Recently, I have been spending a lot of time studying the Japanese language. Why am I interested in Japan and the Japanese language?
I became interested in Asia when I worked in Asia for Tyco and had the opportunity to travel around much of Asia (see Career and Living in Asia Blog for more information). I visited many areas in Asia, but spent most of my time in Japan, Korea, and China. Definitely made me more interested in Asian cultures.
After I left the company, I decided to take some time off from work and study a language. Over my life, I have tried to learn 4 different languages (French, Spanish, Korean, and Japanese), but am frustrated that I have never become fluent in any of them. With my interest and experiences in Asia, Japanese seemed like it would be the most useful for me to learn, so I decided to study focus on Japan and Japanese. I spent 4 months at an intensive Japanese Language school near Nagoya in 2003 (see Studying in Japan 2003 Blog for more information) and another 2 months in 2005 (see Studying in Japan 2005 Blog). And I have been taking classes 1 night a week at Soko Gakuen Japanese Language School in San Francisco since then.
Though I have been studying it a lot, it is a difficult language and I am not good at it yet. Sometimes I wonder if I will ever become fluent in Japanese.
If you can view Japanese characters on your computer, feel free to take a look at the parts of my site that I have translated into Japanese.
Intro to this site