Why I'm not motivated to study Japanese どうして日本語を勉強するやる気がでない （EN/JP)
These past 3 months I've set out to memorize 1000 words in Japanese. 800 words are already learned, and about half of those need review. Another 200 are in my "Not Yet Studied" pile.
この３か月で日本語を１０００個の単語を暗記しますように頑張ってます。今８００個ぐらいはもうちゃんとおぼえるようになったみたいですけど、まだ２００個をまだまだ勉強してない。８００個の中で４００個を副詞しなくちゃいけない。
From 2006 to 2011 I spent a ton of energy on learning Japanese. I became conversational but I always felt my vocabulary was too small. After that I went on a journey around east Asia and stopped speaking Japanese for 5 years. My Japanese got pretty rusty.
２００６年から２０１１ぐらいまで日本語をすごい頑張って勉強しました。話せるようになりましたけど、単語がずっと足りないと思もいます。そのあとアジアの冒険に出て５年全く使わなくて日本語がちょっと錆びてしまった。
I'm not as motivated to study Japanese these days despite coming back to Japan. I have lots of things I want to do and I'm putting way more effort into those other projects. I'm writing music, writing stories, making podcasts etc. I'm also a freelancer so I've got to put lots of effort into that as well.
日本語を頑張るやる気が昔ほどないんだけどね。どうしてかというと、いろいろなことをしたくて、昔より頑張ってます。曲を作ったり、本を書いたり、ポッドキャストも作ってます。仕事も個人事業になってそれも頑張らないと。。。
More than that, I want to connect to the world, not only Japan. Of course if I can connect other countries to Japan and share new ideas and ways of thinking here in Japan, I'll be thrilled but most Japanese people interested in these things already speak some English. I can also do a lot of this connecting through working as a teacher in Japan.
So speaking Japanese more fluently hasn't really been necessary for my life.
そのうえ世界とつながりたいです、日本だけじゃないです。もちろん日本と別の国といろいろな考え方を繋がれたらすごいうれしいですけど、世界と繋がりたい日本人の中で英語ができる人が多くて、英語先生としてそういう繋がりを作れます。日本に住んでてもやりたいことは日本語がそんなに必要ないと思います。
Not only that, speaking English allows me to make connections much faster. When speaking Japanese I'm constantly worried about whether I'm being too polite or too casual, or whether someone is older or younger. Even now as I write this blog, I worry that I might be too casual.
Of course Japanese natives don't worry as much as I do, but I always feel a distinct sense of distance with people in Japanese and I know that in Japan there is nothing unnatural about this. Keeping distance is natural here, but speaking English is an easy way to bridge that distance.
それだけじゃなくて、英語で話す時のほうが早く繋がりを作れます。日本語をしゃべるといつ敬語を使ったほうがいいか、後年齢とか考えなくちゃいけない。今書いてる時も「ます」を使ったほうがいいか使わないほうがいいかを悩んでます。もちろん日本人はここまで悩めるわけないんですけど、日本では距離感がずっとあるのは不自然的じゃないでしょう。英語をしゃべる時その距離感を早くつぶすことができることを感じます。
When I use Japanese, a bar friend will remain a bar friend and rather than getting closer, the priority is not stepping on anyone's toes and making things awkward. Rather than talking things through and solving them, it's more likely that someone will just disappear. Am I thinking too much?
日本語を使うとバーの友達はずっとバーだけの関係で、親しくなるより気まずくしないように考えてる気がします。ちょっと気まずくなったら、それを話して解決するより、消える人が多いです。ちょっとだけ失敗しったら、そのつながりはそこで終わります。考えすぎですか？
But I want to overcome this feeling some day. I've lived here 10 years and plan to stay indefinitely. I want to know more about how artists and speakers and writers and just regular people on twitter feel, and I want to share my thoughts comfortably too. I need to keep improving my Japanese and Chinese so I can help bridge East and West. That's the kind of role I'd like to create for myself.
