Hey! My name is Math.

I tried to learn Japanese a while back, but after two semesters of study in college and a trip to Japan, I fell off due to a lack of confidence in my speaking ability leading me to not take further classes (which were conversational / spoken Japanese classes that I felt I wasn’t ready for), and a lack of self-motivation to study on my own.

It’s been a year and a half since then, and while I’ve lost the bulk of my Japanese skills, I’m feeling like giving it another go, because it really is something I want to learn. So I signed up for TextFugu, I’ve reset my WaniKani account to level 1, and I’m ready to just tear into this.

My goal and reason for learning Japanese is to be able to play, read, and watch Japanese media in its native language, particularly things like Neon Genesis Evangelion that are (according to fans) better in the original Japanese, the MOTHER series of video games which have not all been translated officially into English (while the first and third game have fan translations that are very good, only the first two games got official translations, and the official translation for the first game is sub-par), and maybe even things I would like but don’t know about yet that haven’t been translated at all!

I also really enjoy reading about Japanese culture and history, so being fluent would open gateways for research instead of relying on translated materials and research done by other Westerners.

I would also like to one day go back to Japan when I am fluent in Japanese, as my skills in Japanese when I went, while not particularly poor, were nowhere near enough to carry conversations with people, and this served as a roadblock multiple times during the trip.

Of course, I also feel that knowing a second or even third language, particularly East Asian languages, would pay dividends professionally since I plan to enter the technology industry as a career, and this would enable me to act as an interpreter or corporate liaison for whatever company I ultimately work for. For this reason, I also plan to learn Korean at some point in the future.

And hey, if the tech industry doesn’t pan out, I can always become a translator if I’m able to pull this off.

Hopefully this second shot at learning Japanese goes better than my previous attempt. It will take effort on my part, as I am not particularly adept at self-motivation, but I feel with time and care I can make this work. I just need to keep working at it. And I have supplemental materials already; I’ll primarily be using TextFugu and WaniKani, but I also have 2nd Edition versions of the Genki vol.1 textbook and workbook, as well as the Genki teacher’s manual, as well as Duolingo which just added Japanese to its repertoire. Once I’ve made enough progress, I also have a Japanese Nintendo New 3DS XL with Japanese versions of Yokai Watch, Pokemon Alpha Sapphire, and Animal Crossing: New Leaf.

It’s going to be difficult, but I’m determined to not just relearn the skills I’ve lost, but surpass them.