Why Do So Many People Want To Learn Japanese?

When you look at the different language learning communities, Japanese has a surprisingly large amount of interest.

For some languages, this makes sense, things like Spanish and French are spoken all around the world, and English is the same …so of course they have large communities of people studying these …but why Japanese?

The only placed that speaks Japanese is Japan …a relatively small island with 125million people …so let’s looks at why so many people are interested in learning this language.

Japanese Is A Challenge

I am sure you have all heard the general consensus that “Japanese is hard” and I do think that is why it gets some interest from language learners.

People like a challenge and they also like to show off their achievements and what better way to do that, than showing off the fact that you have learned the “hardest language”.  It can be perceived to be a lot more difficult than mastering a language like Spanish.

People will still be impressed if you tell them you can speak Spanish, but they will usually find Japanese more impressive. I know this is shallow and really mastering any language is impressive …but the general population don’t see it this way and I do think for some people, that urge to impress others is why they start.

I am also pretty sure this is why most people fail and give up before they see success; they bite off more than they can chew and trying to learn something to impress others is not the right motivation …but this level of challenge does seem to drive some people to start learning.

The Language Just Looks Different and Draws You In

I think for a lot more people, the language just draws them in, they don’t want to impress anyone else …they themselves are just impressed by Japanese. 

If we look at French, it’s not that different. Sure it sounds a bit strange and there are plenty of quirks that make it interesting, but at the same time it has so much in common with English and really you see it like a family member …its very much related, like a cousin or something.

This is the total opposite with Japanese. It looks and sounds so different. You can’t look at the writing and not get any clues about what it might mean in the same way you can with French. When you think of the of the word “foreign language” it is exactly that Japanese is, and this really draws in the curious minded who want to unlock things and work out what is going on with this very distant language.    

Japan Has A Lot Of Soft Power

If you take what I said above, you can apply this to many languages, especially other Asian languages …but why does Japanese get so much more interest over languages like Thai for example?

I think this all comes down to the fact that Japan has a lot of soft power, which all sounds a bit wishy washy …what does that even mean!

Really what it means is that Japan has a lot of influence in our life and we often don’t realise it. This sounds nefarious, but it’s not (although some countries do use this for their own gain in a bad way).

Look around your house there will be Japanese influences everywhere. I have a Casio watch on my wrist, Sony headphones in my ears, a Canon camera nearby, a Toshiba hard drive plugged into my computer and the list goes on.

You can argue that the great Japanese electronics companies are not as powerful as they once were, which may be true, but they still exist and my childhood is full of memories involving their products.

Then if we think about the media …it’s maybe even stronger. Hands up who had a Nintendo? or a Playstation? …What about Pokémon cards?  Or really any of the hundreds of cartoons that where all from Japan, sure they were dubbed into English, but that was still Japanese culture influencing us.

You could also say the same for the food, I think it’s safe to say things like sushi and ramen have become a regular part of our lives now.

All of this really boils down to us having a good opinion about Japan, sort of on a subconscious level. We don’t directly associate any of this with Japan, but they are all very much from there and this is powerful and explains how we are easily lead toward Japanese over many other languages.       

There Are Lots Of Learning Resources To Help With Japanese

People are also interested in learning Japanese because there are actually resources for learning the language.

You can find hundreds of courses, textbooks and general YouTube channels teaching Japanese. If you want to learn, there are a seemingly endless amount of resources out there for you to use, which isn’t the case for all languages.

This may be linked to the fact that there is a lot of media that comes from Japan, such as anime, so we subconsciously think “if I learn this language, I will have things to watch” but at the same time I don’t think most people realise media like this can be used for learning, through immersion, they see it more as something you can do after you have “learned the language” but I am sure it still helps with their decision to start learning.

Either way Japanese is one of the top languages for learning resources. There is just so much available.  

You Will Get Access To More Media When You Lean Japanese 

I have kind of touched on this already, but a lot of people want to learn Japanese because they know there is a lot of media that can be consumed.

Everyone is aware of anime and manga and just the fact that Japan produces a lot of media and this gives people a purpose as such.

A lot of people will want to learn the language as they know they will get access to all of this stuff. 

I am sure plenty of other languages produce great media, but you have to admit the Japanese make a lot of original content and while I am sure they still import media and dub it over, they don’t do this as much as some other places.

When you have the option of watching some American tv show that you’ve seen before, but now dubbed into whatever language …or some original anime …you can see why Japanese is the more appealing language to learn. 

Japan As A Country, Is Very Distant

I also believe that a part of the appeal to Japanese is just down to Japan itself.

As a country it is very far away and can often be seen as this distant new world full of old traditions mixed with modern technology.

If you just look at travel vlogs, the ones around Japan will do very well, even if people are not interested in the language, they are certainly interested in the country …and I do think this interest leads many towards the language.    

The Japanese Culture Looks So Interesting

When you look at Japanese culture as a whole, it does seem very interesting to us, and again I think this does come back to the soft power that Japan has.

Their culture is complex and rich, just like anywhere else, but little areas do get shown to us and make us more interested in general.

You have the anime I have already talked about, and the food, but you also have things like martial arts, which covers a huge number of different things and you also have other hobbies and past times  or just things like Japanese gardens and art or fashion that we have come to appreciate in some way or another.

These all make us more interested in the country, but also the language too.

Life Looks Better There

When you just look at Japan and its culture …it’s just looks like a good place.

I am sure it has plenty of problems like any other country, and that’s not including the horror of the natural disasters ….but in general, it seems like a nice, clean, safe place and the people there look like they have a good quality of life.

This makes people want to visit and even move there. I can’t really think of any other country that has this same level of appeal attached to it and ultimately this makes people want to learn the language.

Even if it is a small little idea of “I’d love to live there one day” it still makes people more suggestible to the idea of starting the language.

Maybe this also has a lot to do with the fact that English isn’t very well spoken there and people want to make sure they can actually function when they do visit …so it makes them want to study the language.  

People Want To Do Business With Japan

While many people just want to go to Japan as it looks cool and interesting, there are also plenty of more calculated people who want to do business there.

Maybe this is as simple as they want to live there so they know they need to get a job, or they actually have interest in doing some sort of business with the Japanese, either way, this desire to work there does encourage people to want to learn the language.

It is well know that English isn’t going to be enough. It might be fine for a tourist, but any sort of work is going to require speaking Japanese, so the demand to learn is going to be much higher.

Japanese People Just Seem Really Nice

I think it is important to note that the country and the culture we are all interested in …all comes down to the people.

A lot of people can see that the Japanese are wonderful people, but there is a language barrier and I think a lot of people can see that the Japanese are respectful and what better what to show them respect back …than trying to learn their language.

I think people know the usual trick of just speaking English slowly isn’t going to be enough and if they want to make actual Japanese friends, then learning the language is the only way to truly unlock this.   

(You can read more about – What Are Japanese People Really Like?)

Conclusion

Hopefully this sheds some light on why so many people want to learn Japanese compared to other languages.

I guess you could kind of say …it’s cool. A lot of people learn languages for fun, so of course they are going to pick the one that seems the most interesting and with the most unique media content and culture and Japanese does tick a lot of the boxes, so it should be no surprise that so many people are interested in it.

(If you are looking to learn Japanese, you can follow my plan – Learn Japanese – The Plan For A Complete Beginner)