Is it normal i want to be illiterate in japanese?

It's such a complex language and I have no interest in learning kanji, hiragana and katakana - which make up the writing system.

I just want to be able to speak it and understand what people are saying!!

Sooo... Is it normal? Anyone else out there who wants to be illiterate too? :P

Voting Results
62% Normal
Based on 21 votes (13 yes)
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Comments ( 30 )
  • charli.m

    Well, you already are, so congrats, I guess?

    What you presumably mean is you want to be verbally fluent or something.

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    • LornaMae

      You're such a party pooper! :P

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      • CozmoWank

        I'm flatulent in at least 7 languages.

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        • leggs91200

          Oh mother of fucks! It would take YOU to come up with that.

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          • LornaMae

            Oh, leggs! Stop being such a fangirl! LOL

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            • leggs91200

              some of the random things Cosmo comes up with though, that fucker is hilarious.

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        • LornaMae

          I wouldn't expect any less than 7 from you, Cozmo!!

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      • charli.m

        Is this your post?

        Don't you have enough languages??? There'll be none left for the rest of us!! :P

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        • LornaMae

          Hahaha, yup, that's me.

          Sometimes I feel you guys here have been picking something in a post that is not exactly the main point and refuse to accept OPs' little jokes for what they are, just silly ways of asking things rather than with a boring question like "IIN I want to speak and understand Japanese and not to read or write?" I mean, I obviously know that all I want is to be able to communicate, like children learning their mother tongue! ;)

          I just find it more fun to see it how I do AND wanted to know if anyone else has wanted or done that with any language. When did IIN lose its sense of humor and start nitpicking? That's what I've been asking myself the last few months... :/ Oof! Feel sort of nice to have put it out there but I also feel like I should apologize! Haha. It's just rhetorical, though; I don't really need an answer.

          Anyway, I can also work with the possibility that it's not as funny to others as it is to me. Hahahaha! :P

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          • SwickDinging

            People here call that trolling. They call everything trolling. It's kind of annoying. I think people want this to be a humour free zone.

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          • charli.m

            I didn't think I was that harsh :/ I didn't pick up it was meant to be a joke, sure, but I didn't think the OP was dumb before I knew it was you (or after I knew, shut up :P) and there have been an abundance of posts of people asking one thing but presumably meaning something else, so...

            I was just glad to see one that was innocent.

            Honestly, most questions here nowadays AREN'T light hearted fun. A lot has changed. I'll readily admit I'm a lot more jaded than I used to be, but I maintain it's down to...well. You know my opinions.

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            • IrishPotato

              Yes you were brutal.

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            • LornaMae

              To be fair, you weren't! :)

              And I do know why. I just reeeally miss the lightheartedness!

              Are we both going to keep editing our replies?! Hahahahaha

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  • 309uf2o38yf

    Lol that's funny to me because I can read Kana and a few Kanji, but have zero interest in speaking the language. I just like the writing system. 😂

    ..I have a strong interest in being illiterate in Mandarin, though. 😁

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    • LornaMae

      Nice! I was curious to know if anyone else had that interest in learning exclusively spoken communication. Might I ask why Mandarin in particular? And why not the reading/writing?

      EDIT: I must add that I think the writing system is awesome but I just don't want to spend so much time on it (it demands a LOOOOT of it!) and having to correlate to the spoken words.

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      • 309uf2o38yf

        It only took me a couple weeks to learn kana. They are pretty easy, all in the same pattern with slight changes. If you know one, you can guess the whole row.

        I'd like to learn Mandarin and Spanish since they are the most widely-spoken business languages in the world besides English. Very useful for the medical field.

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        • LornaMae

          Xie xie!

          ¡Hola! ¿Qué tal?

          :D

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  • donteatstuffoffthesidewalk

    its pretty easy to git by in english in japan

    most places what dont host english language aint welcome to non japanese people anyhow

    theyre kinda insular and suspicious that way

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    • LornaMae

      Interesting, hadn't thought of it. Oh well, I'd be content with just understanding some Japanese movies. I do want to go there and would enjoy overhearing conversations that I can follow partially, you know?

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  • SwickDinging

    I think this is normal. I have a fuck load of Japanese and Chinese friends and for the most part only the ones born and raised in the motherland can actually read and write in their language. Everyone else says they tried to learn but gave up, despite being bilingual.

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  • leggs91200

    I think we are illiterate in most languages by default.
    Except maybe our own. If course typical Trump supporters are illiterate in English, which is our own language.

    I am opposite though - I can read and write a little in French but almost nill in speaking/hearing.

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    • LornaMae

      I can understand knowing how to read and write in a language but I've never heard of anyone just wanting to speak it, that's mainly why I was curious about it! Bisous!

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      • leggs91200

        It is kind of rough though that knowing a language fully requires four skills - read, write, speak, hear.

        Of course read and write go hand in hand but kind of separately from speak and hear.

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  • Boojum

    Guess what? Virtually every three-year-old Japanese kid is illiterate, but can speak enough Japanese to get by.

    What you want is a class or course in conversational Japanese.

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    • LornaMae

      I already knew that but thanks. :)

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