Alex Steimle, a former student of Japanese language who now works for Nippon Express, talks about his motivation for learning Japanese


I originally began studying Japanese because it was a language that I had never seen offered before in a high school. I knew that I wanted to learn a foreign language, and Japanese being offered was so unusual that I couldn’t help but take it. As I continued through Japanese classes, I found myself quite interested in the structure and formation of the language, as well. It is entirely different from English, and I believe that is what made it so interesting to me as a student who did not speak any other languages at the time.

One of the best experiences of my life came from studying Japanese – I was able to travel to Japan with the exchange program twice, and both times were absolutely beyond my expectations. Overseas travel is one of the best ways to truly appreciate the differences between cultures all around the world, and having even a rudimentary knowledge of the native language of the country to where you are traveling makes the trip even more exciting.

The benefit of studying Japanese is similar to the benefit of studying any foreign language – it opens your mind to a different kind of thinking. The knowledge of culture and language that you gain through your studies allows you to think with a much more global perspective, broadening your viewpoint and allowing you to be more tolerant and understanding. Learning Japanese allowed me to look at the world a different way, and it has helped me immensely as I moved through college into the working world.

The best advice I can give to anyone thinking about studying Japanese is to not panic! It is easy to get flustered when you receive your textbook for your first Japanese class, flip to the back, and realize that you can’t read anything on the page. It’s even more jarring for Japanese than for Spanish or French, where at least you can read the characters! It’s easy to get discouraged when you finally learn the hiragana table, only to find out that there are still two more alphabets you need to learn, one of which has over 2000 characters. However, if you don’t panic and take the time to really learn the characters and vocabulary, the rest of the language starts to fall into place. As you learn more and more, you’ll get those little “Ah-ha!” moments, and the next lessons become easier and easier as you continue to expand your vocabulary.

(February 2010)