Hello all… My name is Rigdzin Norbu. I tried to learn Japanese more than fifteen years ago (before all these cool digital tools were available) without any success: I just couldn’t figure out how to learn on my own. These days, self-guided study is a awful lot easier. Then, like now, I hoped to learn enough Japanese to make my way through Japan and, eventually, to be able to read the Zen masters’ commentaries and teachings directly.

Since then, I learned Tibetan well enough to speak a little and translate Buddhist texts and philosophy, which is how I spend my free time. I am hoping that my experience with Tibetan will improve my chances this time around.

I am heading to Japan in the spring of 2015 to visit a number of Buddhist temples, eat a lot of good food, and practice speaking Japanese. I hope to be able to ask questions, order food, figure out directions and the like, so I mostly focused on speaking, hiragana, and katakana between now and then. But kanji, I know I have to commit to learning the Kanji….

• This topic was modified 10 years ago by  rigdzin.