Why the current culture of the Japanese language learning community is so unnecessarily toxic and elitist, and why it needs to die: a thread

It’s no secret that anime, manga, and video games are some of Japan’s most popular and far-reaching cultural exports. Though they obviously aren’t the only ones, the sheer influence that they have had on people outside of Japan cannot be understated.

I’m sure many of us learners of Japanese have grown up with at least one of these in some way (Kingdom Hearts and Magical Doremi were my ish!), and maybe they were the reason, or one of the reasons we became interested in Japan, and started studying Japanese.

And you know what? That’s wonderful! Everyone’s きっかけ is uniquely theirs.

But somehow the jp language learning comm. has become a contest to prove how “serious” one is about learning jp + how ppl who don’t slave over their textbooks and Anki decks for fifty-eleven hours everyday to prep for the JLPT are useless weebs who aren’t TRUE jp learners.

The community has deteriorated into shitting on learners whose reasons for studying jp are somehow “lesser” (i.e. studying to understand anime without subs, play video games in Japanese, read light novels etc.) because they relate to Japanese popular culture and entertainment.

If your reasons are more ”mature,” like wanting to be a translator or land a higher paying job in Japan with your fluent jp skills, then you get cheers and a slap on the back as you’re welcomed into the Real Japanese Scholar Club.

And then there’s this air of condescension from advanced-level learners. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen beginners told to “just skip” JLPT N5/N4 because they’re “a waste of money” or that JLPT N2/N1 certificates are the only thing with any value.

I also believe that the domination of white men (with Japan fetishes high key) in jp language learning circles has further contributed to this elitism, as they continue to try and surpass each other for the title of “most fluent gaijin.”

They won’t be like those other dumb weeb gaijin who mangle precious jp words with their clumsy Western lips. They will perfectly pronounce every つ and る and gaijin everywhere will cower, and Japanese people will すごーい at their divine pitch accent.

Speaking of pitch accent, let’s talk about D*g*n, because I feel that he has contributed to this elitism, however unintentionally.

There is no denying that this man’s jp skills are incredible, but his pitch accent fixation and tired “joZU DeSu NeYy” jokes have all the white men who idolize him believing that it’s D*og*n’s way or no way at all.

Like God forbid someone says 学生 with a little too much stress in the wrong place.

He has all these white men tripping over their feet and salivating at the mouth to be him, a white man who’s Japanese is so good that suddenly he (again, a whole Caucasian) is the Massiah of all things nihongo.

It just does not sit right with me, having a white man be diefied because he “conquered” the mystifying ways of the Japanese tongue.

I might feel differently if D*g*n made efforts to humanize himself to his audience more, maybe show himself tripping over his words in the bloopers to his skits...

... share his own personal struggles with the language, show his viewers that your Japanese does not need to be flawless, or even advanced, to be valid.

Maybe this sort of unscripted stuff is offered in his Patreon, but I wouldn’t know.

Anyway, to sum up this thread, a beginner’s こんにちは、お元気ですか is just as valid as the student who just passed N1.

And y’all look stupid as hell trying to shit on others’ progress just to make yourselves feel more important. Over a hobby as harmless as language learning. Like damn.