~Inspiration~

The reason I wanted to learn Japanese, and the reason I enjoy learning it so much was because of a Person named Rinu. He is a Japanese utaite (singer) and also is a voice actor. He Belongs to a 6 member Japanese boy band called “Strawberry Prince” (Also sometimes called Stpri) that was formed in June 2016. The group that usually is represented by an illustrated character when appearing in media. (Not showing their faces) I met him about 2 years ago. A song called “chiisanakoinouta” (In English “A small song of love”) an Uttatemita by this Rinu person kept popping up on my YouTube recommended; like a curse that wouldn’t go away. I was annoyed by it so I decided to listen to it about a week later. And it was one of the most beautiful things I had ever heard. I did not know that a wonderful song like that, and a voice like that existed. I had never heard anything like it, the song made me felt like I was enveloped in warmth, like I was in a safe place. I was so moved by the song, the voice, the lyrics and I started crying (Right in the middle of class) I was just so moved and surprised. That song made me feel safe and that everything was okay when everything did not feel okay at all. To think I did not even know what an “Uttatemita” was then, (means “Tried to sing”) makes me shiver now, because now it’s like my only sanity. I started having interest in Rinu-kun from then. As I listened to more songs by him, watched the streams he did, there seemed to be more and more times I could not understand what he was saying, and that made me feel so sad. I could not even receive the words he was giving out. I really hated that, and to think there would come a time that I wouldn’t be able to understand anything of what he was saying just hurt me so much, so I decided I wanted to try harder at Japanese, and get better. I wanted to be able to receive and give back to him that helped me so much when I needed it with his songs and his words, he really was inspiring to me. I wanted to be like him, a person that could make people feel secure with their words. This was also why I started writing stories in Japanese! (Thumbnail of the first song I heard him sing ↓)

*What the 1st one says “A small love song”

*What the second one says “A small love song will reach and get through” (To you)

(Drawing/thumbnail is by @_sayu_T on Twitter)

~Goals~

My further goals with Japanese would be to be able to catch up to my grade level. (For a student in Japan) No matter how much I seem to try or take other classes, the students in Japan are really still very ahead of me, as they use the language more in their everyday life, and also get to experience Japanese culture in a way we really cannot experience when we are not there personally. (I long to be able to be a student in Japan…I know that the schoolwork is very hard, and the rules are strict, but I feel the safest/able to express my feelings the best when I am speaking Japanese, so I imagine how great it would be to be speaking that (and only that) all the time. The uniforms are cool too!) I wish to be able to be like a “normal” school girl in Japan and make friends with people in Japan! I really like being able to speak Japanese and teaching/showing people how to speak it or help them translate, so I hope that in the future I will be able to get a job in which I will be able to make use of both my English and Japanese. I also want to get better at word choices/choosing words when writing stories. (Something I do for fun!) Because Japanese has so many different words to express one thing or emotion, I want to learn them and be able to use them properly. Learning how “Keigo” (Proper speech) is used in different situations might be good for me, too.

~Motivation~

When I feel like throwing my Japanese textbooks out the window, I usually either listen to Rinu-kun’s streams, or listen to his songs. It helps me to realize anew how much I love Japanese and how precious being able to understand it is to me! I also read novels (online ones) and make myself suffer from not knowing many words. (I have to search for the meaning of a word every 5 seconds, and it seems as if I would never be able to read till the end of the chapter..) I really feel sad about not being able to understand it on my own. That makes me want to try harder, so I can understand the stories, as well as learn new things about Japan (In Japanese that I can read and listen to to get information.) I watch Japanese shows too, to remember how much I want to be there where the people on the shows are. I may make myself write stories in English, because while writing I often cannot find the right words that “fit” do describe what I want to say, but I can think of the word in Japanese!! This makes me so mad, when the word or the idiom I want to use does not exist in English. Japanese really has a large selection of words, which I think is really useful when speaking. I want to keep learning new words from now on too, so I will be able to more easily express my feelings!

(The image below is from a scene in question from one of Rinu-kun’s videos. It is not weird. I promise…Why did I choose “kabi killer” ??? *means mold killer. Please do not ask me I have no idea, this was the only image that would load onto here for some reason. I guess fate decided this.) Thank you for reading this, I hope you have a good rest of your day!

(Captions: “KABIKILERRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!” “What the heck is he doing??”)