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Why Japan: The Story
Well I said yesterday that I would tell the story of why I wanted to learn Japanese, so here it is.
Long ago in a land far far away… Just kidding, though it was a while ago, about 17 years ago is when it all started on a spiral ride :P. It happened on a flight to Bali, Indonesia, I was invited to go up to see that flight deck of the 747 that was flying my family and myself to our month long holiday. While up there I was listening to a story about all the places that pilot and co-pilot had been to, and couldn’t help but be in awe in the way one of the pilots described Japan (I later found out that he was a family friend that ended up moving to Tokyo a few years later). After an enjoyable month away, I started, admittedly on the wrong track, reading up on aviation, come on I was 5, who didn’t have dreams of becoming a fireman, police officer or pilot give me a break.
Now where was I… Ah yes, after returning and starting to read up on things, I realised, after a great deal of time had passed, that it wasn’t flying a plane that was I hoping for (though I do still enjoy flying and do at some stage in life want to apply for a private pilot’s license) it was the tales of Japan from the pilot. From then I changed direction reading the odd travel guide or translated book, I still enjoy reading Murakami Haruki’s works and have all the translated books sitting on my bookshelf within arm’s reach to read at anytime. After a few year and then moving up into high school, I managed to secure a spot in a private class for people that wanted to learn Japanese (we had German, Latin and French on offer but a couple of us wanted to learn Japanese so they made a private class).
Well a few things happened and I ended up having to leave that school and those lessons to care for my sick mother (who is well, for the most part, now). It wasn’t till last year that I started to get back into Japan and Japanese, this time with a renewed sense of drive. I had become determined to get to Japan and I was going to do it on my own steam.
So basically from a childhood dream to a teenage dream to now an adult dream (soon to become reality if everything goes well), it’s one thing that has lasted through deaths, illness and injury for me. So it may sound completely insane (even to me it does) but it’s been a force behind most of the things I’ve done and has brought me to the point to where I am now, doing a business degree with a double major in tourism and marketing.
Let’s see, as it stands right now, I’m doing a bachelor’s of business at a well respected university, with my spare time chewed up with study family care matters, the remainder of my time is what I use to go back and learn Japanese, it’s going to take me a while…
Just on a side note: This has been a rather abridged version of things, but you can still kind of get the feeling of things.
