American here. Lifetime resident of the Boston area. Twenty five years old, no Japanese language experience and I have not yet visited the country. But I enjoy language immensely and, being bored with English, have recently decided to start classes. The Japanese language in particular because it seems to be one of the most dramatic contrasts in terms of both structure and use; I took Spanish in highschool and became bored by its 'English-in-different-letters' feel. Linguistic Relativism seems like a promising notion, and a particularly useful one if applied to problemsolving. I'd like to arrange my thoughts along new lines entirely when I think fluently in a foreign language, which is what prompts my seeking the sharp contrast.
Beyond this nascent interest in the Japanese language, I really just want to get out of the States. Not because I have any particular problem with life here, but for reasons that I have difficulty explaining. Perhaps I'd just be intellectualizing pure cultural boredom if I tried.
I'm a half white, half black mixture raised exclusively by my white mother in a predominantly Armenian town. So I'm used to not really fitting in, used to cursory discrimination, and not too concerned about being an "outside person" elsewhere either. That said, Japan seems 'western' in the ways that matter (trade, technological and economic development) but otherwise about as alien as possible. I've spent the past few days reading quite a few ridiculously interesting old threads on this forum, particularly fascinated by the detailed insights provided by Maciamo et all. A couple of those threads linked to subforums that one seems to have to register in order to access, prompting me to de-lurk. And so here I am.
Not sure what else to say.
Forgive my babbling. A simple hello would have sufficed, I'm sure.
Beyond this nascent interest in the Japanese language, I really just want to get out of the States. Not because I have any particular problem with life here, but for reasons that I have difficulty explaining. Perhaps I'd just be intellectualizing pure cultural boredom if I tried.
I'm a half white, half black mixture raised exclusively by my white mother in a predominantly Armenian town. So I'm used to not really fitting in, used to cursory discrimination, and not too concerned about being an "outside person" elsewhere either. That said, Japan seems 'western' in the ways that matter (trade, technological and economic development) but otherwise about as alien as possible. I've spent the past few days reading quite a few ridiculously interesting old threads on this forum, particularly fascinated by the detailed insights provided by Maciamo et all. A couple of those threads linked to subforums that one seems to have to register in order to access, prompting me to de-lurk. And so here I am.
Not sure what else to say.
Forgive my babbling. A simple hello would have sufficed, I'm sure.