Why did/are you learning Japanese?

[kuroikappa]

Lets see... at first it was to better understand manga and anime however, after a while, its mythology and folklore seemed so fascinating that I now do so to better understand the subtleties of the stories through their original language. Aside from that, their culture is so interesting that it fuels me further in my interest of the language.

As far as learning goes, I'm learning via books audio instruction, and some software. Hopefully my language skills are strong enough to get by three weeks in Japan. mrgreen  

[Katsuya Jyonouchi]

I like penpals. Sometimes they write me stuff I can't understand. I suppose it is a pretty good reason.  

[Father Harlot]

Whoaaa, Steph, pickin' up an exchange student, maybe? How lucky. >:'3

All I have is a native speaker friend here, but he trolls me too often.

@Foxy I kinda wish I had a pen pal. ...Then again, my penmanship is horrible.
@Kappa Ooh. I too, enjoy the folklore in Japan... though I'm too lazy to really look into it more than I know right now.  

[kuroikappa]

A_n_n_a

@foxy;; I agree~ <3
Do you have any penpals ?

@kuro;; I'm absolutely (beyond) fascinated by their culture, as well as their lauguage~
You're spending 3 weeks in Japan? I was only planning 2 next year. . .
What are your plans for the full 3 weeks? I'd love to expand my trip a little longer...

I haven't planned it in full detail yet, but it all basically sums up on a tour of the major cities and some side trips to some of the rural areas and the scenic routes that come with them. biggrin  

[Meriru]

My first reason was because of anime and manga when I was in high school, then I we had this Japanese exchange student. She got me even more interested in their culture apart from anime and manga. She taught me how to read and write hiragana and katakana. She was a really very sweet classmate. ^^

I stopped trying to learn Japanese for a few years. I recently had the urge to self-study it again. This time I got myself some Japanese penpals through Skype and MSN who help me out. I plan to work part-time in Japan Airlines when I graduate from med school which is another reason why I am studying the language. ^^

Another "shallow" reason I want to learn Japanese is because I also want to be multilingual. Lol. After Japanese, I'm going for Korean. I tried Chinese, but it was too difficult for me. The phonetics is very different.  

[death_eep]

i started to learn japanese because i thought it would be soo awesome to speak it!! i want to learn more though, so thats why i joined this guild. ^^  

[Pearls of Diamonds]

A_n_n_a

 

Careful with exchange students!!
My friends' dad is a professor at a Japanese (in US) school,
and they take in students in their home all the time~
The Japanese that come here/to this college are very wealthy,
and one girl (I remember her) was bad-mouthing their family for not "attending to her needs."

That is soooo sad! I had 3 groups of two each when i was 8-12, and not a single one was rude to us at all! They were the nicest and most unspoiled people ever! So I'm so sorry he had such a horrible experience with that....

By the way, I got into Japanese because of two of those students! They hooked me on anime, culture and language in one fell swoop and left us with memories I will have forever. So, obviously my experience was good.
Now I want to be a translator because of them! So that's why I am still taking it. I also speak a little French, and I want to study German and Chinese eventually. So I just love to learn languages! I take collage classes, but it won't always be that way for me...  

[kuroikappa]

A_n_n_a

kuroikappa

A_n_n_a

@foxy;; I agree~ <3
Do you have any penpals ?

@kuro;; I'm absolutely (beyond) fascinated by their culture, as well as their lauguage~
You're spending 3 weeks in Japan? I was only planning 2 next year. . .
What are your plans for the full 3 weeks? I'd love to expand my trip a little longer...

I haven't planned it in full detail yet, but it all basically sums up on a tour of the major cities and some side trips to some of the rural areas and the scenic routes that come with them. biggrin

Oh wow~
so I'm guessing you're going to Tokyo?
We originally planned to go to Osaka,
but our friends in Japan can't meet us there...
I wanted to go to Tokyo, but our families didn't like that too much.
So we're going elsewhere now~ I'm so jealous of you !!
You'll have to tell me how your trip goes~

sure thing. biggrin I will be keeping a detailed journal of my trip along with photos. mrgreen  

[TheOuranHostess]

| Miss Yumi Deguchi |

Moe Moe Kyun~ | Hostess/Meido

Here, I am at your service.
To make you feel like a Royalty.
I just wish to make you smile.

Well, I'll admit it, but anime is a reason
Video games is another reason too,
But my main reason is, my family.
I want to learn more about my grandparents,
who came to America after the war.
I live with them, so it makes learning Japanese a whole lot easier.
It makes them happy and it just makes us closer.

It's lovely when you do.
I believe it suits you Dear.
You should do it more often.

 

[Lanore Vandiore]

I started to learn japanese after I took Spanish, German, and French all in the same year. I was frustraited that nothing seemed new or interesting to me. Then after my brother took Japanese and convinced me to give it a try, I got hooked.  

[Shimakuwa]

I started learning Japanese when my grandmother would speak to me when I was a baby. But generally, I don't remember much of those days. When I was in 3rd Grade / 4th Grade, I went to a Japanese Immersion school so I remember a few things from there. 7th Grade, took Japanese (Not that it helped..) and now, I just want to be able to be bi-lingual and converse with my grandmother as well as understanding what my grandparents / mom / aunties are saying when my grandmother is speaking in Japanese to keep me out of the conversation.  

[Miyu_Aizawa]

I first became interested in japanese when my elementary school had a "multicultural day" and highschool student from around the world who had been part of an exchange program at a highschool outside of our district came and gave presentations. My classroom hosted the japanese girl named Ai.

fast forward a few years, I made friends who were really into anime. After some time one of them introduced me to japanese music. Around this time i ended up having a dream that was entirely in japanese with subtitles. I think thats when i decided to learn japanese.

At this point I love the music, the movies, the culture, the language itself, and some anime/manga.