I am taking Japanese in my senior year of college because I had always been interested in Japanese language and culture. Having spent my early years in Hong Kong, where Japanese goods and shows are very popular, Japanese culture has appealed to me for as long as I can remember. Since I spent the last three years studying Chinese for practicality reasons (mainly, I wanted to learn how to communicate with my family members) and am now somewhat proficient, I finally have the opportunity to take the language that I've always wanted to learn but never had an opportunity to.
In my free time, I really enjoy watching Japanese animations (with subtitles) and listening to Japanese music, and though I don't understand the content by listening I always liked to look up the lyrics so I could at least follow or sing along. I'm excited that now that I'm learning the language I'd finally have a better understanding of the deeper meanings behind what I hear or watch, and I'd love to be able to also communicate in Japanese in basic conversation.
In turn, I'm hoping that my inherent interest in the language would allow me to learn to utilize the language much more quickly and more fluently than my experience in Chinese had been. From the past 4 weeks, what I found most difficult about Japanese is keeping in mind all the exceptions to spelling and pronunciation in things such as floor, time, and money. I am also still making a lot of careless mistakes when it comes to spelling in Hiragana, and the fact that I am terrible at pronunciation and spelling of English words alone makes translating vocabulary from Romaji into the appropriate Hiragana spellings is even more difficult for me. I'm hoping however with enough practice, I'd be able to overcome these difficulties and become much more fluent in sentence construction when speaking and writing.
In my free time, I really enjoy watching Japanese animations (with subtitles) and listening to Japanese music, and though I don't understand the content by listening I always liked to look up the lyrics so I could at least follow or sing along. I'm excited that now that I'm learning the language I'd finally have a better understanding of the deeper meanings behind what I hear or watch, and I'd love to be able to also communicate in Japanese in basic conversation.
In turn, I'm hoping that my inherent interest in the language would allow me to learn to utilize the language much more quickly and more fluently than my experience in Chinese had been. From the past 4 weeks, what I found most difficult about Japanese is keeping in mind all the exceptions to spelling and pronunciation in things such as floor, time, and money. I am also still making a lot of careless mistakes when it comes to spelling in Hiragana, and the fact that I am terrible at pronunciation and spelling of English words alone makes translating vocabulary from Romaji into the appropriate Hiragana spellings is even more difficult for me. I'm hoping however with enough practice, I'd be able to overcome these difficulties and become much more fluent in sentence construction when speaking and writing.
