My name is Ken.

A few years ago, I signed up for Textfugu to help my Japanese studies. I found it was very different from every book and website I had looked at before, which was a good thing as I did not like those previous resources. My goal for studying Japanese was to speak to my Japanese grandmother.

I did not keep up with my studies and my studies for my civil engineering bachelor’s degree took over a majority of my life. I was able to visit my grandparents in 所沢 many times, and I always felt ashamed that I had barely improved my Japanese vocabulary in every visit. On one trip, I brought a Japanese children’s book that my grandparents sent me when I was a child, and I sat down with my grandmother everyday and she used it to teach me hiragana. This is the book:
https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8533/8904665421_7aa7fed1dd_m.jpg

My grandmother passed away this April after a long battle with cancer. I went to Japan last week to pay my respects and to see my grandfather and other relatives. As always, everyone was very kind to me, but it was very disheartening going to the house that has always been my second home to find Baba missing.

During my last trip, I learned katakana using Memrise, and I was happy to find my hiragana was still in my memory. I am resuming my studies using Textfugu. While my grandmother is gone, there are still many relatives and friends that I know who speak only Japanese. Furthermore, I would like to go to Japan again soon, and not have to rely on others to translate for me.

Thank you for reading my story. I hope that we can help each other in the future!

ケン