でもそれいつか乗り越えたいと思います。ここもう１０年住んでいるしずっと生活したと思います。いろいろなアーティストとスピーカーと作家とtwitterの普通なユーザーの考え方を知りたくて自分の考え方をやさしく表したいです。東と西がつながるように日本語と中国語を頑張らないといけない。そういう自分の役割を作り建てたいです。
If I say something that is to sharp in Japanese, please tell me a more gentle way to express the same thing. I don't know how much I will use Japanese in my blog, but either way, I want to help the new Hive JA community grow!
いつか聞きにくいことを言ってたら、同じことをもっと優しく伝えられると思ったら教えてください。僕のブログではどこまで日本語を使うかわからないんですけど、できるだけHIVE JAコミュニティが大きくなるように頑張りたいです！
よろしくお願いします
(I just delegated 2000 hp to @hive-ja account! Please consider delegating to them, there are only around 10-15 Japanese speaking members but we want to grow the community. I will be encouraging new members to add English translation even if generated by GPT so non-Japanese speakers can interact!)
Novels/music/merch/social media/patreon:
https://linktr.ee/selfhelp4trolls
Untangled Knots podcast:
Japanese Upbringing Explained (interview my Japanese student)
Japanese is too complex for me to take interest. Hahaha I just animé.
Basic communication isn't as hard as people think but to understand almost everything is really hard!
I find Japanese easy and straight forward. Only the Kanji (日本語 - Nihongo) is considered complex. But you really do not need the stuff for talking and understanding anime.
The spoken language is quite easy. Only 5 vowels. Everything is pronounced just as it is written.
It's maybe because I did try to learn it with Korean in Duolingo and my head's messed up.🤭
Korean and Japanese are very similar phonetically.
But they took two very different directions in alphabet.
I hear that one way to learn a language is watch shows in that language.
(no subtitles)
And your brains starts putting together phrases.
I have noticed i start understanding, or remembering what a phrase means, when i hear it, and not looking at the TV.
Wow!! That's a great tip and really confirms my observation too. I do watch Korean Soccer and since they repeat words in cheers and short instructions, it retains. Amazing.🌟
This is super great dear friend! go for it!
Where exactly are you from good sire?😃😃
I am from USA on the east coast, but I've been in East Asia for 15 years! Already feel at home here!
selfhelp4trollsさん、まずは@hive-ja に大きなdelegateをありがとうございました。嬉しいです。また以前にように、HIVEにたくさんの日本語投稿が並ぶように頑張ります🫡
昨日、コミュニティにdelegateしてくださった方にHSBIを送ったのですが、手持ちが空になってしまったため今週末に送らせていただきます🙂
私は日本人ですが、記事の内容は共感するところがとても多いです。日本語は面倒で、私も書くのにとても時間がかかります。誤解されるんじゃないかとか、気を悪くするんじゃないかとか、色々考えてしまって。最近Hiveにいる時間が多くなり、英語のシンプルさをいいなと思うことが増えました。
リアルでも本音を言わない人間関係が多いので、疲れますね😅
どういたしまして、一緒に頑張らないと ^_^ 逆にgo-kyoさんが先に立つのが感動しています。できるだけ手伝いたいですね。日本人が増えたらやっと日本語を使えたくなりますね。
英語で書く時も誤解しないように考えますけど、日本語は人によってだけじゃなくて、文化的にデリケートなところが多いですから、非常に考えちゃいます。そうしないように頑張りますけど結果はさまざま。全然気にしない人もいて、僕と関わりたくない人もいます。共感している日本人が少なくないと思います。だんだん言葉の使い方がちょっとだけ緩くなったら嬉しいですけど、まあ、とりあえずHive JAを大きくするためにチンピリみたいな外国人に見えないように頑張りますね😝
返事ありがとうございます！
Great delegation to the Japanese community 👍🏻 Think I might also delegate some HP there since I think @go-kyo is doing a great job with reactivating the community recently.
