I am from Trinidad and Tobago so learning Spanish in School was very normal as it was a common language you would be surrounded by. I was good at it naturally and never needed to study, but my second oldest brother had gotten me hooked on Anime when I was about 8/9 years old. I have always kept telling myself I will go Japan one day.
I remember my classmates would tease me long ago and make fun of me doing it but now they think it is the coolest thing, with some even asking me for materials and advice on how I do it....funny right? :)
Nevertheless, I honestly did stop learning it until I came to university and met a girl who was from Japan. And the mere fact that I could only say Konnichiwa at that time ate me up so badly. I questioned "why are you like this? you could have been able to speak more than that by now. look at the time you wasted". It was at that time i rededicated myself to language learning and also I grabbed back onto my dream that I will go to Japan one day. Now fast forward to today May 26th, 2021.
I can speak way more Japanese than I ever imagined. I have entered the upper elementary phase and plan to hit intermediate by the end of the year. Some people still question why are you learning such hard languages because I now know Spanish, Korean, Japanese and some Mandarin. My answer: I like to challenge myself honestly.:D But also I want to prove them wrong when they said it is hard and a waste of time since your not going to use it much. ;).
Have not reached my ultimate goals yet but hey progress takes time and I hope it encourages other people as well to go forward with whatever you want to do. Block out the noise around you and keep your focus and head on! :)
