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Hello, everyone! I’m Janitha (emphasis on the 「ニー」), and I’ve been self-studying Japanese off and on for about fifteen years (!). I hope to do more than understand a lot and communicate a little: I hope to have reading fluency on a comparable level to my intermediate speaking skills. I’ve absorbed a lot off the years thanks to textbooks on tape and, later, wonderful TV shows and music. But I’m aiming for literacy now. There a whole non-auditory world of Japanese I don’t really know about, and I’m looking forward to learning and understanding more written Japanese through TextFugu.
I spent some times overseas as an assistant language teacher on the JET Programme, and now, three years later, I’m considering going into a career where I can use Japanese as a serious job skill. So I want to get a balance between my speaking skills and my reading skills. Hopefully, my listening skills will be strengthened further along the way.
I’m very much looking forward to getting to know everyone！ よろしくお願いします！
AnonymousWelcome to Textfugu!
Hey Janitha. Welcome to TF :) . Fifteen years is a long time to have been involved with learning Japanese. My interested first developed around five years ago. Good luck with everything.
A fellow Tennessean. Welcome to TextFugu.
Thanks so much everyone. I’m sorry for the late reply. (I’ve clicked the “notify me of replies via email” option now. I’m on it.)
Tsetycoon, あたたかいwelcomeありがとうございました！I’ll be looking out for you online.
Kanjiman, it’s been a long haul (and I can’t believe how little I could put words together when I first started!). Time to buckle down. I’ve been a daily learner for the past several days, and it’s been a good feeling to retain radicals (and Koichi-sensei’s “radical” mnemonics!). Thanks so much for your well-wishes.
Raven, are you East, West or Middle-Tennessee? どれだっても、テネシー州のJ-learnerがいてくれてよかったです。^_^
I’m not much of a responder, but I hope that will change as I get further along! お互い様がんばりましょうね。
Janitha, welcome! Good luck getting your reading skills caught up with conversation. I think it’s awesome that you’ve stuck with Japanese for so long.
Good luck with your studies!
CassandraThanks very much, Winter! I’m glad to have made it this far. Thanks for the well wishes. Good luck to you, too!!!
Hey Janitha, welcome to TextFugu! Would love to hear more about your time as an ALT with JET.
Good luck with your studies!
@Janitha, South-east, bordering Georgia. Just look for any place named in Cherokee and that’s pretty much it. :) I’ve thought about trying to go for being an ALT with JET but at UTC I only have a choice of 4 foreign language BA’s, French, Spanish, Latin, and Greek. Latin is a dead and useless language on top of it all :/. Oh well.
@Hashi Thanks so much for the welcome! I was on a little island that was part of Kure City, which on the mainland is 45 minutes or so from Hiroshima City. On my little island, I was close to three hours away, adding in train and bus waiting times. I was there for three years, so I surely have some nuggets of wisdom to offer. ^^ I had a very good time with my kids. I hear that with budget constraints for BOEs (well, Kure City’s Board of Education, for sure), my two junior highs and two elementary schools seem like a dream compared to a lot of schedules. I was able to be a weekly guest teacher compared to a monthly or bi-monthly teacher like a lot of my fellow Kure JETs.
Anyway, ask me anything!
@Raven Hey, good morning! I’m Southwest Tennessee, very close to the Mississippi river. I barely had one full class of Japanese before JET: most everything was self-study. And you’re not required to know Japanese before going, but it sure pays to want to learn if you want to get around on your own at all. If you’re on this site, you’re light years ahead of the young lady or gentleman fresh off the tarmac with no foundation at all. When you’re hearing it every day (and when you’re in survival mode ^^;), you pick up a lot of things very quickly. Close to half of the fifteen people who came to work in Kure City my first year arrived with close to zero knowledge. And they made it out alive. I know they did. I see them online sometimes.
Don’t discount applying to JET completely. Hit me up if you have some questions about it. I can share my (limited) experience. (This goes for everyone here!)
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