Decluttering: Why I Quit Studying Chinese

“Japanese people have an advantage in Chinese because they already know kanji (Chinese characters used in Japanese writing).”

I actually agree with this. Compared to other foreign languages, the entry point is much easier. You can roughly guess meanings from characters, and it doesn’t feel like a totally alien language.

Even after a little bit of study, I had that “ah, I can sort of read this” feeling.

I studied Chinese for about a year, but eventually quit.

There are several reasons, but they probably break down like this.

1. I Couldn’t See a Future Where I’d Use It

In the end, language study comes down to “are you going to use it or not?”

I see English at work every day. Technical information is in English. AI is in English. Documentation is in English.

If you’re in IT, you end up chasing information out of the US.

Chinese, on the other hand.

China’s technical capabilities are clearly high. There’s momentum. But I couldn’t really imagine a “moment where I’d actually use Chinese” in my work or daily life.

That weighed on me a lot.

2. The Outlook Felt a Bit Heavy

The current atmosphere in Japan doesn’t really say “learn Chinese now and you’ll have a huge edge!”

Politics and economics are both uncertain, and the news isn’t carrying many bright stories. Honestly, the Japanese public’s image of China is fairly negative right now. China’s economy is also struggling, and people studying Chinese these days seem to do it purely as a hobby.

Of course, no one knows how things will look long term. I’d like the two countries to be friendly again, and there’s every chance China has another economic surge.

But when I thought about where to invest my time, my conclusion was “right now, going all-in on English is the better choice.”

3. Plenty of Chinese People Already Speak English

This is actually a pretty real reason.

I’ve made several Chinese friends and acquaintances personally. What I noticed: they’re casually good at Japanese. And they speak English too.

Especially among people with overseas experience or in technical roles, Chinese people who treat English as a given are surprisingly common.

In other words, if you want to communicate with the “upper layer” in China, English is often enough.

Of course, knowing Chinese would close the distance further. But when I asked myself, “Is it an essential skill?” — for me, the answer was no.

4. Economics Alone Doesn’t Sustain Language Study

In the past, when Japan’s economy was strong, apparently a lot of foreigners studied Japanese.

The “Japan as Number One” era.

But when Japan’s economy stalled, interest in studying Japanese cooled off significantly.

I think “I’ll study it because it might make money” just doesn’t last.

On the flip side, you see a lot of young foreigners with near-native Japanese these days. They’re usually deeply into anime, games, or Japanese culture in general.

That kind of energy is strong.

In the end, language study only sticks when you genuinely “like” the language.

5. Even English Alone Isn’t Finished

This is the real one.

English is endless.

Forget certifications — if you want to talk naturally at a working level, make small talk with people abroad, hold technical discussions — the depth is real. Sometimes I listen to native speakers talking to each other and have no idea what they’re saying.

Even this blog goes through an AI grammar pass before posting. I couldn’t ship it raw.

So rather than spreading myself thin, I figured I should polish English into a real weapon first.

Closing

I’m not trying to put Chinese down.

In fact, I do think it’s well-suited to Japanese learners.

But, setting right and wrong aside, the fact that English is the world’s common language isn’t changing. Especially in IT.

Life has finite resources. In the end, I realized “what you cut” matters more than “what you take on.”