… は日本語でなんと言いますか。(How do you say … in Japanese?)

I was a French major in undergrad. And I still speak the language.

My fascination with language started when my family moved to Miami when I was starting 5th grade. Suddenly, I was surrounded by languages I’d never heard or seen before, but especially Spanish (in all its regional variations), French, Creole, Hebrew, and Yiddish.

From 7th grade onward, I studied French voraciously. I also dabbled in other languages, including Thai, Chinese, Farsi, Dutch, Spanish, Russian, and Greek. I never achieved any level of proficiency in those other languages. I was just curious.

My travel in France and French Canada has been greatly enriched because of my ability to speak the language. Because I will be living in Japan for 16 weeks, learning some Japanese is essential. So, I’ve started with basic self-study. But because of the different writing systems, that’s not quite going to cut it. When I studied Thai, Chinese, Greek and Farsi, native speakers helped me navigate those writing systems. It was a game changer. And, yes, I can (and will) use Google to translate. But I want to develop a level of self-sufficiency.

I’ll continue to self-study, particularly with spoken Japanese. But once summer arrives, I’ll be signing up for a local class. Or 2.

Until then… 私のホバークラフトは鰻でいっぱいです (Watashi no hobākurafuto wa unagi de ippai desu.) If you get that joke. Please email me so we can be friends.