Why Learning Shakespeare is Totally Redundant (For Me, At Least)

So I'm studying Shakespeare at school. Again. Which is funny, because I was talking about this with my Dad just the other day. My Dad is a smart man, so imagine my surprise when he told me that he never liked Shakespeare. Okay, maybe it's not surprising, but... well, Dad is a bit of a literature nerd, so I always thought... eh, well, I'm not complaining, because I despise Shakespeare and think that learning about his plays is a waste of my time.

Studying Shakespeare makes very little sense, if you ask me. And if you ask Dad, apparently. Not that you should be contacting my Dad about Shakespeare. Seriously guys, that's weird, please don't try to engage him in a conversation regarding some old dead guys stories.

Ahem. Shakespeare's plays were amazing for his time, and I mean, if you want to learn about important literature from the past, then obviously his work will be vital to study. That said, his works aren't very... uhm, informative for those studying only core English today.
His language is dated (duh) and I will never understand his comedies. The jokes just get lost on me. And yes, the tragedies are, you know, tragic, but not full-on or memorable enough for me to care.

I've always hated the characterisation in Shakespeare (or lack thereof, depending on the chosen text. Yes, I went there. I'm not going to bitch about the two-dimensional characters used though) and I've never truly fallen for any of the plot lines.

I just... don't like Shakespeare.

And how are you meant to get the students to pay attention if you're teaching them works that use language we can't properly understand? Granted, I can read his plays without too much hassle now, but when I first started I had an online Shakespearean dictionary open. Nobody wants to look up every third word as they read. Trust me on that.

It's not just the language though. I tried so damn hard to get into Romeo and Juliet. I read the play, I watched both versions of the movie, I watched the anime, I read an online novelisation... none of it stuck. And I mean, the movies, the anime and the original play are so different, so you'd think I'd enjoy at least one of them... One of the movies stayed true to the era it was written for, the other featured a modern-day setting, and the anime was set in a futuristic 'neo-Verona' with flying horses. They are clearly very, very different, but... I don't know what it is about that story, but I never truly liked any of the adaptions. There's just... something there that never sits quite right with me.

I've read a number of other plays by him, but to no avail. I haven't bothered to look up other adaptions of his works. I don't see the point. I know I won't like it. At all. I will give him credit where it's due; as I said, his work would have been amazing when it was written. It just hasn't aged well, if you ask me (And hey, if people are going to tell me the Nintendo 64 games haven't aged well [which, you know, they haven't], then I have every right to say the same about Shakespeare).

Perhaps this is why I've given up on pursuing a career in English literature outside of school. I don't know many literary nerds who agree that Shakespeare is grossly overrated for our time. x3

Also, we should study T.S. Elliot. Oh my God I am in love with his poetry. Why can't we study that instead, what is this I don't even-