Hi there! Here are my musings:

Why am I learning Japanese?

Challenge – goals make me feel excited about life. I want something difficult to strive for, something I can be truly proud of myself for progressing in.

I’m stubborn, and I don’t want to give up on something I’ve been doing (on and off) for six years now.

Self knowledge – I want to learn more about myself through learning about others. By figuring out what makes people “different” from me tick, I can learn about my own blind spots in areas they’ve excelled, or understand where I’ve been lucky because of my background where they have not. In that vein, I am hunting opportunities to interact with people different from me, because it’s good to push boundaries and challenge assumptions.

Community – focusing on an interest like this leads to being around other people who are also interested, leading to interesting discussions and friendships.

Curiosity – I want to go to Japan, talk the talk, walk the walk, and have the experience. I want to learn Japanese because I will never know everything about Japan, and that’s a very good thing, because there’s always more to be curious about.

Keep the brain healthy! I hear it’s good to challenge ourselves, both mentally and physically, and that language learning, like music, stimulates good pathways or however you say it in fancy medical language.