Why did you start learning Japanese?

[ピーターズ]

手っ取り早く言えば、大学院の間に日本語１０１講座と北京語１０１、１０２、１０３講座を受けました。最近、日々自分で少し勉強を続けます。漢字学は日本語への興味が一層増しました、新しい「漢語」の言語への興味も増しました。いつか、韓国語能力試験（ＴＯＰＩＫ）、日本語能力試験（ＪＬＰＴ）と漢語水平考試（ＨＳＫ、Hànyǔ Shuǐpíng Kǎoshì）を合格したい。母国語のぺらぺらに接近したい、知的挑戦を満たしたい。

Long story short: during graduate school I took 100-level courses in Japanese and Chinese and I continue to struggle with both on my own a little each day. Studying Han characters reawakened my interest in Japanese and awakened my interest in sinoxenic languages. Someday I want to master both the JLPT and the HSK. I hope to get as close to native fluency as possible: an intellectual challenge I wish to meet.

[Ulver_684]

I began learning Japanese because I wanted to know what the JPop, Jrock, anime, manga, video games said in Japanese. I find out I was Niponholic when I was thirteen years in Mexico City I had a dream a deja vu dream the place was very familiar to me and it was tell me about my past life.

The dream was about me I was a young Japanese man with seventeen years old. It looked like it was the 70's era then it looks like I was going on a car alone listening to rock music on my way to get a girl or girlfriend not sure then I had an accident and faint. That's when I woke up very scare and knew that Japan was part me, I could feel it from inside of me so now I decide to know more about my past life and accept my reality.

Now you know why I decide to learn Japanese to find the truth about me and see what the future holds for me when I go and visit Japan!

[laughinghyena21]

As corny as this may sound but it all started with DBZ, and as I mentioned before, I was hooked when I saw it for the first time back in HS. The first movie that I saw was titled: The 3 Great Saiyan-jins. From then I was hooked on the series and the whole concept of Anime.

From there I saw different Anime movies, then some TV shows when I get a mixed signal from my next door neighbor's cable service, and from there I was able to watch some Japanese shows. Granted, I didn’t have a clue what they were saying, but it didn’t matter to me. I enjoyed either way, understood or not.

As time went on, I was able to pick a couple of words that stood out. Like stop, where, who, what, monster, idiot, etc, etc.

So ever since then I have been trying to speak the language and truly get into it. Like I said as cheesy as it may be, but that’s the reason what got me started on the new found culture.

I want to learn Japanese and the culture, since being Spanish myself (Puerto Rican) I know how a culture can be so rewarding and taking time to know the language, to get lost in the history, and truly know the way of life in Japan.

Overall it’s absolutely amazing, and I cannot not wait to get myself lost in this wonderful culture.

[telini]

Well, I watched the OVA Ayashi no Ceres and the 200 ep of Bishoujo Senshi Sera Mun in original japanese with english sub, thats y I fell in love with this language
I picked up a few words like: hai, iee, itai, konnichiwa, sayonara, minna, yurusan, itadakimasu, -kun-chan-san-sensei, gomen, demo, matte, kawai, chib, o-ne-san...
...but I want more^^
This is the first language I realy like to learn, so I hope its going well

Matane

てりいに・ちゃん


PS: Usagi wa kawai desu, shi Chibi-usa mo kawai desu, shi Chibi-Chibi wa doumo kawai desu, shi... hm.. minna wa kawai desu ne?^^

<<< male 19 years old (watashi wa kimyou desus ne?^^)

Ai to seigi no, Sera Fuku Bishoujo Senshi, Sera Mun! Ini kawatte otiokyo!

/sticky

[Javizy]

I suppose it started when I was at university. Hearing so many foreign languages spoken by people who also knew English inspired me to learn a second language. The problem was I didn't have any particular interest in any foreign country. I tried Italian, and German but lost interest after a couple of weeks; I kept thinking 'when am I gonna use this?'. It seemed as though I was learning just for the sake of it.

