Ahh, self-introductions, fine things they are. Haven’t done one lately, I don’t actually remember when was the last time I joined a forum.

In any case, I’m Xash, and Xash being my actual nickname. Over the years, I have realised one thing – foreign languages are boring, they are all the same variation of each other. (gross exaggeration incoming) German? Zzzz. French? -snore- Spanish? -yawn- Latin? (Wait, did you say Latin? Who teaches Latin these days!? Well, certainly someone does and they certainly tought those at certain education establishments back in the day) Long story short – I never found learning languages very interesting.

Enter Japanese. I don’t know exactly what it was but I slowly fell in love with the language and the culture (and I don’t mean the working culture here). Something about how it sounds, something about how it’s written and maybe even something about how it’s read! Maybe I was simply just looking for something different from the Indo European languages entirely.

Years later. Here I am, sure I have some knowledge of Japanese but it’s knowledge picked up from popular culture (ie anime/manga) and it’s truly all over the place. Considering, that I never actually seriously thought of learning the language, maybe it’s not bad but as the new year was coming about, it occurred to me that I was wasting a chance here. So I decided to make the New Year, the 2013, the year of doing things I wanted but never did, due to mostly excuses that I didn’t have time. More like fear of something new and fear of failure. My conservative nature certainly played part here. But since cowardice is sin, I decided that, among other things, I’m going to learn Japanese.

My goal is pretty simple, I want one day to take Murakami’s Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World and read it, how it was originally meant to be read. It’s simple enough of a goal but achieving the said goal is another story. Will it be in a year, in 5 years, in 10 years? Doesn’t matter. What matters is actually working towards a goal, instead of just thinking about it.

So I looked around and this little website popped up along with some recommendations. And why not, this seems to be a good starting point as any.

In any case, enough of my lengthy rambling. Nice to meet you all and hope we can get along. :)