Have to disagree. I think the best time to learn Japanese is now. Instant translation of a problematic sentence in your web browser makes learning grammar easier. Copying and pasting a new kanji into Jisho is also lot quicker than looking up radicals/# of strokes in your electronic dictionary.
Many more resources to aid listening practice now, such as the publication of various Japanese and TV/Movie scripts on the web. Apps to chat with Japanese people, like Hello Talk. Wanikanji on your smartphone. List goes on.
Playing an RPG in Japanese and come across a problematic passage? Just take a photo with your phone and translate that stuff, then look at the kanji and analyze the grammar points.
I don't think anyone argues that there are more tools available today, but rather that since some of these tools are so powerful and easy to use, that there is potentially less impetus for people to spend the time to properly study and learn a language.
Oh sure, I agree with that, although I think the potential is not as big as some fear. But also the original question was when is/was the best time to learn Japanese. I just insisted it was now, not in the past like the author suggested.
The writer of the article mentions going to high school abroad, having a tutor... These are wonderful opportunities, but they are not available to everyone. New technology provides many more people the opportunity to learn Japanese more easily and quickly. I think that's most important.
The fact is in the past many people didn't learn Japanese because they couldn't take those mentioned opportunities, or they gave up because the tools available were too meagre or not suited to them. I like that apps like Wani Kani with SRS make learning kanji so much easier for more people.
And, since Japan is my home now, I want as many people as want to to be able to learn Japanese, so they can come here and make Japan stronger. 💪
All good points! There is definitely value associated with greater accessibility, which should also be considered. I agree newer tools can be more useful for certain elements of learning Japanese, although I am skeptical thats true about internalizing the writing of kanji.
But those "certain elements" of Japanese--reading, listening, speaking--are more important than internalizing the writing of kanji. As you know, the JLPT doesn't test writing of kanji. It tests reading and listening. Those are the most important skills to develop, for living and working in Japan.
Access to online content is of course totally different from two decades ago, but these changes also change the meaning of language acquisition. I mainly wanted to point out that tech discourse often directly equates accessibility and convenience with progress, when they are in fact tradeoffs
It seems to me we have gone pretty far down the path of optimizing in this direction, and from my perspective what we’re losing in the process is actually pretty profound.