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.
It's a loss, though, shared by both Japanese native speakers and Japanese learners. There are kanji I know how to write that my Japanese coworkers do not, because I do keep a kanji notebook. But with my kanji notebook, I apply the spaced repetition system I learned from Wani Kani, so I blend both.
I think the issue is not so much how technology is changing the learning of Japanese, but how Japanese itself is changing. I must have had at least two conversations with Japanese people this week about forgetting how to write certain kanji, and only being able to read them.
But anyway, I approach these issues as an immigrant to Japan, who intends to throw away his American citizenship and adopt Japanese citizenship. And I want it to be easier for other immigrants to learn Japanese and come and work here (from all over). My governor is very supportive of immigration.
I mean, I'm a retro enthusiast who still buys CDs at BOOK OFF and Famicom games at HARD OFF, so I understand where you're coming from about technology tradeoffs. But for new learners of Japanese, for people moving here to start a new life--I do think the new learning tools are an improvement.