You know, after nearly three years of studying "on my own", I wonder if it's selfish somehow for me to be so determined to learn Japanese if I may never get to visit there or have a Japanese friend here where I live.
Sure, I continue to study it because it's "what I want to do", but I also want it to count. My parents told me once, "Why are you studying Japanese? You live in Texas! You should be studying Spanish!" (Which I have tried before, and sometimes attempt to re-sharpen what I've learned in the past...)
...but the language of Nippon, to me, is a graceful thing, like an artform of a sort. Not only it's many systems and such, but the resulting beautiful sounds that you hear whenever the language is spoken, or sung (*especially* when it's sung.)
So to me, learning how to speak in Japanese is like learning how to cook gourmet or how to develope architecture of the most extravigant buildings... or how to raise a child. It's special, deep-seated, time consuming, it takes heart, devotion and desire... to me, at least, that's what it means.
Thus the cycle: Learning Nihongo means so much, but how can I relish in the results of doing so, considering my personal circumstances?
Sure, I continue to study it because it's "what I want to do", but I also want it to count. My parents told me once, "Why are you studying Japanese? You live in Texas! You should be studying Spanish!" (Which I have tried before, and sometimes attempt to re-sharpen what I've learned in the past...)
...but the language of Nippon, to me, is a graceful thing, like an artform of a sort. Not only it's many systems and such, but the resulting beautiful sounds that you hear whenever the language is spoken, or sung (*especially* when it's sung.)
So to me, learning how to speak in Japanese is like learning how to cook gourmet or how to develope architecture of the most extravigant buildings... or how to raise a child. It's special, deep-seated, time consuming, it takes heart, devotion and desire... to me, at least, that's what it means.
Thus the cycle: Learning Nihongo means so much, but how can I relish in the results of doing so, considering my personal circumstances?
...okay, so I did it. over-worked myself in the studies... I didn't even begin to study...