こんいちは
As the title of my blog suggest I am a 5th generation Japanese trying to learn the language.
Meaning my family came from Japan five generations ago first arriving in Hawaii in the late 19th Century. At the time my family name was Inouye. By my Grandma's generation most of the Japanese language had been forgotten.
I am excited to learn Japanese. It will be my fourth language I have learned. I have learned Spanish, Hebrew, and Greek so Japanese should be easy for me with all my language experience. WRONG! I am expecting Japanese to be the hardest language I have ever learned. The Spanish alphabet is so similar to English that it was not a huge leap. Greek, while harder than Spanish, still had similar characteristics in their alphabet compared to English. Not only that but Greek and Spanish both shared cognates with English. Hebrew thus far has been the most difficult, because it has no similarities to the English alphabet. Yet like the English alphabet the Hebrew alphabet letters represent sounds that form words. Hebrew is probably the most similar of all the languages I have learned to Japanese. As it is also read from right to left. However with Hebrew and Greek I did not learn to speak nor construct sentences. All I learned was to read. With Japanese I want to be able as fluent in it as I am in English. A lofty goal.
I plan to go to Japan next year. I will live there for at least 11 months. My goals for this semester and the upcoming semester was to create a solid base of the Japanese language. I want to have a working knowledge before I leave next year. I am excited to learn.
さよなら。
Wong
