Yes learning is for personal enjoyment and fulfilment of your own needs. But indeed as Keiichi-K1 had pointed out,, by learning more and more stuff, you gain invaluable assets which may enable you become more successful financially.
The main motivation to learn stuff isn't just for money, of course not, but it is useful when it comes to job and careers, as they are taken into account.

However, if you think about, in terms of education, one really is learning for money and living more than for personal enjoyment. Otherwise we should be all be learning independently without a school or college.

im not questioning the actual learning thing. im just saying if it werent for anime, would one be learning Japanese at all? i mean why japanese, (ok becos its made well known by anime etc) but there are many other cultures and languages out there.

that's for sure! :bg: there's french! and spanish, chineese, russian, greek, italian, corean etc etc.... ^^
and personnaly i don't learn japaneese... well i know a few words, because of the very few anim i look at... but that's all... my japaneese is very poor...

"I can understand that everyone's enthusiasm for the Japanese language stems from the love of anime." not entirely true...

Actually my rediscovered enjoyment of anime is a byproduct of my long term preoccupation with many things Japanese... When I was very young, my dad taught me how to use chopsticks, when I was in gradeschool I learned some Origami as part of an art class, when I was in highschool I fell in love with temple and traditional home archetecture, kimono, and Fuji-san. In university and trade school i discovered lacquer boxes, bento and sushi, and the finer points of the metalwork in a katana. all my life i've been bombarded with tiny specks of japanese culture, sometimes without even realizing it. Now I do watch some anime, but I've also discovered I enjoy japanese tv dramas, and none of it sounds right unless they're speaking japanese. My desire to learn japanese, however, is more deeply rooted than just an anime obsession.

So there!Behhhhhhhhh! :P

clap clap clap clap! wow Lionfish thats very impressive! u have totally immersed urself into the culture!if only more people in this world is that accepting to foreign cultures, then we wouldnt have the problem of rascist hate groups.

well that brings up the question of what is more important for world peace the understanding of the cultures of the world or the mere acceptance of them.
Obviously both are important but do you essentially have to know a lot about a culture to be able to accept it?

underestanding makes acceptance easier, but it is certainly possible to accept what one does not understand.

as far as my "immersion" in Japanese culture... i've done perhaps the equivalent of dipping my left pinky as far in as my fingernail (being optomistic).... there is so much more to learn.

and as for the "proper" way to name the manga/oav/movie.... i think "The Simpsons" is close enough.:P

Absolutely! ^-^ Baka Lion.

1) afaik there is no authoritative transcription....
you can romanize it in multiple ways...

2) learning is always good...if it helps you earning money its even better...but never learn something you basically dont want to learn just for the money...you wont be happy with it...

that is very true lavabug, for example im being forced to take a course by my company and im not enjoying it one bit!