「英語」Learning Japanese: After a Year

I started learning Japanese about a year and 3 months ago.

A friend told me he was planning on doing a year away from university to go to Japan for a volunteering programme. And truth be told, I had a Fear of Missing Out moment which led me to learn Japanese. Though, when I was about 10 years old, I have learned hiragana and katakana because I was super into Vocaloid.

When learning a new language, a lot of people say that you need to set your goals or reasons on why you are learning the language. This allows you to be realistic with your own expectations and efforts you put in into the language learning process. At first, it was because I wanted to consume Japanese media especially music. There are countless of times where I would want to sing a Japanese song only to find that no one has transcribed the lyrics into Romaji. But as time progresses, I think this has become more than just a hobby.

It's such a beautiful language. Hiragana, katakana and kanji. They all serve their own purpose in written language. Though kanji is a huge barrier to entry into the language, I have learned to enjoy kanji. Learning a new kanji is like obtaining a new puzzle piece, where you slowly complete the full image. It is just so rewarding to recognise a newly-learnt kanji in the wild.

My Japanese is barely functional unfortunately (though, I can consume Japanese media to a certain extent now), but, one day, I hope to do more with the Japanese language. Maybe being a full-time translator? Cliche, I know. I wanna spend more time with this language.