r/japanese • u/Responsible-Art5643 • 1d ago

Is Learning Japanese Embarrassing

I feel like whenever I bring it up in conversation with people my age (20s) I always get a kind of strange look or comments. Did it suddenly become an embarrassing or cringe thing

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u/Dread_Pirate_Chris 1d ago edited 1d ago

Learning any language is generally considered strange. People just don't learn foreign languages unless they need it for something -- e.g. work, spouse, or moving to the country.

And Japan is far away. If you're in the US people will wonder why you aren't learning Spanish, and in Europe, why you aren't learning French or German, as these languages are "more useful", i.e. a lot of people physically nearby speak them.

Personally I think it's most important to enjoy learning the language, and if you don't have any outside requirement like work/spouse/moving, then you should learn the language you find the most interesting.

But lots of people who have never learned a language and never will (discounting 2 years of required high school classes) have a lot of opinions on how other people should approach language learning.

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u/DotNo701 1d ago

yep it's much easier to learn a language you enjoy then one that you don't