Your reason(s) for learning an east-asian language?

[MrMoney]

Hi guys,

I recently read what languages many of the cubers on this forum know/have knowledge of.

The thing that struck me the most is how so many people want to learn some Chinese/Korean/Japanese/Thai/Vietnamese. How come, guys?

I at not criticizing you, I just cannot grasp why learn a language of a country you can maybe visit very little in your life. If I were to learn chinese and try to speak with Chinese in my community, sure they would be impressed, but just as soon they would call me a white dog. If I speak turkish with Turks on the street, they love it at show great respect. Why learn something that is soooo far away in culture and mannerism?

Thanks

[aronpm]

I at not criticizing you, I just cannot grasp why learn a language of a country you can maybe visit very little in your life. If I were to learn chinese and try to speak with Chinese in my community, sure they would be impressed, but just as soon they would call me a white dog. If I speak turkish with Turks on the street, they love it at show great respect. Why learn something that is soooo far away in culture and mannerism?

There are several general answers to that, but I think the two biggest are: a love of the culture/language (lots of people like Anime/Manga, for example), and the other reason is a love of language-learning. As an example of the latter, see Moses McCormick on Youtube.

I think your Chinese/Turkish example is a massive generalization though.

[MrMoney]

It does not have anything to do with the Chinese being bad or Turkish good, it has to do with the relations on the people. Albanians and Turks have a history together and being able to speak turkish is seen as a very respectable thing. Same thing goes to my Vietnamese friends who speak Chinese, they are also very respected.

But for me to learn Japanese, what? Learning German/Spanish/French would bring me alot further in life and expand my cultural understanding of my surrounding countries.

I am NOT bashing. Thank you for the reply! It is just that when people say: "I have studied Japanese for 1 year now, I speak 3 phrases: I am hungy, I am happy, I am sad" I am like: WTF? Is this really what you have learned in 1 year? Where the f are you going to go with 3 phrases?

[Olji]

I started to study Japanese mostly because I like learning languages, and also I'm interested in the Japanese culture
I find languages with different letters more interesting, like Russian that I plan on studying later
My japanese fanboyism prob helped too at the start, before getting the interest for unusal letters

[MrMoney]

Thanks Oljibe I too have seen some Anime, loved it You really do get into the story after just an episode.

Can you recommend me a serie with about 10 episodes?

[Olji]

If you like mystery and thriller, I recommend playing Chaos Head, the VN is way better than the series, its a little gory but the plot is great (not done with it though, had a problem with corrupt saves but solved that rather fast, and the gameplay is between 10-30 hours, depending on how fast you read. I did however watch the first episode on the anime after I got further into the game, that episode was disappointing IMO)

Over to anime, it would be easier if I knew what tags you like (comedy, drama, etc.) send me a PM so we dont clutter the thread ^^

[janelle]

For me personally, it's usefulness. I'm surround by a fair amount of Asian culture so I do actually use what I've learned in real life. But if I were to learn say Turkish, for me, I would most likely have no use for it in real life. But I have to say, yeah I do like anime and that is part of the reason why I enjoy (not really the reason why I started) learning Japanese.

[Godmil]

Obviously sometimes it's very practical to learn a language, but it can also be done for fun. If someone spent a long time trying to learn a language, but only knows a few phrases, then they're probably just doing it for a hobby (they may find it enjoyable without needing to be good).
For me the closest non-english language is Gaelic, but I hear/see that a lot less than I hear Japanese (due to the films/TV that I watch) and that's on the other side of the world.

[MrMoney]

You guys have broadend my view on the subject, thanks! I did not have many of these arguments in mind when I first wrote the topic. Not everyone attempts to learn a language just to be GOOD at it, it can absolutely be a fun hobby to try puzzle out how a language works.

I myself have a few language-courses in my shelf: (German, Serbian, Turkish, Albanian, French, Chinese and English EFL) for different reasons. I lack Spanish though! Can anyone tell me about the major differences in Spanish spoken in Spain and Mexico/Latin America? Are they huge or simply dialects?

[d4m4s74]

I tried to learn Japanese, mostly for geek cred
But I gave up because I have no discipline

I do know a bit of german, french and obviously english because those are the languages of the countries around me, and I'm thinking of learning Turkish because we have a lot of people who speak that language here.