Self study-ers, what motivates you to study Japanese?

[ichigo]

What is your reason to keep going? I've mainly seen working in Japan or having a Japanese boyfriend/girlfriend as reasons, but I wondered what motivates J-students besides that, especially if you haven't ended up in Japan yet.

I personally graduated from college, moved home to a town with very few J-speakers, and struggled to find reasons to keep up my studies. I signed up for the JLPT (N3) in December to give me something to shoot for, and it (kinda) helped.

So what drives you to pick up that book/listen to that audio/do SRS kanji reps?

[sharpinthefang]

The fear of having something go wrong and none of your Japanese speaking friends about to help.

[Zolrak 22]

Fear, life's greatest motivator?

[Gizmotech]

I honestly think even some of the studiers who are over here have no idea why they are studying either. Working in Japan is the vague motivator, but it doesn't seem to help people target their studies. Neither does the J-Girl friend.

[AyaReiko]

I just don't want to lose my Japanese. I stopped studying for a couple of years and lost a lot of my kanji, so now I'm back on the wagon, haha. I use it to read and watch videos/movies/tv shows.
Eventually, I want to do translation.

[mothy]

My child rebelling by choosing not to speak english.

[Jiggit]

The realization that you're kind of wasting your time if you don't and the only reason so many ALTs suck so bad is that they live inside a bubble of expat friends and Netflix and might as well have stayed at home?

People who have Japanese partners that don't speak English learn Japanese pretty quick tbh.

[itsabird]

I agree with the partners thing. I mean, I was more of a brunette kind of guy (are Japanese girls considered brunettes? someone help me with my stereotyping please). But since getting here, and especially after visiting Osaka, I realized that most of the cute girls here(hell, most girls period) don't speak English because it is not the primary language. As such, I feel the need to learn the language to flirt with girls . That and I'm in Japan and want to be able to ask for my McDonalds burgers without mayonnaise, of course....

But in all seriousness, there is not real way to pinpoint why I am continuing to study, as I will be leaving at the end of this JET term. I guess I'm just studying because I'm in Japan now and that's the language I need to speak in order to get even basic life tasks done. I will probably not use it when I go back to the states, but I just like being able to know I could use it if I wanted to.

I even started a New Years resolution of learning 25 new words a day. It's one hell of a challenge and I'll probably collapse once Anki starts giving me ~300 review words a day that I forgot (hopefully this isn't the case!)

[sharpinthefang]

My Japanese has reached a comfortable level, but I know that for me to get to the next require some serious study. It's just finding the will power to do that.

[therealwindycity]

Coworkers walking past my desk and praising me for how erai I am.

[Wasabi]

Mothy has children?

[Zolrak 22]

Mothy has children?

He's a man with great bear arms.

What makes you think he hasn't spread his love?

[Ini]

What makes you think he hasn't spread his love?

that explains the stains on his sofa.

[5100]

Mothy has children?

Only until the police gather sufficient evidence.

[mothy]

that explains the stains on his sofa.

Not just the sofa. I've ruined more rugs than my dog.

[Ebi]

It's really satisfying when you think back to something you couldn't accomplish in Japanese before that you can do now. I try to keep that in mind whenever I hit a slump or plateau and it feels like I'm going nowhere. It's harder to sense progress when you're no longer improving by leaps and bounds as a beginner.

For a while I was studying to take the JLPT but I keep putting it off so I haven't touched my textbooks in a while. Lately I just find the smaller gaps in my Japanese knowledge and try to fill them as I come across them. Some day I want to resume studying the more academic grammar that I don't actually have a daily need to use.

[Cake]

It's really satisfying when you think back to something you couldn't accomplish in Japanese before that you can do now. I try to keep that in mind whenever I hit a slump or plateau and it feels like I'm going nowhere. It's harder to sense progress when you're no longer improving by leaps and bounds as a beginner.

This! But even just making small progress really motivates me. Like if I learn a new word one day and then hear it like 3 times the same day, or see some random kanji and somehow my brain just knows what it means. Also my friend is getting really good at Japanese and he started learning later than me, so I don't want him to be better than me...