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Greetings!
I am トラビス (Travis) from the Florida in the United States. I’ve been learning 日本語 over the course of the last 2 years on my own. My biggest problem has been a lack of structure and community (which keeps leading to me falling off the wagon, unfortunately), so I’m hoping to get some of that structure here.
A bit of background (if anyone is interested): I come from a video game development background (that is, programming game engines, producing visual assets, etc.) but currently work in the web development industry. I also have a strong background in the traditional arts (drawing, painting, sculpting, etc.) and am a hobbyist musician (drums and percussion). My true passion has always been video games, especially JRPGs. A few years ago while I was in college I began to gain a large interest in Japanese culture, and now wish to become fluent in the language.
My ultimate goal is not only native-level fluency (spoken and written), but to gain the ability to translate between English and Japanese professionally – maybe even combining those skills with my game development skills somehow ^.^
Anyhow, I’m really excited to be here, and hopefully meet some great people to study with!
はじめまして、トラビスーさん、
it’s been the same for me: I’ve been learning Japanese for about two years on my own now, with books and some programs, and even the help of my Japanese friends, but somehow it all became chaotic and I got stuck – but so far, I think TextFugu is quite a good help, even if there are not many new things in the beginning, you’ll get a new structure and perspective. Anyway: 頑張って!
Hey, man, you seem like a pretty cool guy! I’m pretty new here also, and I’m in somewhat a similar boat; I’ve been studying Japanese on my own for some time now, so I have a bit more experience under my belt. Despite that, however, I’ve started from the beginning on textfugu, to more solidify the basics, and just to make sure there’s nothing left undone on the foundation.
Anyway, if you ever want to talk / practice, shoot me an email, or hit me up on skype (skype name is tokugijoo). I’m a musician too, maybe we could collab on something lol.
@アレクサさん
Yeah, I have one friend who lives in Japan, but sometimes she’s hard to get ahold of due to the 13 hours time difference. I’m hoping there are some Japanese folks here locally I can eventually muster up the courage to try speaking to, but I don’t yet feel I’m at that point. I am sorta stuck as well, I’m trying to learn enough grammar and vocab to get over that “hump” of going monolingual. Thanks for the kind words!
@ネイトさん
I’ve pretty much done the same thing. I’m finding the beginning to be more of a review of what I already know, but I also find that not skipping it is solidifying my knowledge. I’d definitely like to practice at some point, so I’ll take you up on that in a couple months. As for music, I haven’t played in a couple years, but what I did play was metal-type music (think something halfway between Pantera and Machine Head). I played *some* jazz back in the day, but I’ve always been a fan of the rock genre. I have been thinking about getting the ol’ kit set up again… :)
There’ll always be a special place in my heart for metal, lol, my brother is a huge metalhead.
Definitely hit me up sooner than later, man, even if it’s just for a random chat. It helps a lot to include someone else into something you’re studying — at least, that’s been my experience. It takes some guts, but I’m learning that the sooner you do it, the sooner it gets done lol.
Welcome to Textfugu! I think a LOT of us have the problem of getting stuck and loosing motivation. I’m one of them and its only because I discourage myself, I guess you could say I’m my own worst enemy, lol.
Good luck on your studies! I’ll be trying hard right there with ya.
@Rowen: Hey there! I have the same issue myself (discouraging, that is). Not really sure why I do it. My other issue is constant distraction, though I’m working to crush that one.
@Nate: For some reason I’m not able to send you a PM (maybe they don’t exist here?). Do you have google chat by chance? I don’t have a Skype account.
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