Why learning Japanese is a complete WASTE of time

Okay, so just let me set my camera up.

I've got a new setup for making videos. I

think it's pretty good. Listen to this.

Listen,

sounds like a baby Wookiee from Star Wars.

Okay, so first of all, just let me clear

up my desk a bit. It's a bit of a mess.

Sandwich wrapper. And if you're wondering

why I'm in an Airbnb, well, I'm not going

to tell you because if I do, then people

will start saying, Daniel's making fake

content again, and I find that extremely

insulting. So to prove to you that it's

not fake, I'm just not going to say

anything about it, and I'm not going to

make a video about it. Okay, so back to

the video topic. Why you should not waste

your time learning Japanese. And the

reason why I'm making this video is

because I've noticed a lot of channels, a

lot of new channels, making videos

teaching Japanese and trying to promote

the idea of learning Japanese. And the

Japanese language is a very popular

language to learn. It's one of the most

popular languages that us Westerners and

non-Westerners like to learn as a second

language because, you know, anime is very

popular And I was also one of those people

who loved anime and wanted to learn

Japanese because I loved anime so much.

Well, I thought I would make a video

countering all of those pro-learn-Japanese

videos. I wasted a lot of time, a lot of

money, and a lot of effort learning

Japanese, and I can honestly say right now

it doesn't really help me in my life. I

don't really benefit from being able to

speak speak Japanese very much. And maybe

after watching this video, I can also help

you save a lot of time and money.

Okay, so first of all, learning Japanese

takes a lot of time. You can't just pick

it up in a few months or a few weeks. You

can't just get one of those books and then

flip through it or take some kind of

1-hour, 60-minute course and then you can

speak it. No, maybe you can learn a few

phrases and greetings and basic stuff,

but it's going to take you years,

a lot of time, to even be able to speak

to another Japanese person without needing

to rely on English. So we've established

that it's going to take you at least a few

years before you'll even be able to

understand it and be able to use it That's

a long time. Do you really want to invest

2 years or a year or half a year of your

life, of your precious time on this

planet, which is— let me just remind you,

it's extremely limited. If you're young,

you might be thinking, hey, I'm young,

I'm gonna live forever. You're not. I used

to think like that, and then I woke up one

day and I realized I'm 30

and I've wasted half my life. So I'm

trying to help you, okay? Trying to help

you not waste your life like I did.

There's just so many other things in the

world that you could be using that

precious time on learning. For example,

learning the stock market or science or

mathematics, you know, things that are way

more useful and practical and important in

real life than learning some foreign

language. Let's just imagine that you have

decided to learn Japanese and you've spent

a couple years learning it. And you're

pretty good, you're not bad, you've gotten

level 2 JLPT, and you finally move to

Japan. It's your first time here, and then

you realize you don't actually like Japan

that much. You don't like it. You feel sad

and lonely, and you miss your home. You

miss shepherd's pie, and you miss your

mum, and then you end up going home,

never to come back to Japan again. Well,

you've just wasted all those years

learning a language that you don't really

need to, to use anymore because you're not

living in Japan because you didn't like

it. If you're learning a different

language like Chinese or English or

Spanish, well, at least there's loads of

other countries you can use those

languages in. For Japanese,

unfortunately, Japan is the only country

where you'll be able to use it. Sure,

there's probably small Japanese

communities in other countries, but no one

really cares about those people. The only

way Japanese is going to be useful to you

is if you live in Japan. If you live

outside of Japan, then It's not really

important to know. Sometimes people like

to say, if you're going to another

country, then you have to learn their

language, and I really don't like it when

people say this because no, you don't have

to learn their language, and it's

completely impractical to learn every

country's language if you're just going to

go there for a few weeks to visit. You

can't expect us people who like travelling

to different countries all the time— you

can't expect us to know how to speak 20

different languages. And then you might be

thinking, well, you, you should at least

learn the basics, learn a few basic

phrases and greetings. Why? Everyone knows

the basic phrases and greetings in

English. I'm pretty sure everyone in the

world understands the word hello and

goodbye and thank you. So if you're coming

to Japan just for a short trip, just for a

few weeks, you do not need to know any

Japanese. You can get by perfectly fine

without knowing any Japanese words.

Everyone likes to say how Japanese people

aren't very good at speaking English, and

this is true, but they know the basics.

They know yes and no and hello and

how much. And with those 4 words,

you can basically do anything you want to

do. You go into a restaurant, you just say

how much, and then you point at it, and

then you say one please. They understand

the word please and numbers. They're not

that silly. Seriously, what is the point

of going to the trouble of learning how to

say basic phrases and greetings and

numbers in a foreign language when

Everyone all over the world understands

hello and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

It's really not necessary. If you get

lost, you don't have to ask for

directions. You can just open Google Maps.

