Inspiration

What inspired me to learn Japanese was the fact that I am half Japanese. I realized that I should learn the language so I could connect and communicate with my grandparents on a deeper level. I always wanted to be able to speak the language. My brother has also taken Japanese and I have seen that he has learned a lot in the 4 years he has taken it. Another thing that made me want to take this language is my interest in Japanese media. I find a lot a lot of joy watching anime, reading manga and listening to J-pop. I find that the translations are not always correct or don’t get the deeper meaning of the words. I would like to be able to understand what the artists are truly saying, even if its just a little bit. Another big factor in my choice is that I didn’t enjoy learning French in middle school and I didn’t want to take Spanish because its similar to French.

Goal

My main goal for the end of Japanese 9 is to be able to engage in simple conversation with someone and confidently know hiragana and katakana. I feel like this is a reasonable and important goal to achieve for this semester. I hope that I could understand what my grandparents are saying to me when they try to teach me new words and phrases. My end goal for grade 12 is to be able to go to Japan and talk to people without fear and to read most things there. My ultimate dream is to be able to play hockey in Japan at a high level because hockey is my passion and I think it would be a fun experience to play in a different country.

Motivation

I would keep myself motivated by pushing through the challenges and telling myself that I could do it. I will keep on remembering why I want to take Japanese and my end goal to help me stay motivated. This course is the one that I wanted to take the most and so I think I will stay pretty motivated and eager to learn throughout this semester. If I am struggling I will ask my brother or grandparents for help because they are the ones who I have easy access to and can understand the things I am learning.