Learning Japanese: Worth It?

[CynicalSphere]

Assuming some of you scuds have learned/have tried to learn Japanese, I have a scenario for you:

I'm going back to school next year, and the place has Japanese classes. On a lark, I decided to register for the first one (it would be interesting to learn something outside of the English/Romance/Germanic languages). However, it's a bit more expensive than I projected and it's money I could spend on something else.

So, for those of you with experience with the language, is the language insanely hard/time-consuming to learn, and would it pay off? I can deal with the cost well enough, but I don't want to take a superfluous course that involves a lot of work with relatively little payoff.

(Yes, I know you get as much out of these courses as you put into them, but if it's so damn difficult it's going to take away from the courses that actually matter, it's not worth bothering with...)

[spacecowboy]

I'm taking it now and it is by far my favourite class. It's really easy to pick up and I'm already reading japanese newspapers after about 2/3rd's of a semester. I recommend taking it.

SC

[Diff-chan]

The first course is pretty easy overall. However you do not learn that much. I look at the stuff I learned first quarter and I cant believe how elementary it is. Once it gets later on and you start to learn things of substance it can get pretty hairy. Like there's a lot of goofy conjugations, and in one word you would, say, use the short form, then attach the negative to it, then the potential, then the ending which actually expresses what you want to say. It can get pretty nutty and its a lot to cram in your head and even worse... its a lot to be able to pull out of your brain when it comes time to say it.

Add to this the fact that the very few number of syllables means a lot of words sound really similar, and a really complex writing system in which you can look at a word, know all the characters, but have no goddamn clue how to pronounce it, and you have a language that can get pretty rough.

Is it rewarding? Depends what you wanna get out of it. It has been rewarding for me but in all honesty I wish I took Chinese instead. If you just wanna watch anime and play videogames... no. Don't bother. Because it takes a long-ass time before you could get to the level where you can understand that stuff. We're talking 2 or 3 years at least. If you're not willing to put that amount of time in you're just not gonna reach that level.

But if you just wanna learn some simple phrases so you could, say, maybe impress a Japanese chick or make her giggle a little, then why not?

And at least here the class IS a lot of work. I can only talk about here but yea, I do a lot of work for Japanese here and considering it's not a major class it really is more trouble than its worth.

For me what happened was the more I began to learn the more I realized just how much there is to learn. It really is a case of "I am smart because I know nothing" for me.

I'm taking it now and it is by far my favourite class. It's really easy to pick up and I'm already reading japanese newspapers after about 2/3rd's of a semester. I recommend taking it.

SC

I must ask how much of the newspaper you are actually reading and how much you have learned.

[spacecowboy]

I must ask how much of the newspaper you are actually reading and how much you have learned.

Well they are only children's newspapers, but I think it's decent progress. I've got hiragana and katakana down and am just adding more everyday in the way of nouns, verbs, adjectives, particles and what not. I wouldn't say I speak it fluently or understand it perfectly, but I'm getting there.

SC

[Diff-chan]

Yea I see what you're saying. It just takes time dude. From the place you're at to fluency is like a huge long path. It's kind of like what they say about flying... you could learn 90% of it in a few days but the other 10% takes the rest of your life... its not exactly like that but its the same idea.

Or its like... you know when you take major courses your frosh year, and you think youre a big shot? Then when youre a senior and you realize the stuff you learned is bullshit? For me its Calculus frosh year... etc.

[CynicalSphere]

Is it rewarding? Depends what you wanna get out of it. It has been rewarding for me but in all honesty I wish I took Chinese instead. If you just wanna watch anime and play videogames... no. Don't bother. Because it takes a long-ass time before you could get to the level where you can understand that stuff. We're talking 2 or 3 years at least. If you're not willing to put that amount of time in you're just not gonna reach that level.

Hmmm, I guess for me the main objective is the pursuit of knowledge. There's not a lot of places (around here, at any rate) to learn ancient languages like Old English (Greek or that godawful Welsh language are about the closest you can get to that here. You can form Welsh words by banging your fists on the keyboard for awhile). I like games and anime, but not enough to learn a language for it.

I don't know, I'm sitting on the fence on it right now. I've "learned" (and subsequently forgot most of) Spanish and German so I'm a bit gun shy about learning an even tougher language, but at the same time, it would be cool to get fluent in another language so I can be bilingual.

But thanks for the input, it kinda confirms some of the things I've suspected. >:/

Yea I see what you're saying. It just takes time dude. From the place you're at to fluency is like a huge long path. It's kind of like what they say about flying... you could learn 90% of it in a few days but the other 10% takes the rest of your life... its not exactly like that but its the same idea.

Or its like... you know when you take major courses your frosh year, and you think youre a big shot? Then when youre a senior and you realize the stuff you learned is bullshit? For me its Calculus frosh year... etc.

Haha, that describes my Advanced English Grammar class (aka Auschwitz for Writers) perfectly.

"You think you know grammar? Well, YOU'RE FUCKING WRONG!"

[mollipen]

I think we had a pretty good, informative thread about this very topic in the recent past.

Here it is: Thread

And what exactly do you mean by "worth it?" If you're looking to get a job with your newly-learned language, you've got a lot better choices you could pick over Japanese. If you're learning it to play some Japanese games, I'd say it is not worth it, and will take you quite some time to really get to a point that you really feel like you've achieved something.

If you're thinking about it to, oh, I dunno, pimp on Japanese girls, then by all means do. There is absolutely nothing cuter to Japanese girls than round-eyes speaking Japanese to them, especially when they make silly mistakes. (And as sarcastic as that may come off sounding, I'm actually not being so.)

[Psx]

The main thing with learning a language, as with most things, is commitment. You have to really want to learn a language(s) to become fluent in them. And fluency takes years, even if you are living in the country of the language you are studying and use it every day.

[mollipen]

Yup. I'd say, don't EVER think you are going to become a master of a language unless you go live in a country where it is the main language. There's just no way you can learn real-world usage of a language from books or classes.

[DOVESKI]

What good is japanese, i rather learn tagalog or something, thats a bad ass language.