I've long had a small fascination with Japan because of things like martial arts, technology, the writing system, ancient Japan, the fact that the notion of respecting your fellow man still exists over there (or so it seems), and of course the beautiful women

So, I decided to try out the language using about.com but, after a week, didn't feel I was getting anywhere. Then, when I was ready to give up on yet another language, I came across this site, and for the past month I've been hooked on kana/kanji and trying to make sense out of this upside-down language we call Japanese!

So many thanks to the JPod team for putting together such a comprehensive, inspiring, and enjoyable way to learn

[Mac]

When I was a child, my father returned to university and gained many Japanese friends, one of whom would be his roomate for a time, and one of whom would become his wife. His brother followed suit with a Japanese bride soon after.

I was surrounded by Japanese people and elements of Japanese culture. That had ups, like being surrounded by fascinating, lovable people and objects, and downs, like being made to feel like a 外人 in my own home.

I wanted desperately to learn the language so I could be a part of things with the culture and people I so admired, not to mention the television and comics they shared with me, but they weren't interested in taking the time to teach me, especially when I was a little white boy.

Long story short, my step-mother, aunt, and all our Japanese friends from that time are no longer a part of my life. I gained a lot from the experience, though: Two cousins and a second sister, a lot of hard lessons, a love for Japan and its people, and an ability to bond with some of my Asian male friends due to common experience ("Asian Mother Syndrome").

My Japanese skills came very slowly, since I lacked any education. Years of watching VHS recordings of Japanese television didn't help much, even if it gave me a decent ear for it. I could understand a bit and communicate virtually nothing. After a certain point, self-study tools became frustrating, because even when I knew so little I still knew enough beyond the material presented that the study would bore me to tears.

Japanesepod101.com changed that. I've been poking around since nearly the beginning, but haven't had the opportunity to really dive in until the past couple of weeks due to other language-study commitments for missions. What a blessing this site has been! The podcasts teach spoken Japanese as it really should be taught, and are always entertaining enough that I never get frustrated when material that I'm already familiar with is covered.

I have a responsibility to educate myself for mission work as well as to help my half-Japanese family members preserve some of their heritage, and, I'll be honest, it's nice to be able to gradually understand more and more of the Japanese media I've been consuming since grade-school. I'm tremendously thankful to the production staff for making all that possible and guiding me along the way.

[Sakuraba]

I actually became interested in Japanese in a strange way. I compete in Mixed Martial Arts (No holds Barred Fighting) events and have always watched PRIDE fighting which is based in Japan. So many of my favorite athletes are Japanese such as Kazyushi Sakuraba, Takanori Gomi and Hidehiko Yoshida. So basically by learning about them I started learning more about Japan in general and became fascinated with the culture and language. it's just so different from America and so unique that I decided I needed to learn as much as I could. So that's why I'm here so that eventually I can go and train in Japan where many of the best fighters in the world are.

[eperez142]

I actually started to learn because i liked watching Super Hero Time, where there are a bunch of kids superhero shows, well, i wanted to know what they were saying. I could wait the week or two for someone out there to sub them for me, or i could start trying to learn the language and just watch the show myself....



Oh well, i think from watching the shows and listening here, that it has started to give me a very nice vocabulary!

[AdmiralAK]

I love languages
The professor that was teaching Japanese at my University was retiring, and he was just an awesome person, so I decided to formally study japanese while he was still around. A year later he retired and I picked up jpod101 to brush up and expand. Since I like anime (a lot) it has been very beneficial to continue learning japanese.


Admiral

[10243406]

Yea, I basically chose Nihongo bcuz I live in a AZN community in california.

Im currently going to school in utah rah now, but I do plan to go back to torrance cali after.

Other than just the cultural area of where I came from, I do want to use it for business and also go to japan and hopefully I will have a great edge in the workforce bcuz of it ^^.

[Dai]

When I was very young, my favorite shows were all anime and I didn't even know that they were foreign at the time! I loved Speed Racer and Sailor Moon and Voltron... and eventually DBZ and when Pokemon came around I fell in love with it too!

