12 Completely (Un)inspiring Images To Help You Learn Kanji

Because it’s a Saturday, and because I just know you need the inspiration, I’ve put together twelve images that will surely inspire you to jump on the kanji train. Choo choo. Kanji train coming in for a landing (yeah, the kanji train flies). Using the absolutely awesome online voluntary sweatshop-wage labor tool Mechanical Turk, I’ve been able to procure some inspiration for you. What I did was simple: I put a job up, asking people to write something that was both inspirational and kanji-related, and then take a picture of themselves. Of course, that got all sorts of interesting, and very uninspiring results, but at the very least it should give you a case of the chuckles.

This guy obviously hearts kanji. You can tell by the way he’s smiling so… wait a second…

Yes! Yes! Yes! What else is there to say about this one? Oh man.

What a frickin’ sweet beard this guy has. If that beard isn’t inspiring, I don’t know what is.

Yes you can.

This dude is reading dictionaries for fun on a Friday night. Sweet!

This person totally went all out.

It’s funny because… well, just read it.

Props for the haiku. Unprops for the talking about Papt. Not cool man, not cool.

Nice face, miss!

This isn’t ChatRoulette, is it?

Do his thumbs up makes you inspired?

This guy believes in you. His stare says “I believe in you… and I may murder you in your sleep if you don’t study.”

So, if clown-wig guy, hard for kanji guy, or devil mask man didn’t totally inspire you to dive head first into kanji study now, I don’t know what will. Then again, maybe it isn’t only about inspiration? Maybe part of it is working hard and motivating yourself? Nah. It’s definitely clowns that got me to learn kanji. Happy Saturday, everyone.

Oh Mechanical Turk, I love you.

P.S. If you need some proper inspiration, you should subscribe to Tofugu’s newsletter.

P.P.S. If you can’t handle all the inspiration already, you should follow Tofugu on Twitter.

  • D:))) GREAT POST

    first :D

  • Pixicot

    Thanks for this great post, the expressions sum up a lot of my feelings and frustrations. I will now keep on “Ganbatte”, totally inspired by these images, ha ha : )

  • http://www.cassandraland.com/ Cassandra

    That was quite hilarious.

  • http://blog.rainbowhill.com.au/ Rainbowhill

    Why do people always have to mention PAPT! It tears me up.

  • http://kellydolljapan.blogspot.com/ KellyDoll

    Beard guy definitely inspires me ^^

  • http://JapanDave.com David LaSpina

    Did Beard Guy use mustard to write out his inspirational message?? Mmm… mustard..

  • When

    Kanji has been the easiest part of learning Japanese for me :D Cause I learned Chinese first!

  • http://threepoundsflax.org/ kendo

    you know, what would really inspire me is if koichi would grow a beard…

  • http://twitter.com/GerardoCTorres Gerardo Torres

    I gotta say, I was surprised after I saw some of the kanji I know on context. How they played out in the sentence and they way they make sense was absolutely beautiful. Really, it was!

    From that moment on, my motivation to learning kanji was a future were I didn't have read those nasty and nonsensical hiragana clusters. *cringes*

    Until then, I want my spaces in-between words.

  • http://JapanDave.com David LaSpina

    Even with spaces in the text, I find reading all hiragana or — worse — all katakana to be a headache. Once you start to master kanji, reading becomes so much easier.

  • Mashimaro

    If my beard was that magnificent,I would already know kanji!But McDonalds already killed me beard!

  • Mashimaro

    I love doing that!If you read enough sentences that are just kana you get used to it,I could probably read any kana sentence(no spaces)provided I know the words,cause I got tons of practice.

  • http://JapanDave.com David LaSpina

    Wow, that's awesome, dude. I always compare it to trying to read English with no spaces. Sureitcanbedone,butyouhavetogoslower. But that's just me. Congrats and good going!

  • Mashimaro

    I actually just read that faster than normal lol,maybe I have a skill in reading sentences without spaces!lol

  • Sheepy

    Oh so thats the secret to fast tracking Japanese! Learn Mandarin FIRST

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  • laboose

    Perhaps this is what will motivate me! Where can we get larger resolution pictures? :P

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  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_6ICXLAFPSWZCM5R47N6W3VX3PA Sebastian

    but wouldnt you get confused with the on’yomi and the kun’yomi? lol at lieast i would get confused with it…XD well maybe that would help i really dont like the kanji though…

  • Michael

    LOL!! i died at the” i heart kanji” picture!!

  • olieady

    The last one had me laughing in tears for at least 5 minutes (no exaggeration) anyway yeah…i feel real inspired now, think i should go study before i get murdered in my sleep by the creepy guy

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Britt-Olinder-Stevens/100001695518468 Britt Olinder-Stevens

    Uhg! Good job on the uninspiring pics! (y)

  • じょじざ じゃてく

    So funny!

  • besterthenyou

    I was scared for a moment, until I reread it, and realized these aren’t the people who come on here. Good. :D Some of them were… different.