the need to read

[jinian]

It really seems like Japanese people believe that their language is ONE HUNDRED PERCENT IMPENETRABLE. I am fairly good at languages, but picking up the kanji for "water" and noticing it's also used for "Wednesday" is not an advanced-level thing and doesn't really warrant "wow you are so amazing" levels of praise. It's mostly that (1) I need to decode some things, like in the grocery store and trains, so I use a tiny dictionary, and (2) I am a compulsive reader, so if there's text I'm going to try to puzzle it out. Turns out when you try to learn things you may enjoy the occasional success!