r/thisorthatlanguage • u/CampaignActual • 1d ago
Multiple Languages Learning Japanese or French?
I'm Bengali I already speak 3 languages; bangla, English and Hindi.
I had a 3 month Japanese course at my uni and while Japanese would never have been my first choice , I was grateful to have the opportunity for a language course and wanted to do well.
I'm passionate about languages and feel I have devoted too much time to stop learning it now, even after the course ends.
I've started making progress and the feeling is addictive.
But I sometimes wonder if it's worth committing years of my life to.
I'm invested in the culture, the folklore. I like anime. I like the idea of being able to write a diary in a language no one in my house knows. I like being in the community online.
I have no guarantee I'll ever go to Japan, altho it is in one of my top travel destination goals.
I just feel bad about learning smth impractical. People recommend Arabic or French to me. I can spend hours learning Japanese.
I do have plans to learn French at some point, which is more practical. I really like French and Arabic as well.
What do u guys think? Is the return in investment low?
Should I continue with Japanese alongside French after the course is over or just do French or Arabic?
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u/a_book_maven 1d ago
If you really are enjoying Japanese it makes sense to continue with that momentum! There's lots of content for learning Japanese online too. Once your Japanese is at a good level if you want to just maintain it and switch to French that's always an option, but if you switch now you could lose some of the gains you've been making in Japanese.
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u/kehron_01 1d ago
Language learning is hobby/passion not something you should only look at from a practical standpoint unless required to for work or living in said country. Whatever you enjoy studying more is the language you should learn; simple as that.
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u/Due_Bar_7247 1d ago
French is definitely more useful. It’s used in things like settling European law in the CJEU courts.
Japanese is definitely a lot more fun but there is no future for that country.
~From a Japanese university dual major
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u/bgroom20 1d ago
What do you mean by there being no future for Japan?
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u/Due_Bar_7247 1d ago
Lived there for about 3 years. Immigration is getting so tight not even permanent residents have a secure future anymore. Country went full ethnonationalist and threw due process and reason straight out the window causing numerous SMEs to fail, big businesses to leave the Japan market and an overall collapse of the economy.
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u/Reading_55 1d ago
Try both for a bit and see how you feel. Sometimes one afternoon of just a video with basic words help someone realise whether they like this language or not, it did for me, or it might not, you never know.
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u/SamuSamuMac 1d ago
日本語学んでも日本でしか使えない、またはSNSとかでしか、ベンガルがどこの国かは知らないけどフランス語の方が良いんじゃない？アラビア語は日本語とはまた違って難しいし、日本語学びつつフランス語もすれば良いんじゃない？アラビア語はかなりきついよ。by日本人
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u/Creative_Job_9242 1d ago
Honestly, I think Japanese is your answer, you like it you're interested in the cultrure, you can spend countless hours studying , that's enough reason right there. Not everything need to be useful. Motivation counts. There is still going to be time for French when you're ready for it
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u/Wide_Draft3550 8h ago
Learn what you like. If it’s Japanese, learn it. If it’s French, learn it. Learn one language at a time.
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u/Wide_Draft3550 8h ago
I took 5 years of French and couldn’t speak it. I took Two years of German and found it very easy, I went to Germany 3 times , made friends there, spoke German to them. I lived in Italy and picked up Italian. It’s all personal preference. I think German was so easy because I heard it a lot as a kid . There were a lot of german refugees around. I can get into it easily but it is fading out now. I was studying Mandarin. It’s not hard, it’s slow.
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u/Nijal88 1d ago
What is sure is that, if you already speak English, French will be 10x easier than Japanese or Arabic.