So here we go

It's funny; whenever I start writing something I usually sit around for the first who knows how long, paralyzed by indecision on how to make that first post meaningful and profound and glorious etc. It is possible, I think to myself, that one day this will become wildly successful and millions of people will read it -- or at the very least everyone I know. Or perhaps I'm being overly dramatic. I'm still writing for that now, I suppose, despite the very high likelihood that I'll be lucky if I get a few members of my friends and family to read.

Still, off I go, writing something to have written it and to get it over with, because once that first post (or sentence, or paragraph) is out of the way, things don't seem half so intimidating.

On to the purpose of this blog.

As many of the people who will read this probably already know, I am attempting to learn Japanese. I have been attempting to learn Japanese since eighth grade, when I was I think 13, and still have not managed it. This is mostly just because I had absolutely no idea where I should begin, and even if I managed to figure that out, I didn't know where to go from there.

Maybe a month or two ago, a friend of mine sort of solved that problem. She linked me TextFugu, a do-it-yourself online Japanese textbook geared towards self-study. Work and (I will admit this now) an inherent laziness on my part mean that I haven't made all that much progress yet. I am still in the middle of mastering the hiragana, though I'm mostly done and have just been reviewing and more reviewing for a VERY LONG TIME now. I've got most of them pretty good. But prior to the hiragana being introduced -- in the introduction "Hi, so you're here to learn Japanese" 'lesson', actually -- the guy who runs the site suggested that prospective students keep a blog on their progress. The prospect of public humiliation as you have to account to everyone you know as to why you haven't updated said blog in the past month and a half can be a powerful motivator to keep on learning the language. So here we are. Finally. (Remember that inherent laziness thing I was talking about?) I gave up after a few minutes on thinking up a clever URL (after all, this is supposed to be a working blog, not just another place for witty remarks -- though I shall TRY to keep things reasonably entertaining) and just sat down and created it. I chose some hiragana for the title because I wanted to and because I can sound it out at this point.

Hi ho Silver, AWAY!

Current Progress

Season 1; Lesson 4: Reading and Writing Hiragana.

Smart.fm progress: 34 items studied, 70 to go

Boy have I got work to do. But, it's a beginning.