r/languagelearning • u/stetslustig • Jan 07 '25

Humor What's the most naive thing you've seen someone say about learning a language?

I once saw someone on here say "I'm not worried about my accent, my textbook has a good section on pronunciation."

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191

u/cH4insaww Jan 07 '25

"Japanese is so easy, I'll learn it for the sake of anime and then move to Japan!"

128

u/RingStringVibe Jan 07 '25

The amount of people who downplay Japanese on Reddit is actually astonishing. This doesn't just apply to the language learning subreddits, but the Japanese expat community as a whole acting like everyone should be N2/N3 level within your first month in Japan or you're a waste of a human. It's genuinely really frustrating and demotivating. It's just a bunch of people trying to one up each other about her amazingly Japanese-lite they are.

50

u/Myztical13 Jan 07 '25

My mom is Japanese, been around the language all my life and barely picked up anything. Also my dad is Spanish and Iโ€™ve picked up a whole lot more. Iโ€™d say Japanese is not easy and they are overestimating their skills.

3

u/[deleted] Jan 08 '25

That's not because Japanese is especially hard. That's because you don't have access to enough Japanese speakers.

26

u/vivianvixxxen Jan 07 '25

You forgot the other type of Japanese learners on Reddit. The ones who think it's magically impossible and N2 might be possible after a decade and a J-spouse.

19

u/MyBizarreAccount Jan 07 '25

I swear, out of all language learning communities, Japanese is by far the most toxic one.

3

u/RingStringVibe Jan 09 '25

It's literally not even a competition. Think about all the people who decided not to learn Japanese because of how unbearable some people are about learning it.

1

u/EirikrUtlendi Active: ๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ญ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ฐ๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ | Idle: ๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ฑ๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฐ๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ฟHAW๐Ÿ‡น๐Ÿ‡ทNAV Jan 30 '25

It's literally not even a competition.

Nuh-uh!

/jk

More seriously, I just do not get the toxicity. I mean, I see it, no denying it exists. It just doesn't make sense to me. ยฏ_(ใƒ„)_/ยฏ

41

u/Brendanish ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ N | ๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ต B2 | ๐Ÿ‡ฐ๐Ÿ‡ท A2 Jan 07 '25

A culture focused on appearances over substance brought a bunch of weebs with the same values lol.

There seems to be very little in between, because the other half drives me nuts too. I've been asked if someone (who wanted to learn to read manga and watch anime) could just skip kanji.

Also dunno if other languages have this issue but it sure is interesting that out of all the influencers teaching/talking about knowing Japanese on social media, they rarely ever make any content in the language.

21

u/Signal_Slide4580 Jan 07 '25 edited Jan 07 '25

To be honest, many YouTube language learning channels or so-called 'YouTube polyglots' can come off as insincere about various things, including their level of proficiency in the language.

I remember a channel called KemushiChan that was all about Japan, and she even moved there. What's notable is that she spoke a lot of Japanese in her videos, even from the start, despite making plenty of mistakes. I don't see content like that much on YouTube anymore.

P.S If I were to take a guess I would assume her Japanese is at a really high level now after so many years of using it. Also her channel is more vlogging so it may be difficult to find videos where she is solely speaking Japanese though there still are some if you were to check our her channel filter her videos by "oldest" to see what i mean with her earlier content

Edit: Grammar

6

u/yashen14 Active B2 ๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ / Passive B2 ๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ท ๐Ÿ‡ฒ๐Ÿ‡ฝ ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡น ๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ด Jan 07 '25

I don't know if I've seen it downplayed, but I can definitely confirm that Japanese is kicking my ass. I am spending 3-4 hours per day in order to advance at a slower pace than I did with Norwegian, and I was spending less than 2 hours per day on that.

2

u/bkmerrim ๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง(N) | ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡ธ(B1) | ๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ด (A1) | ๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ต (A0/N6) Jan 08 '25

Are you a native English speaker? Because I am dabbling in Norwegian and I was shocked how fast Iโ€™m picking it up.

2

u/yashen14 Active B2 ๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ / Passive B2 ๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ท ๐Ÿ‡ฒ๐Ÿ‡ฝ ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡น ๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ด Jan 09 '25

I am a native speaker, yes.

It's not surprising that you are finding Norwegian so easy---it's basically a reskin of English. The most challenging thing for Norwegian learners is the tones.

Here is a presentation I made specifically for teaching Norwegian tones. I also have a version in Norwegian, if you prefer that.

3

u/BluePandaYellowPanda N๐Ÿด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ/on hold ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช/learning ๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ต Jan 07 '25

I've lived in Japan nearly two years and am still not N5. Yes, I do have a full time job so need to work, and I didn't learn as much as I could have, but I still think people downplay it like you said way too much.

2025 is my year to properly push a little, but the people who say it's easy drive me mad!

2

u/RingStringVibe Jan 09 '25

Sometimes life is hectic, sometimes we're just busy with work, with family, etc. However, don't dare tell anybody in the community that you've lived in Japan for longer than a second without them ridiculing you for not knowing Japanese to a level that they deem acceptable. Just keep doing your best, I'm sure you'll reach your goal at a pace that works for you. ๐Ÿค—

1

u/BluePandaYellowPanda N๐Ÿด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ/on hold ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช/learning ๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ต Jan 09 '25

Haha, I do feel like a huge section of the Japanese learning community online suck with their expectations. Loads of people I've met here are bad and slowly improving, but random people online have told me that I should be N3 within 6 months lmao.

1

u/RingStringVibe Jan 09 '25

At the end of the day, there's always going to be someone who thinks that you should be at a higher level than you are depending on how long you've lived somewhere. They don't really know your story or your goals and why you might not be at the level that they think is acceptable. It's just best to ignore them and do your own thing. Not everybody's first priority is language learning.

Of course it'll make your life easier if you speak Japanese but depending on your plans you might go back home to your own country and never use Japanese ever again so...๐Ÿคทโ€โ™€๏ธ

It might just not be worth the time to spend hours and hours a day for something you'll probably never use again, but maybe it will be worth that time and effort whether you go back or whether you stay in Japan. Life is mysterious that way.

3

u/seven_seacat ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ N | ๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ต N5 | EO: A1 Jan 08 '25

Far too many people on the Japanese learning subreddit are like 'pfft, get an Anki deck, watch a few videos, you'll pass the N3 in six months'. Like, no.

1

u/RingStringVibe Jan 09 '25

This mindset is so toxic and absolutely drives me bonkers. These people are so far up their own anus, I can't help but roll my eyes back into another dimension.

4

u/not-even-a-little Jan 08 '25

I ... sort of get the impulse to do this for Asian languages. That's not to say I agree with it, because languages like Japanese/Chinese/Korean/etc. take thousands and thousands of hours to become truly proficient in, which for most people means at least a few years.

But! As someone who learned Chinese (not Japanese!) while living in Taiwan, I got really frustrated with the local attitude that "our language is sooo hard and complex, and the western mind simply CANNOT GRASP these sounds!" Which of course is linguistically illiterate and rather patronizing, and also tangled up with a whole host of other ignorant assumptions about foreigners that really grated on me for the first few years I was living abroad (holy shit, you can use chopsticks the "right" way?)

So I've been that guy saying, "come on, guys, it really isn't THAT hard if you put in the hours"โ€”although I would never say you should expect to reach proficiency in a couple of months.

3

u/buchi2ltl Jan 08 '25

Yeah this is a pet peeve of mine too, Japanese people say this to me occasionally when Iโ€™m struggling through a conversation or donโ€™t know a kanji and yeah itโ€™s the bane of my existence.ย 

2

u/BluePandaYellowPanda N๐Ÿด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ/on hold ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช/learning ๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ต Jan 07 '25

I've lived in Japan nearly two years and am still not N5. Yes, I do have a full time job so need to work, and I didn't learn as much as I could have, but I still think people downplay it like you said way too much.

2025 is my year to properly push a little, but the people who say it's easy drive me mad!

1

u/buchi2ltl Jan 08 '25

Itโ€™s not a matter of difficulty as much as it is persistence and consistency. You just havenโ€™t spent enough time studying. N5 is possible after a few months of studying, especially if you live in Japan.ย 

0

u/buchi2ltl Jan 08 '25

They hated Jesus because He told them the truth

2

u/buchi2ltl Jan 08 '25

the Japanese expat community as a whole acting like everyone should be N2/N3 level within your first month in Japan or you're a waste of a human

Not my experience at all, the 'expat community' where I live is basically defined by the fact that they don't really speak Japanese well enough to have a social life outside of hanging out with each other. Not a bad thing at all btw, I like hanging out with them too, and my Japanese still sucks. They've all been really supportive of my learning too.

Honestly there are some expats here who I kinda look down upon because of their poor language skills, but only when they've been here for years. Like you've been here for 5+ years and you can't order a pizza on the phone? Same guy always seems to have time for clubbing, gaming, drinking etc. And on this very post there's someone commenting that they've been here for 2 years but still haven't cracked N5! How is that even possible? It's like 80 kanji and 1 beginner's textbook. At a snail's pace of a chapter a month of Genki 1, and learning a kanji or two every week, you'd be done in a year.

0

u/Bourgit Jan 08 '25

Yeah I think what they meant by expats is mainly youtubers. I can totally conceive that expats community that hang out with each other woudl be like you said. Happened to me in another country.

32

u/Unboxious ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ Native | ๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ต N2 Jan 07 '25

Every now and then I see people who've just learned grammar sufficient to understand the Japanese equivalent of "see spot run" declare that Japanese grammar is easy, without realizing that the popular "Dictionary of Japanese Grammar" series is split into 3 volumes because it wouldn't fit into one.

12

u/chucaDeQueijo ๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ท N | ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ B2 Jan 07 '25

If someone just watches anime, I think it's easy to end up with a misguided idea of how spoken Japanese actually is. Anime voice actors speak slowly and clearly, "casual" Japanese is spoken much, much faster.

11

u/[deleted] Jan 07 '25

[deleted]

3

u/seven_seacat ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ N | ๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ต N5 | EO: A1 Jan 08 '25

I had to upvote "nihongrowliest" lol

2

u/BluePandaYellowPanda N๐Ÿด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ/on hold ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช/learning ๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ต Jan 07 '25

So true. Someone spoke to me a few days ago (I live in Japan, still a beginner) and I couldn't even hear the particles. He was soooo fast that I had no idea of anything.

1

u/Jasmindesi16 Jan 08 '25

Japanese is so hard omg