese: New College Text IV
- Kanji ABC
- Nihongo Nouryoku Shiken Kanji Tango Doriru 1kyuu (Japanese Proficiency Test Kanji Words Drill Level 1)
- Donna Toki Dou Tsukau Nihongo Hyougen Bunkei 500 (book with 500 commonly used japanese sentence patterns)

The Learn Japanese Books are great. I haven't used book I but they're great from II forward. My only complain is that they use romaji for examples, ugh.

Kanji ABC is cheap and excellent for learning all 1945 general used characters. I personally like their approach to learning Kanji. They group similar characters for you for easier assimilation. The only bad thing about it is no examples, ugh. I made my own vocab lists following their categorization order, though, so no probs.

Don't bother with the last two books in my list until you have a firm grasp of the Learn Japanese Books and at least 1200+ Kanji. They're great books, though.

iatneH · Post by **iatneH** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 5:57 am

LOL for weeaboo. I was weeaboo once. But I would have been the kind that flunks out after the second year if I took any formal training, so I'm glad I didn't. I went to an anime shop with a friend recently and holy Hell the clientele (and staff) are complete freakozoids. I can't believe I was like that before. Can you see the self-loathing here?

I only spent a week to learn the two kana alphabets which are probably most applicable to navigating shooting games, and the rest I read as Chinese. I don't know jack about the grammar, but I don't really care as long as I can set up an internet connection for my Wii and crap like that.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 6:41 am

Wanted an angle on all the pricks I'd be going up against in the work place.

Ceph · Post by **Ceph** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 6:47 am

@LGB
It's noteworthy that you forgot the option "For career reasons", an omission which reveals your own angle

elfhentaifan wrote: I recently learned that they're called weaboos or so.

Yes, that's right. People with usernames like "elfhentaifan" are weaboos. Another symptom: Foreigners who use Japanese internet-smilies.

Battlesmurf · Post by **Battlesmurf** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 7:08 am

I took other to mean "to pick up asian womens".

Seriosly rough language for me- though I'd love to be fluent in it...maybe for all of the above

Herr Schatten · Post by **Herr Schatten** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 7:54 am

Other - because I'm fascinated by complicated languages. I want to learn Finnish for the very same reasons.

CIT · Post by **CIT** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 7:57 am

Ceph wrote:@LGB
It's noteworthy that you forgot the option "For career reasons", an omission which reveals your own angle

No need for that option. People who care even a little bit about their career study Chinese anyway.

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 8:04 am

CIT wrote: No need for that option. People who care even a little bit about their career study Chinese anyway.

Japanese is the only language beneficial to someone that's picky about their surroundings though. The only other livable place for an expat in Asia is Singapore, but it's got issues of it's own.

CIT · Post by **CIT** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 8:08 am

Nobody said just because you learn a language for career reasons you'll have to live in that country for extended periods.

I think for most people studying Chinese it's just about being able to put that on their resume.

Ceph · Post by **Ceph** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 9:16 am

GaijinPunch wrote: Japanese is the only language beneficial to someone that's picky about their surroundings though.

Exactly. Who would want to work in China.

CIT · Post by **CIT** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 9:20 am

CIT wrote:I think for most people studying Chinese it's just about being able to put that on their resume.

Ceph · Post by **Ceph** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 10:04 am

Ceph wrote:Exactly. Who would want to work in China.

PROMETHEUS · Post by **PROMETHEUS** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 10:08 am

I wanna go live in Japan!

Frederik · Post by **Frederik** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 11:15 am

To really UNDERSTAND the true moving power of anime.

Just kidding. I watched Spirited Away on japanese with subs just because I liked the sound of it. But other than that, I don´t care about anime and I´d much rather learn dutch. "Elke dag op straks: Kuifje! Let op, drempels! Een kipkorn asjeblieft."

elfhentaifan · Post by **elfhentaifan** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 11:18 am

Ceph wrote: Yes, that's right. People with usernames like "elfhentaifan" are weaboos. Another symptom: Foreigners who use Japanese internet-smilies.

I cannot call myself a weaboo just because of my nick, sorry.

DEL · Post by **DEL** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 11:49 am

Herr Schatten wrote;

Other - because I'm fascinated by complicated languages. I want to learn Finnish for the very same reasons.

I hear that Finnish is indeed the hardest language. Perhaps you better throw in the Caveman language Basque as well

. Proper Xs, Ks and Zs

.

As for Japanese, as soon as I learnt about the 1945+ characters to learn (about 16 years ago) it was a no-no. Plus there's the whaling factor that puts me off. Oh and the Rape of Nanking.

PROMETHEUS · Post by **PROMETHEUS** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 12:49 pm

what the heck is a weaboo ?

sven666 · Post by **sven666** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 12:54 pm

i wouldnt mind learning some conversational japanese actually.. i know enough languages to get myself around most of the world but japanese (or any asian language for that matter) definetly need some work.. i can ask for directions and thats about it.

CIT · Post by **CIT** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 12:55 pm

DEL wrote:Plus there's the whaling factor that puts me off. Oh and the Rape of Nanking.

So why didn't that put you off of Sega and Nintendo?

Post by **Shatterhand** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 12:57 pm

To play the MSX version of Snatcher. Then it got translated and I gave up learning japanese.

Michaelm · Post by **Michaelm** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 1:07 pm

Ceph wrote:
GaijinPunch wrote: Japanese is the only language beneficial to someone that's picky about their surroundings though.
Exactly. Who would want to work in China.

Capitalists cause they see the big financial gain to be had.
But yeah, you can hardly call that working.
It's just money making money over the back of the Chinese people.
Oh yeah, the west is so good

GaijinPunch · Post by **GaijinPunch** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 1:23 pm

CIT wrote:Nobody said just because you learn a language for career reasons you'll have to live in that country for extended periods.

But it would make a lot of sense to do so (especially during the learning process).

jpj · Post by **jpj** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 1:31 pm

i think fairplay to the people who want to learn, but like del said, it's a lot of work and i can't be bothered/better things to do. mind you, i can't even speak both langauges from my dual-nationality...

(i had to look up what weeaboos meant.)

Lordstar · Post by **Lordstar** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 1:36 pm

because i would like to be able to go there and not have to say.

DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH? YES?

JoshF · Post by **JoshF** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 2:00 pm

It's just money making money over the back of the Chinese people.

Don't blame the MNCs (what did you expect them to do?) blame the people who invited them in.

I started learning Japanese around the time I started importing games. I remember learning katakana by going through the movelists in Fighters Megamix.

I only had two years and it's been around a year since then. Might be taking some college courses soon though.

Michaelm · Post by **Michaelm** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 2:15 pm

JoshF wrote:
It's just money making money over the back of the Mexican people.
Don't blame the MNCs (what did you expect them to do?) blame the people who invited them in.

I altered it slightly to show you the hypocrisy that exists in our world.
From what I've gathered it's being told in exactly the opposite for Mexican 'illegals'.
In the Netherlands you can replace Mexicans with Polish people by the way.

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