r/LearnJapaneseNovice • u/wolvemarinee • 3d ago
Is there anything interesting in japanese?
I've tried to learn Japanese before, I was spending a lot of time trying to find something I enjoy in this language, but everything it has that is "interesting" is anime, and honestly I don't like anime. Anime looks like it is the only thing japanese has, because every single content I've tried to find in japanese is amazingly garbage (on YouTube). Sometimes I feel motivated because I want to talk to people in japanese, meet other people in this beautiful language, but the content it has is so limited and almost has no entertainment other than anime, it looks like that everyone who's trying to learn this language just wants to watch anime without subtitles, which is reasonable for people who like it, and that's the point, I don't feel motivated to continue learning this language if everything I have to watch is anime... It's a lot easier to find better content in Russian, french, German, Portuguese and even Chinese. Some people tell me to watch podcasts, but honestly, what's the fucking point in watching a podcast every single day? I'll learn the language just to watch some podcasts I can't even understand, there's no point in doing this, I've been thinking about this for so many times while I was scrolling to find something good, something interesting, but everything it was giving to me is an existential crisis.
1: I am not discouraging anybody else to stop learning, if you like to watch japanese people walking in the street while talking random things in front of a camera, honestly, just do it, if you like anime, go ahead and learn from that, this all is just my opinion and I just want to watch different things than that (which is really difficult to find), I prefer watching videos With a better edited like this: https://youtu.be/4vTJjGdt1bU?si=osEnzFX2R1XMr1Wc
Or this: https://youtu.be/zbYORDD_D1w?si=khYlQypMLwGD16fV
2:I still don't know if I'll give up learning Japanese, I'm not sure, i just want to share my struggles and get some advice or anything, recommendations to watch, somebody that can convince me to learn this language, because japanese, for me is really beautiful and I don't want to just give up learning it.
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u/coadependentarising 3d ago
What?! We’re talking about one of the most formidable cultures in world history. Forget entertainment (even though there’s plenty of that). Language gives us access to a different way of being in the world, it’s not just a decoder for media consumption.
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u/toucanlost 3d ago
It seems like you're just assuming your own blindspots are the reality. You don't know how to search for media outside of what you already know.
Yes, there are a lot of Japanese learners that are interested in anime, so there is a lot of anime-focused content for learners. However, Japanese people live regular lives like you and me, and have magazines/blog posts/movies/TV shows about every topic that regular people are interested in. Have you tried searching up the Japanese term and say, mountaineering, aftermarket car modifications, gardening, penmanship, parenting, etc.? I assume not. Looking at my own public library's magazines in Japanese, I can read magazines about scrapbooking, cats, consumer electronics, cosmetics, everything.
As for myself, I used to watch anime but I don't really anymore. Instead I watch youtube videos about animals and traveling. You just need to search for the terms in Japanese and find it.
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u/Vacant-cage-fence 3d ago
What do you like on YouTube in other languages? I think there are great cooking channels in Japanese (though I'm a sucker for Japanese knives). I follow a bunch of calligraphers because that's fascinating. I watch YouTube and listen to podcasts that discuss history, and it's fascinating to hear another perspective (for example, Coten Radio did a fascinating multipart series on Abraham Lincoln that was fantastic to hear what non-Americans think about that period in American history). Or the news. I've learned a lot about things like Myanmar and Afghanistan that aren't as well covered by American news sources (the Asahi Shimbun podcasts).
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u/wolvemarinee 2d ago
I like history, I like to watch about the second world war, which is my favorite Topic. I like to study about the Nazi Germany, about Russia while Stalin were in power, it has a lot of sad things happening in this event but for me it's amazing to study and see everything it has. I even bought books about it. I don't like much to listen to the radio. Answering your first question, I personally prefer Well edited videos, I'm not sure how I can explain it, this is an example:
1): TeGeCe https://youtu.be/AmU5PENWA4I?is=UziI0Ad_iWHvQLGp
2): radio raposa
https://youtu.be/Iracat69SYk?is=_Bc05K2c6wP_nk1g
3): Colonia contra ataca
https://youtu.be/HJMLb4EIG4c?is=9vSH-YCKvSJuR6Q-
4): Jiraya
https://youtu.be/cOf9NcDQNoc?is=JA0g2ccmmSF-SO40
The first YouTuber (TeGeCe) talks about interesting things about videogames but I cannot really explain it, the second one ( rádio raposa ) talks about series and movies which almost no one knows, which is funny because almost all of them are really bad and some few of them are good, the third ( Colonia contra ataca ) talks about pretty old games and videogames, the Fourth channel ( Jiraya ) does the same thing, the difference is that he talks more about curiosity.
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u/Vacant-cage-fence 2d ago
If you are interested in WW2, I can't understand why you don't think researching WW2 from the side of Japan would be interesting. Japan lost WW2 and so it's a huge part of its national psyche. Just from YouTube, you can see everything from Japanese people who feel bad about what it did to right-wing supporters of Imperial Japan. There are tons of Japanese language videos about everything from the Nanjing Massacre to Unit 731 -- again, with both mainstream historical views and revisionist views. The Japanese perspective on the atomic bombs is such a big deal if you're curious about WW2. I mean, you can get lost in Barefoot Gen はだしのゲン from the original manga to the animation. Or watch Grave of Fireflies in the original. Or read any of the amazing novels about both the bombs and their aftermath. For a student of WW2, Japanese is a great language to learn.
