Hello all. Here is my “Why are you learning Japanese?” post. I have one main reason and two secondary reasons.
My main reason is that my son will be starting kindergarten in a school that includes an immersive Japanese program. (He will be learning math and science in Japanese. The teacher does not use any English.) My wife and I want to learn too so that our whole family can share in the language learning experience (although I realize that my son will be learning in a very different way than I will).

My first secondary reason is that since high school, I have been convinced that I am “bad at learning languages.” I would like to prove to myself that in fact I can learn a new language. I spent about 8 years “learning” spanish but never could do much more than translate word by word with the help of a dictionary. I realize now that part of the reason for this is that I was not committed to learning the language. Also, I did not have a very strong “study” mentality. I think I have the commitment and maturity this time around to be more successful.

My second secondary reason is that I have always loved the Japanese culture (taiko, karate, aikido, go, tonsus, and sushi (in no particular order) are a few of my favorite things). I would like to visit Japan and I would like to be confident in my ability to communicate while I am there.

So, those are my reasons for now, but I am looking forward to discovering more good reasons to learn Japanese as I go!