Introduction

Howdy!

This is a personal journal to document my experiences trying to learn Japanese. The information here is geared to help me in the learning process. I hope that the information may be useful to others as well, but as everyone learns differently what worked or didn't work for me may or may not be applicable to others.

Why Japanese, given that I have never been to Japan and don't have any Japanese friends? I am not sure exactly why I am studying Japanese. It started when I enrolled in some free Japanese lessons at the Japan Seminar House (http://www.japansh.com/), purely for the fun of it. I found the initial lessons challenging, but also stimulating.

I love Japanese movies and music, so one of my motivations is being able to understand and hear my favourite movies and music. I also find the Japanese language fascinating. At this stage, I have no intention to work in Japan or sit for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, so I guess my short term goal is to be able to learn enough Japanese for understanding the dialogue in movies, song lyrics and be able to read some text (manga, simple stories, cookbooks).

I have been learning Japanese since August 2006. I have done a few courses at the Japan Seminar House in Melbourne, and I'm currently also doing the Japan Foundation Beginner's course in Sydney.