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Is learning Japanese as a European any useful?

Discussion in 'Chit Chat' started by Mihael, Sep 21, 2018.

  1. Mihael

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    Like in the title. I see that for job or for research more popular European languages are quite useful. German, French, Russian. I started learning Japanese at uni, because I found the Japanese culture interesting and the school offers it for free. As a hobby. But... can I use it in any way? It is said that Asian people speak English very well anyway and will talk to white people in English. Japan is a strong country when it comes to technology but so are South Korea and China.
     
  2. Lin1

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    Learning a language is always useful, Japanese people just like Chinese and most Asian folks rarely speak English unless in important positions where English is necessary and even then actually!
    So learning Asiatic languages is very useful as much less common to find European/Westerners who do than people with the ability to Speak English and other European languages. ( And I speak as someone who speak several European languages fluently!)

    You might find that learning Japanese efficiently on your own is impossible though, learning in the actual country and with locals is the absolute best way to learn any kind of language but especially Japanese and similar!

    So you might want to plan a year abroad to Japan or extensive trips there in the future if you actually want a certain level of fluency useful for a work environment.
     
  3. tystnad

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    practical usefulness always depends on context. if you’ll be spending the rest of your life working as a store clerk in a supermarket in some french village, no, japanese won’t be particular helpful. if you’re interested in business or technology, however, knowing at least some of the language is a huge bonus when applying to jobs at companies that have a japanese (or even east asian in general) branch. and, like linning says, europeans who speak non indo-european languages are much less common than europeans who speak, say, french, so if you want to work in something like translation, it’s definitely a huge pro. so where it has practical usefulness it really depends on what you will be doing in the future. It also depends on which languages you already speak. if you want to work for the EU, for example, you’re supposed to know French at a pretty decent level because it’s the official languages of the EU along with english - if you’re french, or speak french already, that’s not a concern, but if you want to work for the eu and don’t speak french, it might be good to prioritise learning french over any other language.

    that said... in my opinion, learning a language, regardless of which one, is always useful. a friend of mine majors in latin and ancient greek, has studied hebrew, frisian and cuneiform, and is currently learning swedish - which has roughly 10 million speakers worldwide. she does not live in sweden nor intends to move there, so one could say all the languages she knows are entirely useless in practice, because she most likely won’t have anyone to speak them with where she lives. but learning languages is a great skill regardless, because not only are they an entryway into other, connected languages (it’s a lot easier to learn german if you already speak dutch, for example, than learning german if you only speak korean and nothing else) but you also learn a lot about how human communication works by seeing how different languages work. extra languages also always look good on your resume, even if your job doesn’t require them - it just shows you’re willing to look beyond what is expected of you. Plus, if you’re interested in Japanese and you can learn it for free.... what’s the harm?
     
  4. gintoki

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    If you were looking at moving to japan they have just changed their immigration policy to a points based system. It's actually kindof easy to get in assuming you are within like the ages of 20-30. But im not too sure of it's uses outside of japan apart from maybe an ambassador or translator in certain places and countries?
     
  5. Mihael

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    Oh I had no clue that Asian people don't speak English so much actually! That changes a lot.
    There is possible student exchange with Japan which I am very hopeful about!

    Hmm yes then it might be a plus for work in companies with Japanese branches. And Europeans who speak Asian languages are rare, yes. And yes, French is what I try to learn in spare time, however, there is no course at university. Japanese has large interest from the students. Which is why I think more people might be interested than needed afterwards.

    Definitely :slight_smile:

    Maybe in companies with Japanese branches like was said before? And translation.
    The companies and universities make more sense in my case, because my degree is in tech. Japan is strong in this area so it might make sense.
     
  6. Nightlight

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    I think learning a new language at all is great. It's good for your brain, and introduces you to a new culture. If you like anime, this will be a huge help.
     
  7. Mihael

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    Ha ha, anime, yup :slight_smile: