Why I'm Studying Japanese

There are a whole host of reasons why I've decided to embark on the quest to learn Japanese.  

 

First of all, I am genuinely interested in the language and culture.  Ever since I first saw the Samurai exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art at age 10, I have had a fascination of Japanese people and Japanese things.  While I never really got much into anime (although there are a few programs I have liked), the parts of Japan that have interested me the most are Zen Buddhism, the technology, Japanese tea, and of course the food.  The language itself is also pleasing to my ear, and I am curious how much it is different or the same from the other language I am learning: Korean.

Additionally, I need to take three years of Japanese for credit in order to complete my Phd degree in East Asian Languages and Cultures.  My concentration is actually not exactly Japanese studies; I'm actually specializing in modern Korean history.  However, during the first half of the 20th century, Korea was under colonial occupation of the Japanese empire.  Therefore, if I want to use any primary source documents in learning the history of the era, I should know as much Japanese as I can.  I also have a special interest in the Japanese intellectual history of the Meiji period when ideas from the West were absorbed and modified to fit the aspiration and desires of Japanese figures at the time.  I believe the process of making value judgements as to what was modern versus what was tradition in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Japan was very similar to the discourses of modernity and tradition in twentieth century Korea (for both the North and South).  This is an important connection to make considering that many intellectuals who took prominent roles in the early governments of North and South Korea were in fact educated in Japan.

 

 

In terms of what I have found exciting and/or challenging so far, I have to say that I am surprised how much of the language we have learned already.  In just over a month, we have covered basic expressions, time and date, transportation, daily routines,and survival scenarios in Japanese.  The most challenging thing I have found so far has been the different ways to say numbers based on the context.  I am aware that in English we have different ways to express numbers (cardinal vs. ordinal numbers), but with Japanese, there are so many different number sets and it is hard to keep track of all the rules.  For example, I still haven't mastered when to say "fun" and when to say "ppun" for minutes.

I look forward to learning more Japanese, especially when it comes to speaking and Kanji.  I have studied traditional Chinese characters in academic Korean, so I am interested in the differences in pronunciation and in the writing of the characters.  I am not sure if we will do much Kanji this semester, but whenever we do learn it, I think I will enjoy it.

 

In any case, the ride (of learning Japanese) has nearly just begun..!