Okay, so I think this blog project might be just what I needed. Here I am, first semester back in school after almost 8 years and I haven't once written about how I felt about anything. Moreover, I've undertaken the formidable (sometimes, anyway) task of trying to learn Japanese. You know the one question I get more often than any other one? "Why didn't you just take Spanish?" You have no idea how much this question grates on my soul. I think my mom asked it first, which, interestingly enough, doesn't bother me. I kinda expected that from mom. It's when other people ask me that that I really get ticked off. "Everyone is speaking Spanish now." "It's so much more useful." "What are you gonna do with Japanese?" "You're a math major. Shouldn't you have just picked an easy language?" Honestly, I don't do entirely too much for myself. For the most part, I do things because they need to be done or because I'm doing them for someone else. But, this decision, this choice was purely my own and done solely for my own benefit. If I'm gonna sit though 2 years of a foreign language, you can be sure that it's going to be something that I wanna do. Don't get me wrong: I took Spanish in high school. It IS useful. But, this is what I want. And, you know what? I don't feel bad about that. Even if I started for shallow reasons like wanting to be able to watch anime and understand the audio or wanting to know what all of those interesting symbols mean on products from Japan. You know, maybe I'd like to be able to actually sing along with Utada Hikaru for once and not have to look up what she's saying to say, "Oh, that's a nice song. I can relate." And, guess what: I'm getting somewhere. I see Hiragana in my life and I don't say, "Oh, squiggly lines..." I see "katamari" and "sushi" and "rei" and I'm not struggling to do it. And, it's ever so much more satisfying than Spanish ever was. So, no, ladies and gentlemen, I'm not learning Spanish. And, that is オーケー. Because this is just as nice. And, it's what I want.
