A bit more about me - Why Japanese?
After showing this blog to a few friends, the most popular response is 'Hey I didn't know you were into Japanese, why do you study it?'..and then it starts: a whole stream of pokemon related questions follow ><,
I got into Japanese at around May '04 when I was getting ready to leave uni' for the summer and had bugger all to do. I decided to spend the time constructively and wanted to learn a second language: Enter French! You see, I'd studied French for 5 years at school, yet I'd forgot it all; I knew nothing. I'd even forgotten how uninteresting the French parts of the world were and upon rediscovering such facts, my quest ended! C'est tres mauve, non?
Then, whilst strolling my uni one day, waiting to meet a friend, I spotted a series of posters on the notice board that is seemingly stuck in some sort of stasis, shielded from change and the dusts of time alike. I mean, it had an array of posters ranging from ‘have you got dyslexia’ ( I always wanted to make a mock up one of those, riddled with spelling errors...), through to ‘for sale: scuba diving gear’ (I jest not!). Then it caught my eye: “are you bored of England?” “hell yeah”, I thought. “Can you teach?”, she asked (she is the poster, it’s more magical this way!). I replied “yeah I’m sure I could now you ask me such a question!”. She then started telling me all about her worldly offerings, how she needed English teaching staff around the world, and described the adventure that I’d yearned for but up until now had no idea how to reach. Then an enchanting two syllable word gracefully vacated her blood-red lips: “Jah-Pan”. I was hooked. "Why?", you ask? Well, I’ve always had an affinity for the bizarre and consequently for Japan, (no offense, I was educated by Challenge TV [Takeshis Castle], Ju-Jitsu classes and late night pornography about weather women – what else was I to go on?!).
So, to cut an already long story short, I decided this was my calling card; it was my wake up call. Time to do something, time for an adventure my son! This A4 sized print was more than a poster to me for it’d now become my escape; my ticket out of here, if you like. Well, in a sense, at least. So, I (Naively) decided to start learning Japanese. Strangely, I found a great deal of joy from doing so and have stuck at it since.
It's actually a pretty interesting, but rather tough ordeal :p And I've met an assortment of interesting people as a result though it: ranging from a gay Chinese bloke who was determined to train me up into a Chinese-lady-killer (Luke, you can vouch for that ^^, ), through to close friends, spanning the globe a few times over :)
..and then there's chinese! I'm planning to start a chinese class of some sort next septmeber at uni with a few friends. Could be fun, no?
I got into Japanese at around May '04 when I was getting ready to leave uni' for the summer and had bugger all to do. I decided to spend the time constructively and wanted to learn a second language: Enter French! You see, I'd studied French for 5 years at school, yet I'd forgot it all; I knew nothing. I'd even forgotten how uninteresting the French parts of the world were and upon rediscovering such facts, my quest ended! C'est tres mauve, non?
Then, whilst strolling my uni one day, waiting to meet a friend, I spotted a series of posters on the notice board that is seemingly stuck in some sort of stasis, shielded from change and the dusts of time alike. I mean, it had an array of posters ranging from ‘have you got dyslexia’ ( I always wanted to make a mock up one of those, riddled with spelling errors...), through to ‘for sale: scuba diving gear’ (I jest not!). Then it caught my eye: “are you bored of England?” “hell yeah”, I thought. “Can you teach?”, she asked (she is the poster, it’s more magical this way!). I replied “yeah I’m sure I could now you ask me such a question!”. She then started telling me all about her worldly offerings, how she needed English teaching staff around the world, and described the adventure that I’d yearned for but up until now had no idea how to reach. Then an enchanting two syllable word gracefully vacated her blood-red lips: “Jah-Pan”. I was hooked. "Why?", you ask? Well, I’ve always had an affinity for the bizarre and consequently for Japan, (no offense, I was educated by Challenge TV [Takeshis Castle], Ju-Jitsu classes and late night pornography about weather women – what else was I to go on?!).
So, to cut an already long story short, I decided this was my calling card; it was my wake up call. Time to do something, time for an adventure my son! This A4 sized print was more than a poster to me for it’d now become my escape; my ticket out of here, if you like. Well, in a sense, at least. So, I (Naively) decided to start learning Japanese. Strangely, I found a great deal of joy from doing so and have stuck at it since.
It's actually a pretty interesting, but rather tough ordeal :p And I've met an assortment of interesting people as a result though it: ranging from a gay Chinese bloke who was determined to train me up into a Chinese-lady-killer (Luke, you can vouch for that ^^, ), through to close friends, spanning the globe a few times over :)
..and then there's chinese! I'm planning to start a chinese class of some sort next septmeber at uni with a few friends. Could be fun, no?
posted by Ben at
12:25 PM
