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Hello everybody! My name is Sophie, I live in England and I am now an official TextFugu student!
My reason for wanting to learn Japanese..hmm..I’ve always found languages intriguing, and Japanese sounds so awesome! Another language I would like to learn someday is Italian, or maybe I’ll stick to the far east..
Another reason is that..due to some personal stuff going on in my life, I’m unemployed, and I really need a ‘hobby’ as a reason for me to move out of bed in the morning/afternoon and get on the road to recovery from my depression. I’m only 19..how sad is that?
Keeping this a secret, like Koichi-san says to do in Season 1, is proving to be difficult, and I’m hoping that by writing it here..”I’m learning Japanese.” It might make it a bit easier to keep it hidden!
I’ve already cracked through Hiragana, so I guess it’s time to move on to Season 2!
If you did read this..thanks! :)Welcome to TextFugu!
Not so sad, teens/early twenties can really be the hardest parts of your life as you are only just getting to know who you are and how you fit into things, which is often completely different than the way 20+ different people are trying to steer you in.
Once I left those type of people in my life behind things got a lot better. You’d be amazed at how much a change in scenery can open your eyes to the bigger picture and show how insignificant a lot of what was dragging you down really is. I moved to the other side of the planet to accomplish it, but I don’t think most would have to go THAT far. @_@
Anyhoo, welcome again! ^_^
If you would like to post updates on your season progress, I’ve made a thread for it here:
http://www.textfugu.com/bb/topic/textfugu-season-completions-for-great-motivation-of-heart/
Welcome to Textfugu Sophie!
It’s great to have a fellow Brit on here :-D I’m a Northern lass, myself. It sounds like you have a really good attitude to helping yourself, right now. Everyone goes through difficulties in their life and there are times when things get a bit too much. How you deal with it shows your strength of character (although keeping your language learning is a bit tricky, eh?) Hope posting on here has scratched your itch, as it were!
I’m not one to judge people how how they spend there free time. What ever you want to do to relax is your own choice. That said, I reckon that when you find yourself with a bit of additional free time in your life, then it’s a really good opportunity to use that time productively, as YOU are. When you do find yourself looking for a job, it’s going to look so much more impressive on your CV to have in ‘Personal Interests’ that you have an interest in Japan and the language and that you’re actually doing something about it, then the average ‘enjoys computer games, reading, watching movies, etc’. Employers dig language skills!
Anyway… enjoy Season 2 :-D
Another Brit here, 20 and from Edinburgh :) I too started learning Japanese while I was unemployed, though that was during my year out between high school and uni; I had little exposure to or interest in Japanese culture before starting so it was more just a case of pure chance that I stumbled into it. Koichi says to keep it a secret? You mean the fact that you’re learning Japanese? When I read TextFugu a few years ago, I’m sure his advice was the exact opposite, to tell lots of people :D
@underwater_wanderer: Yes, putting that I was self-teaching Japanese on my CV has definitely helped me out: granted it was for a temp job at ASDA, but the first thing the interviewer said to me was something like “Well there’s definitely something that stands out here, let’s talk about that first” with a big smile on his face (though I guess that was more his general expression). It might not be *as* important for maybe a grad job interview where they care more about your technical skill and relevant experience, but it’s definitely something you can say about yourself that probably not many of the other applicants can.
Hi Michael *waves*
Yeah, when I signed up to Textfugu the advice was ‘tell everybody’ – the theory being that others can keep you accountable. However, I think for some people this doesn’t always work. For example, ever made a New Year’s Resolution, told everyone, they then nag you “Hey, how’s the …. going?” “Have you … today”, “You really should… right now” etc? If you feel that everyone’s getting on your back about something, you then start to have negative feelings about your goal. You should want to do something for your own sense of satisfaction, not just to get someone off your back.
Koichi sites the TEDx lecture for the change of heart too. I think it’s in the first chapter of season 1 somewhere. I’ve watched it and it makes a lot of sense to me. Horses for courses, I suppose.
I applied for a job at ASDA twice as a student and never even got an interview :’( I’m still bitter about it…!
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