Hello, dear community.

I was encouraged, by the introductory material, to come here and share my reason for wishing to learn Japanese. Like many here (I suspect), in my teenage years, I really enjoyed Anime. Not understanding an ounce of Japanese, though, meant that I had to rely on Subtitles, usually created by a dedicated fanbase.

This alone was not sufficient to give me enough incentive to study a new language, though, which I always find difficult. Subtitles ruin the feel of a movie a bit, and translations never convey the full meaning, but it’s possible to live with that. Mainly, studying those thousands and thousands of Kanji is what is scaring me off.

However, in my spare time, I recently read and fell in love with a visual novel, entitled “Fate/ Stay Night” (which some of you may know. If you don’t, I really encourage you to take a look at it). As it turns out, there is a sequel available, but it is far from being translated.

This, coupled with my wish to eventually go to Japan and not feel like a lost tourist there, drives me to attempt to learn this language with all its difficulties.

Nice to meet you all (hajime mashite?). I hope to read from you a bit how you came to know Japanese and what kept you going (if you are not a native speaker).