What are some hobbies or skills to learn with your second language

I want to use my Japanese to learn something new a hobby that’s a skill and has decent dialogue what are some of your hobbies?

HOBBY

1)A skill hobby like ex)coding, fishing video games etc. I can use it and learn it

Not hobbies like origami tho fun however as it would not be useable in jobs

So far fishing sounds fun tho idk if the piano will have enough dialogue

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Learning and instrument like guitar, piano, etc and finding materials in that language might be interesting.

Also learning how to play an instrument of that culture (like learning about how it’s played or purchasing one and learning songs by YouTubers/teachers) who teach it would be another idea of a hobby.

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Reading books/creating playlists in the language your studying (Japanese) of books you read in Japanese are some other ideas, too.

I’m sure there are Japenese-speaking booktubers that you could check out on YouTube, too.

Just an extra idea.

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I personally do Judo, so I would say martial arts can help, especially because you constantly hear the words repeated. There are lots of judo instructionals online for free, some with subtitles. If you can translate this to English that would be great ;).
Katsuhiko Kashiwazaki - Newaza of Kashiwazaki - YouTube

For hobbies I generally use wikipedia to pursue knowledge about subjects (Japanese wikipedia is huge).

I take lessons of Japanese in Slovak and it made me appreciate I do have some functioning Slovak. I would say after a while try and get language instructionals in Japanese if you want to learn another language.

You can use Improve your Japanese pronunciation using YouTube (youglish.com) to search for any hobbies, like how to put up a shelf or origami.

I personally use core texts for any language, the famed polyglot Emil Krebs did this with the bible (probably other stuff too). I personally use Bill Bryson´s A Brief History of Nearly Everything as it has the fundamental sciences we all know. Then I am starting to look at diary books like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, will hunt for something like Adrian Mole later. Kid´s encyclopedias are really good as well as they are written in such a way pretty much all people in that language have learned.

I would then personally look at Japanese literature and try to find a famous Japanese book from the past 20, 40, 60 and 100 years as quite likely these have had an impact on the Japanese language. I am now reading The Red Room in Swedish, but I will get an English translation to make sure I see how it gets translated into English because understanding what is said in a language often doesn´t quite get across the “social” context. For example most English speakers know what a black tie dress code is, but perhaps don´t realise what they´re reading in Swedish is the translation of this and think both things are seperate terms for different types of formal wear. They in fact say “smoking” which comes from English “smoking jacket” where people used to wear a special jacket to smoke in because they only washed once a week or so. Smoking – Wikipedia The first time I read “smoking” I thought “ok, it is to do with smoking jacket” but I didn´t think it meant black tie. This comes from a period where the upper class was generally very internationalised and conventions were put into ettiquette guides. I am quite certain (as Victorian culture was popular in Japan) a similar set of ettiquette guides exist in Japanese, using English/European loan words.

If you are pursuing a hobby and ARE ALREADY good at it in your own language, make sure you use things like Wikipedia to hunt for it in your language, then click to the Japanese. Other than that you need a native speaker who is wise to ask questions to. A core problem you have is believing every native is an expert in their language, and they´re not. So whilst you can learn with natives, you can´t often ask them a question which makes sense. My grandfather was good at Italian, he knew an Italian guy at a restaurant and would come in and talk to him with his 18th Century Italian classics vocab, and the chef would always laugh and say “Where did you hear this word? I don´t even know it…” he got valuable feedback (not every Italian knows those words) but he couldn´t ask him for Italian language tips as the guy was a “black box” operator.

If you´re learning a hobby you´re not good at in your own language, you will have to accept the fact you will probably need to learn about it in your own language too. Otherwise you´ll come across a lot of misconceptions about what words mean or how they can be used in different contexts.

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Very interesting ya I thought about learning it in my language too but then I was like it be so cool to know about mountain climbing but only in Japanese

It sounds fun I’m checking out that guy in judo I do boxing karate jeet kundo kickboxing and white crane boxing for years now but only in my native language English :confused:ive all ways wanted to learn kendo as I like the style and way it works but I feel like it’s like piano less how to play more actually playing so less dialogue

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There is a lot of material about how to do these activities in Japanese, so you shouldn´t just go to the lessons, but read about the history etc.

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Ive read one history book about Castles in Japan and what their where called etc super awesome very tuff book to read tho I love literature natsume soseki is awesome hard book but I love literature and history too

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Cooking. Cooking tv shows is particular.

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Reading has to be the most beneficial ‘hobby’ of all, doesn’t it? You can learn about anything in books, plus you can then go and find videos related to the subjects that most interest you in your reading. If it has to be something ‘hands-on’ then I guess something like programing, but even then you need to read a lot about it.

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If I actually want to really badly learn the information, I choose to do it in my mother tongue. It just takes me longer to do it in a second language, as my memory isn’t as great in it.

If you want to learn something for your job, just imagine that you will learn much slower in your second language than your mother tongue, unless you are at an advanced level in the language.

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Interesting question, and of course the first ideas should be ones you would do (or would love to do) irrespective of language.

In terms of ‘being clever’… one aspect of a language which can be incredibly difficult to learn are all the cultural references. All the snack bars, the 90s TV shows, the political scandals, and of course the music groups, the celebrities etc… so one hobby could be fun and lighthearted and enjoy “popular Japanese culture” - and aim to be superficial!

EDIT: WORK related? Don’t forget how essential small talk is at work, and popular culture is up there with the weather for office small talk!!

On a similar line, what about something collectible… certain comics, clothes, film posters, stamps, wasabi etc etc I am sure there is a collectors/afficionados group for everything!!! Could you collect something related to your profession?

just a couple of ideas!

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Learning to play a musical instrument while exploring materials and resources in a specific language can indeed be a fascinating and enriching experience.

I tried to combine the two with the help of nursery rhymes, hahaha.

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I think any hobby where you have to build, compose and prepare things would lead you to learning quite a bit of vocabulary, so cooking, gardening/farming, any type of building/construction, maybe even owning certain pets like fish could help you.

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