New Language to learn but a New Vision to life!

To give a background for any new people who don’t know me, I am an undergrad student learning BA in Japanese from Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth and so a Japanese language instructor.

After completing 12th grade a thought that scratches everyone’s head is what field to choose for graduation. Answer to which is often - engineering, diploma or doctorate for science students, BBA, BCOM, etc. for commerce students and BA Hons in arts, etc.

When I answer this question people are frequently amazed, “Wow, Unique! But why Japanese?” is a common phrase I hear.

 Living in a family of linguists, I always wanted to learn at least one foreign language apart from English, but never imagined that I would take up Japanese when I was young.

Before learning the Japanese language online, I tried understanding the basics of mandarin as I knew there’s a connection between the two languages but wanted to gain some more knowledge. I looked up about Chinese language and understood the correlation between Chinese and Japanese.

A fact many people might not know: the Japanese language has originated from the Chinese language and hence there is a similarity in the way they look.

So, what is the one thing that comes to people’s minds when they hear about Japan or the Japanese Language? Most of the people that I’ve come across say Anime, Manga, sushi, calligraphy, developed country, etc.

Well, I was one of them too used to. Watching Japanese cartoons was one of the few things I enjoyed doing in my childhood. Later, I even started watching anime when I was in the deciding phase of my life – 12th Grade. I gained some interest in the language and gradually my curiosity about Japan was sky-rocketing.

So, did my interest in the language make me choose it as my full-time degree/career? The answer is a big No, but it did act as the catalyst to fuel my journey toward exploring Japanese culture.

Along with understanding the origin of the Japanese language and watching anime, I was then understanding cartoons that I watched during my childhood and by then understood my keen interest in Japanese.

Soon I started looking for ways to learn the Japanese Language and found out that most people who take up the Japanese language often choose to learn it level-wise, maybe for a better position in the role or a pay raise – the reasons may differ. But I chose to learn more about the culture and more about how Japan has developed so far.

Soon later, I found out about a college that was offering a degree in the Japanese language where they wouldn’t only teach the Japanese language but also teach about Japan and its culture overall.

I enquired and enrolled myself as soon as passed 12th grade and as per my expectations, I started enjoying the course. To my surprise, me being the sleepiest student in school started attending college classes of my own will. Every day was a new learning experience and I realized my decision to pursue a degree in Japanese language was a turning point in my life.

I got an opportunity to teach the Japanese language and me being super excited grabbed it so that I gain some proficiency. As of now, I have been teaching the language and its culture for a year and hope that my students and I try to close the gap between Japan and India by the way of trading, explaining the similarities and differences in their cultures, and so on.

Finally, Knowledge of languages is the doorway to wisdom so it’s always better to learn some or the other language. For me Japanese worked well, it can for you also – you never know.

Would you like to give it a try? Let me know in the comments!