Introduce yourself, and your interest in Japanese!

Konata

That's awesome, I really hope you get on well here! Have you found many other Japanese people? I'm in DCU and several come over every year on an exchange - there's also a surprising amount just living around Dublin. I'm also curious as to why they come to Dublin :P In my opinion, Ireland isn't that exciting but maybe that's just cause I've lived here all my life!

What part of Japan are you from? I'll be going to university there for a year in 2013 and I can't wait

Aard

Konata, I used to teach English to a Japanese lady here, and she said that the reason that she and many other Japanese come to Ireland is precisely because they would be relatively few. Less temptation to speak Japanese than in say London or the States.

--

Anyway my interest in Japanese comes from a general interest in languages and linguistics. I studied it for Leaving Cert back in the day when it wasn't particularly common. Since then though I've lost a lot of skill in the language due to focussing on French. I'd love to get back into it in earnest though, but I'll probably wait until I have a 6-month block to really do an all Japanese all the time (or close enough!).

old hippy

I'm always amazed that my wife had lived & worked in several different countries but it was Dublin where we met. I was surprised that there were quite a few Japanese in Dublin at the time - few of us used to hang out in various pubs.

thechanger

はじめまして. I'm Brian, currently live in London.

I've been self-studying Japanese for about 4 years now, on & off. I mainly got interested in Japan and Japanese when I met my wife.

I lived in Kanagawa for 6 months in 2009, but failed to find permanent work, and thus didn't interact with a lot of Japanese outside of my wife and her family. I'm starting to study it again, and am trying to set a study plan with the aim to get reasonably fluent. We hope to move there in about 2 years.

Pyongyang

Lurked this forum a while, I'm old (32), but recently made a decision to start learning to speak and read Japanese. Been meaning to for years but kept putting it off. Ordered a few books from Amazon for starters and am going to try the self study route to get a start on my studies. I'll see how it goes and if I can grasp it well enough before seeking out an evening class of some sort.

I'm heading to Japan in July for a couple of weeks. Always wanted to go, I guess my interest in Japan started when I was a young pup and it's never subsided.

My aim is not to become bilingual, just to have enough to hold a basic conversation, read a magazine or newspaper and watch films without relying on the subtitles for the most part.

Good to see an outlet such as this where like-minded folk can discuss.

Monkeyto

Awesome! We can practise when you come her in July

I hear trying to learn Kanji and Dondonpachi at the same time can be hazardous to one's health!

cherryghost

Hallo, I'm Alan, 25. Married already to a Latina but that's a different story :P

I was in Japan 5 years ago. At the time I wasn't overly interested in the culture that was there. After my stay there I came back a changed man. The food, just blew me away. The parties, the music, the shrines, the anime & manga, the technology. The entire country blew me away.

I came back and have integrated a lot of the Japanese lifestyle into me, whenever I can really. I'm also learning Kanji, but in my own free time, and it's going pretty slowly at the moment.

Back to Japan in 2013 I hope Thanks!

hibby

Pyongyang wrote: »

My aim is not to become bilingual, just to have enough to hold a basic conversation, read a magazine or newspaper

These are two very different levels of ambition!:)

Nagikami

hibby wrote: »

These are two very different levels of ambition!:)

Agree with this ^^^ I have a copy of Asahi Shinbun back home and last time I checked all I could read was Asahi Shinbun ]=

So anyways, my introduction:
My name's Edmond, 17. I'm currently studying Japanese and French in the Applied Language and Intercultural Studies course in DCU. My interest in Japanese originally came from anime and manga but now I'm mainly interested in the language itself (because it's so damned awesome =D) Anyhow currently aiming to survive the next year and a half in college to get to Japan in 2013

just-joe

Nagikami wrote: »

(because it's so damned awesome =D)

Just out of interest - why do you think its awesome?

old hippy

Pyongyang wrote: »

Lurked this forum a while, I'm old (32)

You're not old.

hibby

I'm Dara. I am 40, happily married to a Japanese woman and getting ready to go and live in Japan for a while. My Japanese isn't good but I passed (I hope!) the JLPT level N3 in December. I'm hoping that by spending time in Japan I can finally learn to speak Japanese properly.

Nagikami

just-joe wrote: »

Just out of interest - why do you think its awesome?

Because of it's regularity!!! I say this as someone who learned German for 5 years and began to dislike it towards the end simply because of the vast amount of irregular verbs (alright I know it's not a vast amount but it seemed like it at the time) It's not just the verbs, it's the characters too, the way they're all neatly organised into syllables rather than phonemes It just seems to hae developed in a much nicer way than a lot of European languages

P.S. Can't forget the Kanji!!! Kanji are damn cool too

Farcear

Hi all,

I'm Conall. 25 year old lawyer-in-training.

I'm learning Japanese mainly as a hobby more than anything else. I feel bad when I'm not learning something and my ego does not allow me to take haivng friends with English as a second language while I've got nothing! (Rudimentary Irish, French and Latin don't count.)

Sure we shall just have to see what happens.

funky penguin

This is actually a main motivator for me too Conall! I had a crap load of international friends in Ireland and I was always amazed at their ability to communicate to a high level in 2 languages.

Many of the people to come to Japan as Language teachers tend to be bi-lingual too, the majority of the second languages being Spanish (many Americans) or French (many Canadians). Actually, there are quite a few Chinese and Koreans too.....working as translators. I'm sick of my single language skillz! The advantage of English is it's 'international' language status, but Jesus it does give you a bit of a handicap when it comes to bi-lingualism!

LimerickLad92

はじめまして！

私のなまいはキーアロン・ライアンです。十九さいです。リムリック大学の学生です。せんこはけいりと日本語です。

Hey guys, im kieron, 19, Ul student and I study japanese and business with my major going to be economics. Nice to meet you all. I'm from Limerick myself.

Farcear

よろしく!

...and sorry for being "that guy" but 「なまい」 should be 「なまえ」.

How many are studying Business & Japanese in UL?

LimerickLad92

Farcear wrote: »

よろしく!

...and sorry for being "that guy" but 「なまい」 should be 「なまえ」.

How many are studying Business & Japanese in UL?

Thanks xD I always make those mistakes, I need to practise more spelling and less speaking.

We have 6 people!

jendafer1

Hi everyone,

I'm Jen. And I decided to learn Japanese last week, sort of on a whim! I've just finished up in college (I'm 26) and so have free time to learn something new. I've been interested in learning Japanese for the past few years, I guess ever since I was introduced to Japanese food which I love! I dont have any specific goals at the moment, but I guess I would like to be able to hold a basic conversation in Japanese and to read some basic hiragana and Kanji. To that end I'm using the RTK method for learning the Kanji (which is amazing, I know 52 and only started 3 days ago) and using various apps for the hiragana. So far I love it

LimerickLad92

jendafer1 wrote: »

Hi everyone,

I'm Jen. And I decided to learn Japanese last week, sort of on a whim! I've just finished up in college (I'm 26) and so have free time to learn something new. I've been interested in learning Japanese for the past few years, I guess ever since I was introduced to Japanese food which I love! I dont have any specific goals at the moment, but I guess I would like to be able to hold a basic conversation in Japanese and to read some basic hiragana and Kanji. To that end I'm using the RTK method for learning the Kanji (which is amazing, I know 52 and only started 3 days ago) and using various apps for the hiragana. So far I love it

Welcome

Im new here myself, but Japanese is a lovely language to study and once you get the basics you will suddenly desire more and more japanese! hope all is well and if you need any help just give me a shout!