Starting Japanese

During the past few years I have been interested in the culture and history of East Asia, and now I am potentially interested in majoring in East Asian Studies. To further my studies of the area and allow myself to study abroad in the future, I decided to start Japanese language this term. I really enjoy foreign languages, particularly Spanish, which I have studied for several years now. While learning Japanese is in many ways very different from learning Spanish, I am enjoying it just as much. One of the most exciting parts of Japanese is learning the characters. This is my first time learning a new script, but I have found it relatively easy and very fun (certainly more interesting than the English alphabet!). I'm proud that after only a few weeks I am able to read and write hiragana. Sometimes class is difficult because I feel that I have less of a background in Japanese language than many other students in the class. It still takes me a while to process what I'm hearing and what I want to say. I also have to read hiragana pretty slowly, sounding out each character. It's getting easier, though, and I still feel that I'm able to keep up with the class reasonably well. Overall, I am having a fantastic experience with Japanese and I am looking forward to the rest of the semester!