i finally tried out my japanese on someone...

[hkhm]

yesterday, after viewing an ikebana exhibit at the japanese gardens, we decided that we wanted some japanese food... but the place we intended wasn't open for another three hours so we drove around all grumpy and hungry until we found... uwajimaya.

we turned around and drove up to this huge ware-house sized place with a bookstore and a restaurant attached. and for the first time, i tried out my japanese on someone other than a family member. and it all felt so natural (i ordered food in the restaurant) i felt so happy that the waitress understood me! of course, we were listening intently to the table behind us (which seated six japanese teenagers) and the table across from us (which had three guys around our age).

and the bookstore... i've never seen so much manga in one place! most of the products were entirely in japanese, even the clerks were speaking japanese (switching to very accented english for us).

sorry to gush. i'm just so excited about this all. i can't wait to go to japan next year. i can't wait to try out my japanese on someone again. just going to the store yesterday (and realizing that i'm still pretty much a beginner) made me re-double my learning efforts. and, with all the manga i bought, i'll simply have to finish learning all of my hiragana.

 

[Elizabeth]

The communication motivation is all important, isn't it? I personally could never learn just for manga or anime (assuming an interest in them). Even after planning a return trip later this month but before making arrangements to stay with my boyfriend I was pretty down and discouraged about all that needed to be done. So that despite being relegated to sleeping in the corner on his dining room floor, at least for the moment, it is more than enough to focus the mind....