Hi Cassandra,

Thank you for your warm greeting. Well, I’d agree with you that Japanese IS such a beautiful language. As a kid I watched English dubbed versions of Studio Ghibli films and was obsessed with Kimba the white lion! When I found out that they were originally Japanese (when I was much older) it kinda progressed from there. I now really like Asian Cinema, especially Miike Takashi’s films. The culture fascinates me too… so many different customs that it seems strangely alien…

But why Japanese over other languages?… I’ve lived in other countries and have managed to pick up some very rudimentary language skills, although prior knowledge would have been beneficial, it wasn’t really necessary (sorry if that makes me look a terrible tourist, I’m nice, honest!!!) However, I think because Japan is such alien territory for us ‘gaijin’ I think a decent working knowledge would really enhance my time there (cos I always knew I wanted to go, just not when) I want to be able to ask questions and find out about stuff and not rely on other people speaking English.

How about you? How long have you been studying and what was your motivation?

I haven’t run the marathon yet, it’s not until October but I wanted to start training early cos I think it’s going to be a once-in-a-lifetime thing, so I’m going to do it properly. I’ve got a 10k race next week for part of my training and that distance is the longest I’ve raced…. so far!

Hope your studies are going productively too,
Emma