I finally decided to sign up for TextFugu. It wasn’t easy parting with the $120 after it took me a month to save for it, but I did it. I ended up working my way through the free chapter and really liked it, mostly because of the way it teaches things, and gave me an idea on how I’ll be learning things on this website.

I’m not new to trying to learn Japanese, I took four years of it in high school in the past (so Season 1 was mostly review and teaching me how TextFugu works, since I already knew hiragana, and I know katakana too). It’s beena  LONG time since then though, and even though TextFugu is meant more for beginners, it’s been a long time since school, and there are a lot of things I either forgot, never got the chance to learn, or never fully understood eve though we covered it. Not to mention Kanji…oh dear lord… We had a native speaker as a teacher, so Kanji-learning was  ”Japanese school style”.  It wasn’t pretty. I loved my sensei though, because she at least made Japanese class fun enough that, now that there are awesome Japanese resources for it, I can take another crack at it and learn it properly this time.

Anyways, reasons I wanted to learn Japanese:

Originally, because of anime…took 4 years in high school
After high school, and getting to really enjoy culture aspects, I wanted to continue learning further, but didn’t know how on my own. Interest dwindled a bit after a few years.
Much more recently, met a bunch of friends at an anime club, got obsessed with live-action shows like dramas and Kamen Rider.
Also, and my most recent added reason, is so I can understand the stuff that my favorite male idol group, KAT-TUN releases. I am mildly obsessed with them, and it drives me nuts that I can’t read interviews or understand videos, or even the music…this must change! lol

Sorry it’s a bit long. Anyways, I look forward to getting to know everyone, and if I can get a working mic I might even pop on the teamspeak server at some point. I’ll also try to remember to post things (I have a horrible habit of lurking, since I tend to like reading more than posting).

TL;DR version – Former Japanese student returning to try learning the language again, and I look forward to learning with you all. よろしくおねがいします！