ようこそ！

Welcome to my blog and my first blog post!

A little bit about me: My name is Ayumi and I am a second-generation Japanese-American. I speak Japanese at home with my parents so I am fairly fluent in casual speaking, but not very good at reading and writing Japanese. I spent most of my days in the American public school system, learning English and interacting with my American friends. After growing up in predominately white communities and schools, I became slightly resentful of my Japanese heritage. Why can’t I just be like the other kids? I didn’t see a lot of value in knowing Japanese and incorporating the culture into my life, so I didn’t take it super seriously. It wasn’t until my later college years that I began to realize that I have a special opportunity to know two cultures and languages and that there are people out there who are genuinely interested in Japanese culture. In an effort to continue learning about Japanese culture and practice my reading and writing skills, I created this blog to document and share my journey. I am currently studying engineering in graduate school, and although I’m focused on studying and starting my career, I want to continue practicing Japanese and better embrace Japanese culture and my family’s heritage.

The goal of this site is to provide content and resources to supplement your Japanese learning journey. It’s also where I’ll be logging my own learning journey! Learning a new language can be difficult, and unless you live in a country where the language you’re learning is spoken, it can be difficult to continue practicing what you learned. This blog is my way of continuing to practice and to learn more about the Japanese language and culture, and I want to share my experience with you.

Some things you can expect to find on my site are:

• Translations from Japanese text (from either the news or something I’m reading)
• Worksheets
• Blog posts about Japanese culture
• Updates on my learning journey

Thank you for coming along with me on this journey! See you around!

じゃあ、またね！