Hello everyone, I’m dratcat. Nice to meet you all!

I am learning Japanese for a few reasons: I want the benefits that come from being fluent in more than one language, I want to be able to read manga and watch anime without waiting for English translations (!!) and I want something to keep me busy while I take my gap year from university – looking for work is pretty demoralising and I want to stay busy while I do this. More long-term, I want to visit Japan and be able to enjoy myself there without hitting the language barrier too often. I love learning about Japanese culture.

I have taken a course in beginners’ Japanese as an elective at my university and while it has done a good job at establishing my knowledge of basic grammar patterns and hiragana and katakana, I feel that it would be best for me to take it by myself from now on so that I can better tailor my learning to my own interests and do it at my own pace. I read Tofugu and I really love how it links Japanese language and culture. I didn’t get so much of that in my course at uni.

TextFugu: relevant to my interests. :D