Why don’t you learn a really useful language like French or Welsh?
Ok, they don’t say Welsh, but people are slightly puzzled when you confess to your ‘odd’ choice of second language.“Oooh Japanese, that’s a bit of a weird choice isn’t it, what a weird language, you’re a bit weird aren’t you…WEIRDO, WEIRDO, WEIRDO!”One other common response is, “why don’t you learn Mandarin instead? China will some day rule the world and Mandarin would be a dam sight more useful than this so called Japanese you are learning.”
And it’s a fair point; China will most likely rule the world and all Mandarin speaking people will live like kings as everyone marvels at their marvelous Mandarin abilities.
But all of the above misses the point slightly. I don’t want to learn Japanese because I think it’s a shrewd career move; I want to learn Japanese because I am passionate about it. If I wasn’t passionate about it I would find it impossible to learn.
To sit down, day in, day out, and study a language when you don’t really have to, shows that you must love it, you have to love it. If you don’t, it can’t really be sustainable. You may do a month or two of good graft but it will soon tail off.
So if your serious about learning Japanese, as I have discovered recently, make sure you enjoy it and don’t be afraid of being called a WEIRDO now and again, because the chances are you most probably are, and isn’t it great.
Question: What first stirred your interest in Japan? Was it the culture, food, history, design, people, sake, anime, martial arts, technology, language….I could go on.
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