There's Wi-Fi everywhere, and most of the

staff who work at train stations and

hotels know how to speak English because

they're expected to have to deal with

foreigners and visitors and travelers. So

yeah, obviously they'll know how to speak

basic English. Even if you're living here

long-term like I am, you still don't

really need to be able to speak Japanese.

If you want to go and buy food, you just

go to a shop, pick up what you want, put

it on the counter, give them the money,

and they give you your change. I just

don't really think that living in Japan is

difficult if you don't know how to use

Japanese. I've been living here for nearly

2 years and I don't speak to anyone. If I

want to buy stuff, I'll just buy it off

Amazon. If I get lost, I'll look at Google

Maps. If I want to buy food, I'll go into

a convenience store. It's not difficult at

all. I feel like there's a lot of

fearmongering amongst the foreigners

living in Japan YouTube community.

They'll keep going on about how important

it is, and it's like they're trying to

scare you. It's like they're trying to

say, oh, it's so difficult to learn this

language, and if you don't learn it, this

will happen and that will happen, and

you'll have a really miserable time. It

kind of feels like they want us to want to

learn Japanese so we carry on watching

their silly learn Japanese videos and we

buy their books and then we sign up to the

overpriced rip-off Patreons where they

teach you Japanese phonetics for $10 a

month. As if I would pay $10 a month to

learn Japanese from a non-Japanese person.

That would be like learning how to swim

from a person who doesn't even have any

legs. If I could go back in time before I

decided to learn Japanese, I don't think I

would learn it again. I don't think I

would bother. I think I'd rather just have

my money back and my time back and my

effort back. And that brings me to the

next thing I want to talk about: the JLPT,

the Japanese Language Proficiency Test.

That is also a massive waste of time. I

see loads of videos about how to pass JLPT

Level 2, Level 1, tricks for the JLPT

exam. They get loads of views because

loads of people are interested in passing

that exam. When it's just a complete waste

of time. In order to pass the JLPT Level 2

and Level 1, you have to learn all of this

completely useless Japanese. I had to

learn all of these complex grammar

structures and all of these very

complicated ways of making sentences that

I never even used after I passed the exam.

I never had to use those grammar bits ever

again, and I just forgot them. So what was

the point of learning them in the first

place? And you end up spending so much

money on learning material, books and

courses and lessons, and then you have

to pay for the exam, and then if you fail

the exam, you have to wait a whole year

until you can take it again. And then even

if you pass the exam and you get the

certificate saying you have level 2 JLPT,

Japanese people don't even know what it

is, so it's not that useful for getting a

job. I came to Japan about 8 years ago on

the working holiday visa, and I thought,

wow, I have level 2 JLPT, this is going to

really help me get a job. Guess what? It

didn't, because the people interviewing me

didn't even know what the JLPT was. In the

same way that English people don't know

what the TOEIC is, you know, the English

exam that Japanese people take, Japanese

people don't really know about exams for

passing Japanese proficiency tests.

Having the level 2 JLPT certificate didn't

help me at all when it came to getting a

job in Japan. When I got my job at Lawson,

the convenience store, they didn't even

know what the JLPT was. They just

interviewed me and spoke to me in

Japanese, and I had to speak to them back

in Japanese. And once they were satisfied

and happy that I could speak in Japanese,

then they gave me the job. They didn't

say, oh, Oh, you have level 2 JLPT?

Well, we'll give you the job straight

away. No, it doesn't work like that. Even

when I got my job at the kitchen, um, he

didn't know what the JLPT was either. He

was like, what's that? And I had to

explain to him what it was. He didn't

really care and he laughed, spoke to me in

Japanese, and I spoke to him back and he

said, wow, Daniel, your Japanese is very

good. And then he gave me the job on the

spot. So what was the point of trying to

learn it then if I didn't even need it?

And you just have to learn all this

pointless rubbish that isn't even that

important. You won't even use it in real

life. So, um,

yes, I would say JLPT

is a waste of time, and learning Japanese

was a waste of time in my case.

Maybe for other people it wasn't a waste

of time. I'm just talking from my own

personal experience, and this is my own

opinion. I'm not saying any of this as,

you know, facts. Everyone's different.

But for my own, my own story,

I don't think I made a wise decision to

spend so much time, effort, and money

learning language— learning this language

that I don't really see myself using much,

or probably won't even use ever again.

You know, just like Korean. What a waste

of time learning Korean was. Spent so much

time learning that and I haven't used it

for 4 years. 4 years without using

something you've learned. It's just a

waste of time to learn things if you're

not going to use it. So yeah, that's why I

don't like learning things nowadays,

because What if— what if I learn it and

then I don't end up— I end up not using

it? It's really hard to talk and play this

stupid game at the same time, isn't it?

What I'm trying to say is it takes a very

long time to learn anything. Otherwise,

it's not really worthwhile to learn. And

by the time you've learnt it and gone to a

good level of skill, you might not even

care about it anymore.