Chelsea Lura, a college student, talks about the interests that influenced her to study Japanese


I started studying Japanese because of my interest in video games. I had a great love for video games since I was a child, and some of the most popular and greatest games are made in Japan. I also had a curiosity about Japan. It was a mystical world I had never known about and wanted to explore and learn more about it. I also was reluctant to take other more “ordinary” languages like Spanish, so Japanese sounded like a more interesting option my for high school language requirement. I immediately fell in love with the language once I was exposed to it. Now as a college student majoring in the language I have a much deeper appreciation for the language and Japan itself.

One positive experience for me was the company of the people who were studying it along with me. I found my niche in high school and a place that I felt like I belonged while studying Japanese. I was also closely linked with the Japanese Club at my high school. Being the president of the club gave me a lot of experience in organization and leadership. The most positive experience for me was going to Japan on a home-stay program and learning about Japan hands-on.

Apart from the learning about a culture that is so different from mine, what I treasure most was the friendships I made with other Japanese high school students learning English. This I think is a great benefit, which will hopefully help Japanese and American relations in the future.

If someone is thinking about studying Japanese, I would advise people who may have had trouble learning other languages like French or German, that Japanese is very different and it may be more logical than they think. I am terrible at Western languages including English, but Japanese grammar makes sense to me. I would also advise people that learning the alphabets is not as daunting as they think and it soon becomes as second nature as writing in roman letters. I would also advise them that learning Japanese is like learning any other language and takes time and dedication. Several people interested in things like anime take Japanese and expect to understand an anime without subtitles in a flash. They often soon get frustrated that it takes actual work to become that fluent, and might give up. I would say that people thinking about studying Japanese should look farther than those interest and think if they really want to learn a new language.

(February 2010)