I’ve been burnt out on playing video games lately, so I decided to pick up Japanese study as a hobby again.
I don’t know how often I’ll be writing about language study, or if it’ll become a core part of this hobby space, but for now I’m really enjoying it and so I want to write about it~
A brief history of my previous experience learning Japanese: over a decade ago, I took Japanese 101 in university, and then failed out of Japanese 102. Not wanting to give up, after graduation, I moved to Japan to teach English & fully immerse myself in Japanese.
However, I fell chronically ill while overseas, and had to quit my job after just a year. I tried to work freelance as long as possible, but eventually moved back to my home country for healthcare and recovery.
Unfortunately, my illness drastically affected my memory & learning ability. I’ve tried to pick up studying Japanese again occasionally over the years, but touching the language was too painful of a reminder of the life I had and then lost. I eventually came to accept that chapter of my life was over and subsequently shelved the idea of ever trying to learn Japanese again.
But over ten years later, the desire has been creeping back in, and so here I am, starting back at zero. Instead of being embarrassed of how much I’ve lost, I’m going to be proud of myself for getting back up and trying again ✩