Interesting also to read how language is key to participation and connecting in this globalized world. 🌎
Many people really have no idea. I didn’t til I left America and found completely bilingual communities of mixed nationalities. Maybe in Europe this is common but in the US we don’t see it much cause everyone speaks English or maybe Spanish.
We have a very trilingual community here in my part of Tokyo where many friends speak Mandarin in addition to English and Japanese. I have an American and Japanese friend that in a group I will speak Mandarin with because the American guy just got here and doesn’t speak Japanese 😆
OMG 🤪😅
🇯🇵 Delegated 500 HP to the @hive-ja account. Keep up building of the japanese Hive community! 💪🏻🙌🏻 Greetings from Germany
@selfhelp4trolls @go-kyo
@borsengelaber, I have no words to thank you!!
I am surprised to see the power of the hive-ja account doubled in one day today. Sorry I can't pay you dividends, but I will be sending HSBI to you in the near future as a small thank you. We are still a small community, but I will do my best to make it thrive!
No worries about the dividends. You are a very credible person and I want to support the work you are doing with reactivating and building the Japanese Hive community. 👍🏻
Thank you! ありがとうございます！
Nice! thanks! I want to see this succeed
Good luck for it! Great project. 🇯🇵❤️
Cool development, having these Japanese people here. I'm just learning about them for the first time. I wish them all the luck and I hope they grow. Thumbs for all your help 👍. Great job! Good luck with all your projects.
There were a lot more in the steem days but I think the bidbots scared many away as did some of the Justin sun drama
Oh yeah, there were a lot of different races of people here back in them Steemit days. I think it's mainly the fall of Steemit price in 2018 that chased most people away then those who survived got chased by the other things you mentioned.
Yay! 🤗
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I've been studying Korean actually. Have a one year streak on Duolingo and also go to an online school. It's pretty exhilarating. Going after something you're really passionate for. I hope to see how much you keep growing in learning Japanese.
If I can bring my Japanese speaking friends and Hive together, it’ll actually make my life a lot easier 😆
Have fun with Korean. I met a Korean teacher from Nigeria on twitter but now shes so famous.
Well that's just ideal. I hope I can be that proficient at it. Goodluck with your friends.🤗
Yep. Same here. I worry less about this when I'm speaking to people, but when I'm writing on the blog post I really worry about it. So much so that last week for my higanbana post I wrote it in Japanese, but then started to worry about my politeness level and ended up deleting all the Japanese. Le sigh...
Fantastic delegation! You rock, my man.
I worry less and less and it doesn’t seem to affect me much. The people who would judge or awkward around me are already like that, there are many more laid back Japanese people but they tend to only show it when you are more laid back with them. There’s still some distance though, like it’s always awkward asking for someone’s line or instagram.
I’m also not into how much alcohol is a prerequisite for most socializing and how much of an extra effort I need to make to start a conversation when people aren’t drunk 😆
Lol I just try not to complain because at least here I don’t need to debate politics for breakfast lunch and dinner 🤣
Truth is I have 2-3 spots that work well for me and everything else is pretty meh 🤣 those 3 spots are pretty awesome though
It is cool that you are learning how to speak the Japanese language but do you learn to how to form sentences too?
Sure, I spent most of my first few years learning grammar patterns and just learning vocabulary through that and conversation. But I’ve spoken for years already, and a lot of these words I study now don’t show up frequently. They are still necessary for enjoying movies and tv or books and articles
You need one of those word of the day calendars.
I am unsure if they have those in Japan. Probably there is one for rare kanji...
Choosing which level to speak from his more complicated because you are a gaijin.
Some people consider gaijin a level below, but most consider them the same level.
But the ones who think you are a level below are quick to anger...
When you are an english speaking person, in Japan, you are an english teacher. And people who wish to learn better come closer to you. Often, in the setting, you are unique and intriguing.
I really do not know how you close gaps, since personal space is so strongly enforced.
With a girlfriend, you confess first, than date.
Maybe you have to confess your friendship???
At my current study rate I need a calendar with 12 words a day, all useful but high level hahah I guess I could make it myself but that’s a lot of words to fit on a calendar. No room for my schedule.
