Learning japanese - worth it in your opinion?

Basically I'm thinking about learning Japanese at the university I'm attending because I have done a little of it back at school and somewhat enjoyed it, even though it got dropped due to the lack of popularity. (I've studied both french and german before and didn't find them interesting enough)

My question is how hard it is to learn? Now I realize this question probably plagues this forum alot, but bear with me for the moment. English is my second language and I have learned it by learning many words that people typically use in their everyday life as well as grammar, proper sentence structure etc.. Then when I moved to english speaking country it was simply the matter of getting used to local dialect and expanding my vocabulary to cover more complex situations. Because I knew grammar already, I could read books/magazines/newspapers reasonably well.

My question is will it be the same for Japanese? After learning hiragana, katakana and grammar will I be at least semi-literate? Or do I require to know kanji as well? I have also heard a discouraging story from a friend that went to Japan and while he could talk quite well, understanding was diffcult due to different 'formality' levels of the language. (basically he knew proper way to say things, but not informal/slang).

Finally would you say that overall it would be a good language to learn? For someone with too much time on his hands? I enjoyed it at school like I mentioned earlier, and knowing 3 langugages would be fun =)

I have a friend, a North American, honestly telling me that she should have studied Chinese for her future.
I know Yuan or Yen is not everything in your life, but study and master both of them if time allows.

It's really difficult to answer the question without knowing you personally.

For instance, if you judge "worth it" by how useful the language will be to you, it depends if you are thinking of moving to Japan, going there on vacations, doing business with Japanese people, and so on and so forth. If that's the case, then I should think it would be pretty useful!

If you want to learn Japanese for the pleasure of learning a language, well, I guess it depends on the way your mind works, how you learn, and that kind of thing. Personally I'm really enjoying learning Japanese! But to someone else, it might seem like a torment - I have no idea!

Anyway, to take another point... I guess that to learn a language reasonably well, you need vocabulary + grammar + speaking/understanding skills. And in the case of Japanese you need to know the scripts too. It seems like your method of learning English worked pretty well for you. I would think that a similar method of learning Japanese would work, too. But you WILL need to learn kanji, as well as hiragana and katakana. But don't let that put you off! Because learning kanji is fun, and not as hard as it looks before you start.

Then again, perhaps my brain works in such a way that it absorbs kanji easily; I don't know your strength on learning stuff like that. So the only way you can know is by trying it.

I would definitely say "go for it"!! Even if you decide not to carry on, you have only gained knowledge and not lost anything.

it would only take you about 4 or 5 years to learn japanese, if you a fan of anime or japanese games, then you should learn japanese.

30 years ago japanese would be more useful in life, since im a native chinese, learning japanese would seem to be the correct path. but in this era, definately learn chinese before learning japanese, it was prove more useful in the future.

The sounds aren't too hard to pick up on.. It's mostly memorizing the kanji that takes some patience.. You definitly need them.. Hiragana and Katakana are somewhat similar so they don't take too much time, but still some effort.. It's only worth it if you really want to learn it and you're willing to dedicate your time into understanding it.

Learning to speak Japanese is doable, definitely. Reading Japanese is something else. And writing Japanese is even harder.

But I guess it depends on how hard you want to learn it. Me personally I am very glad that I learned it growing up, so I don't have to study it now.. I have an endless admiration for people studying the language, both in speaking and writing, and mastering it until near-native level!! But I'm pretty sure it is one of the harder languages to master, especially writing-wise.

You say English is your second language, but what's your first?

It is a little difficult. But I have only been studying for three years at a regular (not special) school and we are finished with grammer already O_O It is not hard as long as you are devoted, and it will prove difficult if you do independant study.

As for if it's worth it... it all depends on what you think you will use it for. For example, I want to have my options open because in the future I want to be a 3d animator, which can place me in any country or just stay in America. So I may thank myself for learning any language which will make it easier for me to go to a country where they have many job openings.

Normally, kanji is required to be literate, but if you stumble across ones you can't read, you can look them up and then you may remember next time (or the time after that) and will slowly learn and become more literate.

In England, Japanese may not be very useful; However, knowledge is knowledge and no matter what it is you will eventually find it to be useful in some place. If it's something you want to study it will probably help you somehow

I've been trying the past 8 months but despite all my self studying I just can't seem to absorb enough to be self efficent.

I plan on signing up for official classes in the near future because I can't seem to do it on my own.

I wouldn't recommend trying it on your own unless your alot smarter than me anyway.

well, it's been pretty useful lately, so I'd have to say that it was worth learning.

Well im in the process of learning it and so far .. it's one tough language don't expect it to be an easy ride as English. But all the foreigners I know who know how to speak it tell me once u master the grammar it's just a matter of vocabulary but trust me its tough.. but TOTALLY worth it! Imagine understanding all those great shows they have, the amazing animes u can watch, and mangas as well. Not to mention, you could fool people for being a Samurai !! (not..!)

I can't help feeling bad for the people who have answered up until now since the original poster never bothered to come back to his own thread, at least even to say thanks... Are you still there, Sleepless?

yukio_michael said:

I can't help feeling bad for the people who have answered up until now since the original poster never bothered to come back to his own thread, at least even to say thanks... Are you still there, Sleepless?

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Haha yes, I am still here problems with internet etc.. really hate ISPs here...

Anyway thanks for the replies and 4-5 years to learn sounds really daunting. English seemed much easier.

I think I'll give it a shot though since I happen to be a big fan of anime/games etc and always found it frustrating little of the good stuff gets translated into english and even less of it makes it to NZ.

Anyway the university I'm going to claims it will provide sufficient knowledge base in 3 years (full time study). Gonna be alot of hard work, but what the hell right?

Well, you're more familiar with Germanic/Latin-based languages, like a fair fraction of the world, so of course it will take longer...there is hardly anything you can relate it to that's why, however, grow up in a place like China or Korea and you would see the relations with Japanese and learning English would seem harder.... It works both ways. The sounds, however, aren't too hard to catch on, it only took me 4 months, for instance, to get those relatively right. good luck

Sleepless said:

Haha yes, I am still here problems with internet etc.. really hate ISPs here...
Anyway thanks for the replies and 4-5 years to learn sounds really daunting. English seemed much easier.
I think I'll give it a shot though since I happen to be a big fan of anime/games etc and always found it frustrating little of the good stuff gets translated into english and even less of it makes it to NZ.
Anyway the university I'm going to claims it will provide sufficient knowledge base in 3 years (full time study). Gonna be alot of hard work, but what the hell right?

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I'd say that Japanese is not too difficult for the westerner except for the Kanji. The grammar is relatively straight forward, and there aren't many exceptions. Kanji actually make sense; if you know the root words, you can guess the pronunciation and meaning of a new kanji.

Learning Japanese for a westerner is probably no more difficult than for an East Asian learning Russian.

Mind you though, don't expect to be able to listen to news broadcasts even after one or a couple of years of study. For that you need tons of vocabulary. As Japanese words sound very similar to each other, it will take some used to.