One day I was reading the Pokemon manga and that was when I really realized that it was foregin... And around the same time my class was doing a big project on Japan. We learned about the writing and the culture and the history, and soon I fell in love with Japan itself as well! I remember once we had a Japanese friend over and I asked him what one of my Japanese Pokemon cards said. ^^;

By the time I reached 6th grade (three years later) I was getting into anime a lot more than before, and I remember that Oh My Goddess!/ああ！女神様 was my first real, uncut anime. I quickly devoured Payless Video's entire supply of anime, and came across Slayers NEXT which started my huuuuge Slayers obsession but that's a story for a different thread, I'm sure. Soon after, I even discovered an alcove full of Japanese books at the used bookstore! I started buying up as many of the Ranma 1/2 volumes as I could. Unfortunately, I was unable to get all of them (they were all there) because I could only buy a few at a time.

Here's where the Japanese comes in: I found myself wanting to know what they were saying, and with a dictionary and kana chart close at hand I would read my Ranma 1/2 books slowly and carefully, learning the reading but wishing I knew how to understand better. So, buying textbooks and dictionaries and diligently (or perhaps not-so-) studying, I slowly began to understand the language... and... six years later, here I am, able to converse simply in Japanese and working hard to improve my poor 日本語！

*sigh*
That was long. But there ya go, there's my reasoning. (笑) It's a silly reason to learn, but now I'm thankful I started so early.

[Ulver_684]

When I was very young, my favorite shows were all anime and I didn't even know that they were foreign at the time! I loved Speed Racer and Sailor Moon and Voltron... and eventually DBZ and when Pokemon came around I fell in love with it too!

One day I was reading the Pokemon manga and that was when I really realized that it was foregin... And around the same time my class was doing a big project on Japan. We learned about the writing and the culture and the history, and soon I fell in love with Japan itself as well! I remember once we had a Japanese friend over and I asked him what one of my Japanese Pokemon cards said. ^^;

By the time I reached 6th grade (three years later) I was getting into anime a lot more than before, and I remember that Oh My Goddess!/ああ！女神様 was my first real, uncut anime. I quickly devoured Payless Video's entire supply of anime, and came across Slayers NEXT which started my huuuuge Slayers obsession but that's a story for a different thread, I'm sure. Soon after, I even discovered an alcove full of Japanese books at the used bookstore! I started buying up as many of the Ranma 1/2 volumes as I could. Unfortunately, I was unable to get all of them (they were all there) because I could only buy a few at a time.

Here's where the Japanese comes in: I found myself wanting to know what they were saying, and with a dictionary and kana chart close at hand I would read my Ranma 1/2 books slowly and carefully, learning the reading but wishing I knew how to understand better. So, buying textbooks and dictionaries and diligently (or perhaps not-so-) studying, I slowly began to understand the language... and... six years later, here I am, able to converse simply in Japanese and working hard to improve my poor 日本語！

*sigh*
That was long. But there ya go, there's my reasoning. (笑) It's a silly reason to learn, but now I'm thankful I started so early.

Dai-san!

You really know about what are oldschool true Anime/Manga!

Great story my friend!

[enerccio]

Well I started becuase I am fan of Anime and Manga.
But I am amazed about Japanese culture and I am developer of Visual Novel games, so I want to learn Japanese to once in future move to Japan a produce this kind of games.

[Ulver_684]

Well I started becuase I am fan of Anime and Manga.
But I am amazed about Japanese culture and I am developer of Visual Novel games, so I want to learn Japanese to once in future move to Japan a produce this kind of games.

Me too Enerccio-san but instead of producing games I want Computer Science!

[Miyurin]

Well, at first it was just for shallow reasons, like just to understand anime when it subititled versions don't come out yet. ^^; But now, I want to learn it because I ADORE Japan! The culture, the music, the food, the people, EVERYTHING! My best friend and I are planning to visit (and possibly stay) there when we get older. ^^