Hello everyone!

My name is Cokelee. (COKE like the drink, LEE like the name in English. Ko-ke-ri is how I think my name could be pronounced. Let me know if you have a better suggestion!). I’m 22 years old, a native English speaker from the US of A, and a very recent self-taught Japanese student. I graduated this past December with a B.A. in English literature and composition, a B.A. in philosophy, and a minor in Women’s Studies. I have no foreign language knowledge aside from simple self-taught French. While I am able to read (or derive general meaning) from simple French, lack of a language partner made it difficult to speak French easily or understand the language spoken at natural speed. I hope to find a speaking partner for Japanese so that I do not make the same mistake.

I began to study French in January because I will have to take French in graduate school. I wanted to 1) get a “leg up” and 2) it looks good on my application if I already know at least a little of a foreign language. I started studying Japanese mid-April for fun After I graduated college, I did not have anything intellectually challenging to do. I was tired of reading philosophy and working on graduate school applications.French was a laborious chore. Studying Japanese was an intellectually engaging task that was separate from my other work and a relief from a dull job. I found myself procrastinating on French in order to study Japanese instead. When I began to get the languages messed up (whew boy did I make some interesting sentences…), I decided to self-study the fun language and wait until I can/must take actual French lessons in graduate school before taking up French.

Also, I am applying for PhD programs in critical theory this December. Over the past year, I have become increasingly interested in the work of Japanese theorists on transnational cultural criticism. I do not have plans to study Japanese metacriticism in graduate school because I am so new to non-Western writers, but I am extremely interested in this work and I want to learn more about Japanese language, history, and culture so that I can enjoy studying this kind of research in my spare time. I know this goal is at minimum at least a decade away. My “goal” with Japanese is maintaining a daily routine rather than meeting a certain “point” at a certain time because I’ve learned through trial and error I cannot force a deadline or goal with language acquisition.

I spent the last two weeks of April thoroughly learning hiragana and katakana without beginning vocabulary or grammar. Then first week in May I began to self-study Genki 1 and Heisig’s Remembering the Kanji. The RTK method works extremely well for me, provided that I go a bit much more slowly and steadily than he recommends. (20-25 kanji a day?? I usually do about 5 now that I’ve gotten past the easy chapters. How does someone finish that thing in 6 weeks? Am I just slow?). I dislike Genki because I found the content disorganized, grammar points poorly explained, and the chapters crammed with too much information at once. So I am “starting over” with Textfugu to go more slowly and thoroughly. I plan on supplementing TextFugu lessons with Tae Kim (in the order I learn it in Textfugu, not the order Tae Kim presents it) and I’m continuing with RTK rather than learning the Textfugu Kanji.

So in short, I am very new to Japanese and I am excited to meet you all!