So, why Japanese?

When I tell my friends and family that I decided to take Japanese this year basically on a whim, they are surprised, and rightfully so. My high school offered only French, German, Spanish, and Latin (of which I took the last for four years), so Asian languages are a completely new realm for me.

As to why I decided on Japanese, I can't really say. I knew that I wanted to learn a new language that I could actually use to speak to people (unlike Latin) but I didn't really have any requirements other than that. I  landed on Japanese after a lot of deliberation for these reasons:

1. I've always wanted to visit Japan and it would be awesome to be able to speak with people there in their native tongue.
2. It doesn't use Roman characters and it seemed like a fun challenge to learn a whole new alphabet.

That was about all the reasoning that went into it, but so far it looks to be a great decision. The class is really fun and it's awesome to think that I'm on my way to being able to communicate with a whole new group of people.

This isn't to say that it's easy, though. Memorizing a whole new alphabet with foreign characters has been a challenge, as well as trying to speak using non-native phonemes. However, I'm sure that with enough practice it'll all become much easier.

Check back for more juicy details as I continue my foray into the unknown!

じゃあ、また！