みな、こんにちは！Or at this time of night, I guess that would be こんばんは. I am a long time wannabe speaker of Japanese, having been pretty much trying to find a way to learn the language since I was about 12, but not really having much of an idea where to start for self-study and having any opportunity to ever take classes continually snatched from my fingertips. But now, after a friend showed me textfugu (and the situation came to a head by an imminent trip to Japan – the plan is currently this April) I am finally going to learn it. Finally. Just you all watch.

My biggest problem with the whole shebang is I’m a perfectionist, and have this extreme reluctance to move on until I am utterly perfect at what needs to be learned this time, which means I am currently stalled learning hiragana, because I can do it all mostly – recognize the characters, or come up with the correct one with a little effort – but I don’t know the characters as well as English yet and, to my brain, this is a problem that must be corrected before anything else can be done! But I’m working on not letting this stop me (it’s good enough for now, I say) and so on we’ll march, singing together as we go step in step and hand in hand.

Or maybe the singing is too much.

Regardless, I am happy and excited to finally be here and finally be learning!