Why Japanese?
I spent this past summer teaching an English camp for Japanese students with Toshin High Schools in Tokyo and Sapporo. While there, I had an amazing time experiencing the Japanese culture firsthand and meeting many incredible people. Going to Japan, I knew a fair amount about certain elements of the Japanese culture, specifically regarding food, so I very much enjoyed those parts of my experiences. However, I felt that I lacked the ability to fully appreciate everything that was happening around me. While many of the signs and instructions around urban Japan were in English, thankfully, I could not have conversations with so many of the people that I met. Some of my fellow interns on the trip could speak Japanese and, through them, I picked up on some "survival" phrases that were useful for getting around Japan. But when I returned to the states, I realized that I loved being in Japan and would love to return again and so I decided that I would set out to learn Japanese so t...