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My name is Larry Crutchfield and as you may have guessed, I little to no experience, but am excited to learn.
Hope to see you all around from time to time.
Larry
Hi Larry!
Good luck with learning Japanese :)Hi Larry, glad to have you on TextFugu. How did you get interested in Japan/Japanese in the first place?
Hey Hashi,
Well, this is kind of going to make me look bad, but…eh, what the heck. I have three main reasons for wanting to learn Japanese.
1. I lived in Okinawa, Japan from January, 1992 to September, 1994, but sadly I didn’t put forth any effort to actually learn Japanese until maybe the last three or four months that I was there. (hanging head in shame). I have always regretted the fact that here I was, having been handed this golden opportunity, one that most people who actually want to learn Japanese would have killed to get, and all I did was piddled it away. My then Japanese girlfriend however, enjoyed drilling me ruthlessly in English in the hopes that one day she would be able to attend an American school. Which she did managed to do, graduating from Boise State University in 1999…Go get them Tiger…Good job!!!
2. My oldest daughter, Odessa recently turned five years old and started kindergarten at this charter school in Portland, Oregon. One of the requirements of the school is that she must attend either a Spanish, French, Japanese, or Chinese immersion class from 1:30 PM until 4:30 PM, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I am really excited for her to be able to learn how to read, write, and speak Japanese at such an early age, from a native speaker, and because I love her, I also want to do my best to make sure that has every opportunity to succeed.
3. After talking with my daughter’s Japanese teacher, a flood of old memories came rushing back. Feeling a little nostalgic, I thought it would be nice to take a trip down memory lane, so I pulled out my old war chest and blew the dust off of my photo albums. When I was finished, I remembered a promise that I had made to myself when I was younger. One day I would come back to these places, that I had only been able to skim the surface of while serving in the military, and visit them without all the rules, regulations, and restrictions associated the military had placed on us. For example, I have been to Mount Fuji, but was not allowed to climb it.
Well, there you have it, a pound of shame, a cup of love, and a dash of nostalgia.
Doesn’t sound bad at all. Very noble reasons, if you ask me.
Best of luck to you. A lot of us here are just starting too, so you’re certainly not alone.
Larry, sounds like you have a lot of great reasons to learn Japanese. :)
Good luck with your studies!
CassandraThose are great reasons Larry! And having grown up in the Portland area myself, I think I actually might have done a Japanese summer camp program at the same school your daughter’s going to. Small world!
Sounds great :)
Best of luck :)
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