I’m a terrible writer. I can never think of a subject when it comes time for me to write. Because of this I’m just going to write about why such a terrible writer has a blog.

Ever since I can remember I wanted to learn a second language. When I was about seven I was convinced I could write in kanji. It’s to complicated to explain why I believed this so I won’t go into details, but I believed it whole heartedly. People must have laughed quite a bit when they saw me scribble out some indecipherable character and tell them it was kanji. People would always ask, "So what does this mean exactly?" and I’d always respond the same way "I don’t know, but it means something."

When I entered high school I was very excited to learn that two years of a foreign language was a requirement for every student. I couldn’t wait to begin and fantasized about being fluent after just two short years.

The high school I entered offered Spanish, Japanese, German and French. I chose French because my sister had taken it and told me that she’d help with my studies. I took this to mean we’d practice speaking it everyday and she’d do all my homework. I couldn’t have been more wrong in my thinking.

The first day I had homework I asked her a question and she replied "I don’t remember." This soon became a recurring response to all my French questions. I soon lost all interest in learning French and just managed to eek out a "C" grade.

During my second year of high school I had French for first period. At this point in my life I found first period to be a very convenient time to get some extra sleep. Needless to say I failed that year.

I also failed my third year of French for the same reason.

My senior year I realized I had to get serious about school. French wasn’t the only class I had failed and I was one more failure away from not having the credits to graduate.

Though I had been asleep in French for two years I must have picked up on it subconsciously, because I aced my fourth year. The teacher couldn’t believe my turnaround.

After graduation I moved to Hawaii. I soon came to the realization that Hawaii was the perfect place to learn a second language, in that a vast number of the population is bi-lingual.

Being that I had made a few trips to Japan and there was a large Japanese population in Hawaii I felt Japanese would be the language best suited for me.

After making this decision I began learning Japanese at NACOS International Institute.

I took lessons there for one year and thanks to my outstanding teachers Michiko and Shuzo Nakamura I became fairly proficient in reading, writing and speaking Japanese.

I would have continued studying at NACOS but because of my job I had to transfer to Maryland. Which brings me to this blog.

Michiko and Shuzo have helped me continue to study Japanese even though I am some 5000 miles away from NACOS through the use of the internet. One of the things they’ve done is have me set up this blog which I will post on whenever I am able. NACOS will then translate these posts into Japanese and I will use this translation to pratice what I’ve learned.
The Nakamura’s have helped me greatly in my pursuit of a second language. I deeply thank them for all their help.