I'm majoring in Japanese Multi-Age Education with a minor in second language acquisition. With my minor, I'll be able to complete grad school in just two semesters. I'm also hoping to fit French in there at some point, my university offers only one year of French however.

If I keep going at the pace I am now, I think I'll be able to call myself fluent by the end of this semester. I live with a Japanese roommate (my professor paired us up) and we have a unique way of communicating. I speak to him in Japanese but he replies in English.

We have 4-1 hour classes every week. For each class we need to learn at least 3 new kan'ji, and do a shizton of homework. We're also expected to do some studying on our own outside of class, so I learn thirty new words every night. 単語はとても大切です!

I'd say that speaking really is my weakest point. It used to be listening, but I can understand most of what is thrown at me these days. Watching Japanese movies helped a lot. Drinking and partying with Asians helps a lot too. I didn't watch anime, because I hate most of it. Didn't listen to much J-Pop either, that is the worst. omg

I kind of fell into Japanese. It wasn't what I wanted to study, but I signed up anyway. Throughout my freshman year, I was looking for a way out. It wasn't until this semester (my 2nd sophomore semester) that I really felt that I liked studying it and that I wanted to go full throttle into it.

You get out of it what you put into it.

Some kids don't realize that Japanese is more than just something cool for otakus to do in their free time. It is a lot more serious than that. I've seen so many nerdy kids jump into the Japanese program at my school, realize that it was more intense than they had thought, and then drop out soon after.

ファイト!