I would have given up already except there are people I would like to collaborate with who don’t use English at all. A friend wrote a book on how he has used public spaces in original and fun ways but it’s all in Japanese and he gives talks on such things, no English. An artist named kom_i went to Peru and gave birth among the native tribe. I’d like to know more about why and what she thinks about things, but it’s very difficult to read long texts about indigenous society and anarchism in Japan.
As for the gap, funny enough I don’t think speaking the language better helps at all, except regards to the people above. It’s easier to just play the gaijin card at first and switch over to just “person” once people are comfortable.
For a long time I also want to learn Japanese 😃
Why did you quit?
That time I got married so ....hehe
日本語に対しては私も同じように感じることが多いです。
日本を離れて長いですし、英語の方がささっとストレートに伝わるので英語ばかり使ってしまいます😅
日本人もこういうことを考えているのすごい安全になりますね．僕は1番慣れにくいなのは年齢です．人と話す時カテゴリーに入れるのが嫌なので(個人として見るように)年齢もあまり考えないようにします．でもそうすれば日本語に話す時は失礼と決まってます。 60歳の知り合い(dj Barでよく会うシャイなサリリーマン、趣味はワルドミュージックdjとメタルのライブ)は老人とういう扱いが好きじゃないと思いますからいったいどっちがいいと悩みます！ 「今日飲んだ？」 「今日のみました？」 とか！
返事くれてありがとうございます！
Thank you for your awesome article. Did you make the colourful artwork? It looks amazing!
日本語を勉強する気がおきないのですね〜。そういう時もありますよね。たぶん、@selfhelp4trollsさんがそれだけ日本になじんできたともいえるのではないでしょうか！？
I think I had a slump after a decade when I was learning English. I believe that some people go through that kind of moment sometimes. I completely agree with you about the bar conversation. There are times when I don't want to speak English at all, even though I am living in an English-speaking country. It's not that I'm against anything, but I just feel so... I used to read Japanese books every day because I missed Japanese characters, even though I had to speak English for my work. Did I have Amanojaku moment, maybe?
Do you sometimes dream in Japanese?
Sorry the image is AI generated, I know it’s bad for great artists like yourself but I’m really bad with visuals 😢
なじんでいると思う時もあって全然違う時もあります．最近kom_iというアーティストが南アメリカの部族のところに行って子供を産んで生活しました．その経験についてのインタビューを読みたいですけど、読もうと思ったらめちゃくちゃ疲れてきていつもやめます。 後南アフリカのGQOM (激しいハウス)をやっている日本人のdj達はウガンダでフェスを参加していてそれについて話しました。それもボートしちゃって、別のつまらないからじゃなくて、わからない単語と長い文章で疲れてきます。
普通生活は全然OKですけどもうアウトサイダーじゃないようにしたいですね。 コミュニティと繋がってますけど深くはないんですね
When my priority was studying the language I didn’t feel any problem just working harder to understand. I would be happy to use 100% Japanese, but now it’s hard to balance with work and all my creative projects plus hive and trying to connect with other places people where Japanese isn’t useful.
Hopefully if I learn another 2000-3000 words and practice using Japanese at hive more that will change and I can do everything without any conflict.
Your English is great but I understand it can be tiring sometimes.
わたしもAIアートしますよ！好きです。
kom_iさんのことをくわしくはわからないのですが、アイヌのかたたちとの記事を読んだことがあります。南アメリカで子どもを産んだのですね。おもしろそうな記事ですね。でも、たしかに長い文を読むのは疲れますね。
日本語の勉強が楽しくすすむといいですね！おうえんしています。
そうそう、KOM_Iさんはアイヌの人達とコラボしたんですね。そういう記事を早く読めるまでにがんばります！
そういう時は、ボーッと何もせず、脳の再起動が必要なんじゃない？ 本屋行ってきた、萩尾望都さんの漫画読んでみて。めっちゃ気分転換になるから。『半神』がオススメだよーん(oゝД･)b
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