How to say that I've had an interest in the Japanese culture since x?


The origins of my interest in the Japanese language is something that natives
often ask about, but I'm always having trouble with the grammar for answering
that and want to rest this case once and for all.

For example, I might want to say that I've had an interest in the Japanese
culture since middle school, and therefore have been studying Japanese for
quite a while. My first attempt would be:

> 中学の頃から日本の文化に興味を持っていたことはあるので、日本語の勉強はずいぶん前からやったことがあります。

However, that feels grammatically a bit off and I'm not quite sure how to make
it better. What's the problem here?

Another common case is this; Originally I started studying Japanese to be able
to play games in it, and I've been studying for five years now. What I'd say
from the top of my head is the following:

> もともとはゲームを日本語にやれるために日本語の勉強を始めたんだが、もう五年間を勉強したことはあります。

This is probably alright in a conversation, but I don't really know which word
to use for playing games, the 始めたんだ seems slightly incorrect in this context,
and I have no idea whether the part after the comma is proper Japanese or not.
It seems a bit repetitive at any rate. As I don't want to have any doubt in
the vocabulary or sentence structures I'm using, I would like to know which
parts should be corrected, if any?

I'm also not entirely sure whether this type of question is allowed here or if
it's too broad, so let me know about that as well.

Thank you so much!




The biggest problem throughout your Japanese is, you're using `ことがある` as the
counterpart of `have V-ed`. Yes, it sounds off because what it exactly tells
is "you have ever done and right now you are not doing". Thus your first piece
should be like:

> 中学の頃から日本の文化に興味を持っていたので、日本語の勉強はずいぶん前からやっていました。

But strictly speaking, this sentence thematizes 日本語の勉強, so best used in answer
to whoever mentions your Japanese studying, e.g. "How long have you been
learning Japanese?", "Wow, you must've worked hard in your Japanese!" etc.
Otherwise, the は is better to be deleted:

> 中学の頃から日本の文化に興味を持っていたので、ずいぶん前から日本語を勉強していました。 (I also switched word order for
> the sake of naturalness here.)

Now, the second one should be:

> もともとはゲームを日本語でやれるように（日本語の）勉強を始めたんですが、もう五年間勉強しています。

  * "In Japanese" is 日本語 **で** (with [most of the verbs](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/6304/7810)). 日本語 **に** means "into Japanese".
  * やれる + ために is redundant. You could use either やるために or やれるように.
  * Temporal adverbial "for _timespan_ " doesn't need case particles.
  * が, け(れ)ど(も) and から are "coordinative"; they need agreement in politeness before and after them.

Elsewhere, your Japanese seems already very well. Hope you keep enjoying
studying Japanese ---- and feel free to point out my English errors...

* * *

**PS**  
If I were to tell the same thing as your second sentence I'd go like (quite
colloquial):

> もともとゲームを日本語でしたくて勉強を始めてから、もう五年になります。




The biggest problem throughout your Japanese is, you're using `ことがある` as the
counterpart of `have V-ed`. Yes, it sounds off because what it exactly tells
is "you have ever done and right now you are not doing". Thus your first piece
should be like:

> 中学の頃から日本の文化に興味を持っていたので、日本語の勉強はずいぶん前からやっていました。

But strictly speaking, this sentence thematizes 日本語の勉強, so best used in answer
to whoever mentions your Japanese studying, e.g. "How long have you been
learning Japanese?", "Wow, you must've worked hard in your Japanese!" etc.
Otherwise, the は is better to be deleted:

> 中学の頃から日本の文化に興味を持っていたので、ずいぶん前から日本語を勉強していました。 (I also switched word order for
> the sake of naturalness here.)

Now, the second one should be:

> もともとはゲームを日本語でやれるように（日本語の）勉強を始めたんですが、もう五年間勉強しています。

  * "In Japanese" is 日本語 **で** (with [most of the verbs](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/6304/7810)). 日本語 **に** means "into Japanese".
  * やれる + ために is redundant. You could use either やるために or やれるように.
  * Temporal adverbial "for _timespan_ " doesn't need case particles.
  * が, け(れ)ど(も) and から are "coordinative"; they need agreement in politeness before and after them.

Elsewhere, your Japanese seems already very well. Hope you keep enjoying
studying Japanese ---- and feel free to point out my English errors...

* * *

**PS**  
If I were to tell the same thing as your second sentence I'd go like (quite
colloquial):

> もともとゲームを日本語でしたくて勉強を始めてから、もう五年になります。