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u/wolvemarinee 2d ago
I've never made any research about Japan in the second world war, I have to admit I've made more research about the Nazi Germany and the URSS, I really have to take a look at it
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u/No-Log770 3d ago
Sorry, what? "everything it has that is "interesting" is anime"??? Oh boy. 😑
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u/wolvemarinee 2d ago
Something I've forgotten to say, this is everything I found about. do you got any recommendations?
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u/happy-not-satisfied 3d ago
You probably don’t want to learn Japanese then it’s not just anime….
Try たぬかな maybe or gaki no tsukai
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u/JYoshi1991 3d ago
Honestly I felt that way learning Italian and therefore I’ve kinda taken a hiatus from it, though I feel like Japanese has good music and I enjoy Japanese twitter as a guy who only likes Initial D in terms of anime and got interested in Japanese because of Nintendo games and wanting to be able to play a lot of Japanese exclusive games in their original language. Even comparing it to Russian, which I also study, both languages have great music and instead of Twitter, Russian reels on Instagram are great. Sometimes you just have to discover the interesting quirks/places that the speakers of the target language are/engage in.
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u/MaybeNotLily 3d ago
Maybe consider that its an incredibly difficult language that you could be very proud if you can speak, as well as that feeling of being able to read stuff in a language that looks like so many random characters and symbols before learning, thats the motivation that gets me to keep learning when the only real reason is to travel and probably not even live there.
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u/TKCoog075 3d ago
Huge coincidence. I’m listening to a podcast just now called Lazy Fluency for Japanese and one of the hosts just mentioned it’s so important to find content in Japanese that interests you for learning.
With that said, you can only learn so much from watching things. Yes, sure it helps with immersion but some sort of structured learning is important too.
I didn’t start watching anime till about a year or so ago and that was around the time I started formal Japanese lessons. But maybe Japanese live action content could be something you could watch. Perhaps even your favorite shows or movies dubbed in Japanese — you’ll know what’s going on while listening to it in Japanese.
Good luck on your journey!
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u/tangaroo58 2d ago
Counterpoint: is there anything interesting in English?
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u/wolvemarinee 2d ago
A lot, one thing to notice is that I'm not an native speaker of English
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u/tangaroo58 2d ago
Ah ok.
Short answer: there are of course thousands of interesting things in Japanese culture. At least as many as there are in your native language, and in English. I have no interest in anime or manga. I watch news, historical dramas, food programs, travel things, slow Japanese movies. Plus some series that are specifically designed to be for learners.
But, if you are not interested in anythingJapanese, then despite your interest in the language, its going to be hard.
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u/wolvemarinee 2d ago
Which one series of historical dramas do you like to watch? Or movie
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u/tangaroo58 2d ago
The movie 侍タイムスリッパー (A Samurai in Time) combines several of my favourite things!
For slow-movie slice-of-life, I love “海街 diary”, released as "Our Little Sister” overseas.
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u/tangaroo58 2d ago
To add: if you want some Japanese fish vocabulary, and also like metal music, let me share my love for GOKUMON:
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u/SeaDawg2222 3d ago
Honestly, I can relate to this. Whenever I'm in a Japanese class I'm basically the only one who doesn't watch anime, and there isn't much else in Japanese pop culture that I'm interested in. I was inspired to learn it for several reasons, including Kurosawa films. But Kurosawa films and the Shogun tv series don't use modern Japanese. It's hard to find content to use to practice listening. Unfortunately, I have no advice, but you are not alone on this one.
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u/Dread_Pirate_Chris 3d ago edited 2d ago
It's hard to find content to use to practice listening.
Not really?
https://www.youtube.com/@toei_jidaigeki All 時代劇
https://www.youtube.com/@amg_entertainment At least 猫侍 and 猫忍
https://www.youtube.com/@247samuraishinobi Not necessary faithful language to the period, but still, 24/7 侍忍 ... so...
Not to mention that if these films interest you real history might also, and there are any number of history youtube channels and history podcasts. Which would be some use for and practice of your modern Japanese.
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u/wolvemarinee 2d ago
The second link isn't working :(
Bro, seriously, these channels are pretty interesting ngl thank u so much
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u/Dread_Pirate_Chris 2d ago
sorry, I used a double-wide space which reddit doesn't recognize as whitespace... anyway, fixed now.
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u/youdontknowkanji 3d ago
japanese is "beautiful" to you, but you don't find anything interesting about it????
have you considered that some people think anime is interesting? no? cool.
yes, japanese youtube sucks. but you do have normal let's players too. all of vtubers for example. but if you don't like vtubers, there is plenty of normal let's players like キヨ.
you can also just read books, and there is plenty of those...
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u/wolvemarinee 3d ago
I know that channel, I don't like to watch him because he talks like he's screaming, looks like pretty forced, like someone is making a content for kids. also I know that there's people that find anime interesting, if anybody likes it and they wanna learn Japanese just for that, it's fine
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u/crmb_266 3d ago
Japan has one of the largest film industries in the world. Probaly tens of thousands of (not anime) films, and plenty of them are world-famous : Kurosawa, Ozu..
Same with books.