John
Things You Should Know About Learning Japanese
There are a few reasons why people don't learn Japanese even though they want to:
These things are true to an extent but it isn’t as simple as it seems.
How long does it take?
From one :
4800 hours to N1 seems insurmountable for someone pressed for time.
It is a marathon, not a sprint.
Usually about 15-30 minutes of lessons per day is normal for me. I plan to read articles, listen to podcasts and do translation and that might take longer in the future but 15-30 minutes for online lessons has still been good to keep things going.
In my down time, I watch V-tubers in Japanese or anime with subs. In that sense, there is time spent but it isn't 'work' or extra time commitment even though it is still practice.
Learning can be integrated into your life if you enjoy Japanese language content.
How to Start:
Learn hiragana first then find a good grammar program. Any introductory course is a good start. I wouldn’t worry about a lot of kanji at first because the lessons you take should introduce kanji when you need it.
Kanji is also only really useful with reading so with speaking it doesn't matter that much. Kanji can help introduce new words and knowing the readings can help understanding so it is more of a long term thing.
Busuu worked really well for me and it is free with ads. All that is needed is an email to sign up.
How Difficult is Japanese to Learn?
It is rated very difficult to learn for English speakers because it is much different from English.
My experience has been that this is true, but there is a nuance to it. It is difficult but not as difficult as it seems.
This article goes over some good points.
Kanji gets a lot of attention for being difficult, but it isn't as necessary to master to be proficient. Kanji can be hard. It is not something you need to worry about a lot especially at first. You can still understand the language even without being a kanji expert.
Japanese can be hard to hear sounds and speak the right way with many words. It can take some time getting used to but once you’ve got the hang of things it seems in many ways simpler than English. And getting used to it makes it seem simpler than the original expectation was.
Fluency in Japanese is quite difficult/likely impossible without immersion however. Personally, I don’t think I will ever reach fluency outside of Japan but my goal is to be conversational for now. To know enough to watch anime without subs and to be able to enjoy Japanese content online is good enough for me for now.
Some other misconceptions or unknowns:
One thing to be aware of is the actual usefulness of the language. It isn’t too common outside of Japan. Relative to the time invested to learn compared to other languages may not be worth it.
Learning the language may not be necessary if you aren’t planning on living or working in Japan. Some foreigners who live in Japan don’t even really know Japanese. It will be hard or impossible to make any Japanese friends without knowing Japanese. It obviously would be difficult to find a job. While some Japanese people know English, it would be hard to have actual conversations with native Japanese people. At best you’d be an acquaintance without it. It could still be hard even knowing Japanese.
Many Japanese people seem fairly normal(normie). If it is hard for you to make friends, you’d notice that trying to befriend and converse with a Japanese person would go about the same as it would talking to the average American. Obviously there will be some differences because American and Japanese culture is different but the frequency of really nerdy Japanese similar to an American nerd is not that common. There are different values than what the typical degen weeb shares so if that is what you are looking for it will be hard to find.
You aren't going to marry an anime waifu. You probably won’t find a really nerdy Japanese girlfriend either for various reasons. I would not recommend learning Japanese if that is the expectation.
The kind of person that better suits you may just be another American that loves anime as much as you do and you wouldn’t have to learn Japanese to befriend that person.
Should you learn Japanese?
Yes, if you want to.
You may not need to however. It is going much differently than my expectation of it was.
What I found that was very useful to me while learning Japanese is keigo(polite speech). I used to have a lot less tact than I do. Tact is still hard for me, but I have realized there is a time and place. Sometimes it's better to not blurt out any random thought that comes to mind.
It's good to know how to read the room and help someone save face just as much as self-expression is.
English tends to share the same values when it comes to time and place, but these are much more emphasized in keigo.
Some other benefits I have experienced:
Learning Japanese may not be for you. It takes a lot of time and ultimately apps and theory can only take you so far.
Will learning Japanese help you in your life more than doing something else? Maybe it is better to learn a different language and it would be easier. Take Spanish for example. It is far more common to need Spanish in America and a lot easier to learn for an English speaker. You may not encounter many Japanese people in America and even if you went to Japan they may not want to talk to you in Japanese.
There are negatives and there are positives that may not be obvious right away. The way you learn changes over time. Your life will change regardless of what you decide to do. What is true today may be untrue or unsuitable tomorrow. There is no way to be certain of the future, but it can still be good even if it doesn't go as planned.
Try to learn a little and see if it suits you.
John
Owl and Sakura Creator. 存在しない道が作られる