Hello! My name is Catherine. I’m 21 years old, and while I’m new to TextFugu, I’m not new to attempting to learn Japanese.

I won’t bore you with the gory details, but basically, I started attempting to learn Japanese when I was just thirteen. Throughout my teenage years, I have tried several ways to self-learn the language, but since I had no guidance, it never really went anywhere. I did take a formal class once in high school, but it ended up teaching me stuff I already knew from self-learning, and was generally ineffective. I ended up switching schools before I could go on to a higher level of the class, too, so it amounted to nothing in the end. Now I’m left in a weird situation where I can read hiragana and katakana, but I know very little kanji, and not a lot of vocabulary or grammar. I can’t understand a word of spoken Japanese, save for a few words here and there.

So, why am I learning Japanese? Because, basically everything I like comes from Japan. I don’t even know why — it just ended up happening that way. Aside from the obvious (anime, manga, Nintendo games), I also have an interest in harajuku street fashion, and while doll collecting isn’t necessarily a Japanese hobby, a lot of my favorite doll brands do come from Japan. There’s just so much about the country that interests me, and the longer I go without knowing Japanese, the more I feel like I’m missing out on so much.

I know how hard learning Japanese is. Of course I do — I’ve been attempting it for years, and I keep giving up. But I’m tired of giving up. I know I can do it if I try hard enough! So that’s why I’m here! TextFugu is the perfect resource for someone like me — to be honest, after I finished season 1 for free, I found myself wishing it had been around when I was thirteen.

So, that’s pretty much it. I’m really excited to be here, and I’m really hoping that this will be the attempt that actually gets me somewhere!