Ahh introductions, these are always so awkward. I never know what to write! :o

My name’s Laura, I’m a student (first year) and for part of my degree I had to pick a language and it was always going to be Japanese, which I’ve been doing for about 15 weeks now. I’ve always had a fascination with Japan, I love the country, I love the beauty of the language, and I especially love Japanese games and anime and I would love to be fluent in it. I’ve always wanted to learn the language (but been a little bit scared) and going to University has kicked me up the backside and I’ve finally started on my quest.

I’m part of the JP society at my Uni and I’ve met loads of fantastic Japanese people who all speak English and for once I would like to be able to talk to them in their language…! :D

But the reason I’m here is I’m acutely aware that I’m probably the worst in the class as everyone seems to be about 10x better than me so I’m constantly just catching up. I really hope using this will get me on even footing with everyone else, and basically this looks like an amazing resource.

Why do you want to learn Japanese?

I want to be able to listen to JPop and know what they’re singing without animelyrics.
I want to be able to watch original Japanese anime and understand what they’re saying.
I want to be able to visit Japan and communicate freely with the people there.
I want to be able to talk to my Japanese friends in their language.
I want to be able to watch Japanese game trailers (especially Final Fantasy) and know what they’re saying.
I think the language is beautiful and I want to learn it.
It’s such a unique language that it will greatly benefit me in my working life to be able to be bilingual, especially in such a unique language for an English person (everyone else learns Frence, how dull).
I want to be able to play MMORPGs and talk with the Japanese players when they’re on my team.
My dream job is to work as a writer in Square Enix. So yes, this is unlikely, but I’ve already cried and accepted that.

What’s stopping you?

I’m not very good at learning languages as I get overwhelmed easily. The girl I sit next to in my Japanese class seems to know everything and that’s probably why I feel like such an idiot in class. I just seem to be the worst!
I know from experience that online Japanese translators are unreliable resources and finding the right words to use is difficult (my Japanese teacher is forever correcting words I find online).
I’m scared I’ll never be able to learn it and I’m terrified of failing.