Why I Decided to take Japanese!

Ever since I was younger, I have always been surrounded by languages. Coming from a Nigerian family, and living in a multi-cultural neighborhood I've been immersed in languages like Yoruba, Spanish, French, and English. Yoruba is the language my family speaks so, naturally, I was exposed to that language at home frequently. My school required me to take a language, and as I result, I've taken French for a whopping 8 years and English is a language that you will always hear, regardless of where you go in America.

When you are in Elementary, Middle, and High school, the languages you learn are often limited to languages like French or Spanish. So when I arrived at Barnard, I was overwhelmed by the number of languages they had to offer. They even had a formal class for Yoruba (which I'm currently taking). This was an opportunity I couldn't pass up. With all the resources the school provided, I was tempted to fit in as many languages as possible. French and Yoruba just wasn't enough for me. I wanted to learn more, see more of the world as well (I've already been to Nigeria and France). I was influenced to take Japanese specifically after meeting a group of exchange students from Japan while I was in High School. Though we aren't in contact anymore, I wanted to try to learn their language just as they tried to learn ours. 

So here I am today, four weeks in to a beginners Japanese class. There are times when the material we learn is confusing, and I won't lie and say that learning hiragana was a breeze. Nevertheless, the thrill of learning a new language hasn't diminished  since the first time I took a language class. I'm excited to see how far I can go!