Never Give Up & Never Surrender

In April, 永次 and I fell off the Immersion Train. (Yes, I’m making that a term now.) Not completely, though, it was more like we weren’t immersing ourselves as much as we should have been. We made excuses, like catching up on our favorite American TV shows, and then slowly our 90% Japanese time became 50%, and then 20%, until it wasn’t anything at all.

But in May we were right back at it again and by April I still hadn’t posted anything. I kept saying to myself (and often to 永次) that I should post about failing and how it’s scary but it’s not as scary as giving up. But then I didn’t. And days went by. And every once and a while I’d repeat that thought. Well, you get the idea.

永次 and I have so much to share with you! In October we went to Ireland and found ourselves feeling a tad left out in restaurants when other people started speaking in another language. Consequently it left us a little excited to get home and practice more Japanese so that we can one day speak to each other in restaurants. (It’s the little things that keep you motivated sometimes.)

I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving whenever it was, for those that celebrate, and ate your food with chopsticks! (We didn’t.)

I have some great posts lined up now that Kanji & Tea is back online. Am I embarrassed that we fumbled in our Japanese study? Absolutely. Did I let that failure stop me? Of course not. So really, I’m just embarrassed that I let it stop me from sharing our journey publicly and I’m embarrassed I didn’t rely on my Japanese study friends when I needed help. Am I going to change? A thousand times yes.

I found some great iPhone apps (free and paid) for aiding in Japanese study that I’d like to share, a few recipes, photos for inspiration, movie recommendations, THE WORKS. I promise that in the future I won’t let my failures stop me from sharing our journey with you. Because let’s be honest, this route of studying Japanese is hard, and I will fail again. But I know that when I am struggling I can look to you for support.

Now, would anyone care for some tea with their kanji?