Introduction

Q: Why do you want to take Japanese?

A: I've been fascinated by Japanese culture ever since middle school, and am now considering a major in EALAC. I have never been to Japan, and I want very much to study abroad there. I'm very excited to be taking Japanese because I don't want to go to Japan without being able to speak the language--it feels like cheating, or like I won't get the full experience.

Q: What has excites and/or frustrates you about Japanese?

A: Although I'd obviously like to be fluent in Japanese, my more short-term goal (well, maybe more like mid-term goal? less long-term goal?) is to be able to read manga in Japanese and understand anime without subtitles. I first became interested in Japan because of manga/anime, so it would be a great way of seeing how I've progressed. As for what I find frustrating...I guess learning the writing was more difficult than I had anticipated, partially simply because we move so fast. I actually so far have found hiragana to be more challenging to learn than Chinese characters (I used to take Chinese). I think it's because what helped me remember characters was that they each had a meaning; they meant something. Hiragana on the other hand, looks to a Western-raised brain like a character, and yet in terms of how it works, it is more comparable to an English-style letter, because it is phonetically based, rather than meaning-based. I think I almost have it down now though... ^_^