"Anime and You"

I have been browsing many things about Japan or dealing with Japan on the internet for the past few days(seeing how it's winter break, and I have nothing to do), but I found an amusing group on facebook dealing with Anime in general.

http://www.facebook.com/wall.php?id=2218249813&page=3&hash=34ebc0e6d010986cf91376b0587258e0#/group.php?gid=2218249813

"Anime is not a valid reason to learn Japanese"

Now, this group's title is misleading. Very misleading. After reading comments on the group's wall, I have come to find out that it doesn't mean that anime isn't a valid reason to learn Japanese, but that anime should not be the ONLY reason to learn Japanese (that, and to bitch and complain about all those American otaku that put "kawaii" and "sugoi" into every little sentence). My opinion is mainly with the group, but I want to comment on some of the comments and other things members have said myself.

When people start learning Japanese today, the majority have seen anime, read manga, or have played some type of video game (the last one being the most done). I admit, when I found out I could take Japanese before the freshman year of high school, I wanted to take it to be able to translate video games. At that time, I really wanted to work at Nintendo and translate games and such. But, as I further progressed into Japanese, there was much more to be found with the culture and history (history in general I like all around, unbeknown to me) which I became interested in. With most people that take and continue with Japanese, they realize this too. I found a lot of the people that took Japanese (especially in high school) where heavily into video games, anime, and manga. But, I felt because they didn't continue to press their ability in Japanese and learn to appreciate other parts of the Japanese culture, they soon come to realize that they just couldn't learn the language (and not surprisingly, all either dropped out of the class or failed it). You have to find many things to enjoy about the country's culture before you can enjoy learning the language that you're studying. This goes past Japanese and can be applied to any language.

It's not just American otakus (Ataku was the word that I gave them a while back, but never quite carried on) that see Japanese as only a way to understand Naruto or Bleach, but I think this also applies to the obsessive fans of J-Pop and J-rock singers too. But, Japanese songs in J-Pop and J-Rock deal more and more with mainstream Japan, so this group of people that want to study Japanese to be able to understand and translate the latest Hamazaki Ayumi or Gackt song actually are slightly different, but if they only study Japanese for that reason, then they are on the same boat as these Atakus. However, if both groups realize that there are more things about Japan and Japanese than their own interests and take an interest in other things, then there is no problem.

With Japanese, the way you study should be something you enjoy. The easiest way to probably to study like that is through either anime/manga, video games, or songs. Other ways include watching sumo matches, practicing Kendo, Judo, or Kyudo, watching Japanese dramas such as "Hana Yori Dango" and "Lost Friends". It is generally good that you should find something you enjoy about the language or something that uses the language and go with that when you are practing/studying. This does not counteract the previous argument that your hobby should not be the only reason for studying Japanese or wanting to go to Japan.

That being said, another comment comes from the fact that people thing Japan is full of anime/manga/video game stores and cat girls run the streets. Quite a misconception.

Truth behold that there are quite a bit of stores selling anime/manga and video games here (even outside of akibahara) and almost all bookstores I've been to sell manga. But, these things are like pop-culture to Japanese. The average Japanese young person has probably watched Dragonball when they were a kid, but outside of that (and saying things like "nazukashii" when something relating to that is brought up in conversation to them), they aren't obsessive or really into the series as some ataku are. They're used to it. There are Japanese people here that are really into TV sitcoms and American movies here, but to me I don't really think too much about them unless I really enjoy them too. Basically, if you're used to a culture and such, don't be expected to be shocked that people from another country like parts of your culture. The same thing is true with the Japanese culture. Don't expect everyone to be as obsessive or knowledgeable as you are with your anime/manga/video games. Or, don't expect everyone to care about your anime/manga/video games as much as you or even at all. Remember, everyone is different in Japan, and even if they have heard of something you might bring up in conversation, they might not know or care about it.

Anime is a great look into Japanese culture, but it shouldn't be your only window (dramas, music, movies, chatting online with a real Japanese person living in Japan, reading books are more alternatives as well). A lot of times, anime is also wrong on the culture it's portraying. Things that happen in anime DO NOT NECESSARILY HAPPEN in Japan. Catgirls are fiction.