Why study a foreign language?
An impossible question, although I just asked Google AI which told me that such study "improved cognitive skills like memory and multitasking, enhanced career opportunities in a global economy, and deeper cultural understanding and appreciation. It can also lead to increased confidence, better decision-making, and a more enriching travel experience." Who knew?
I took Latin in high school. In my memory the teacher is elderly, the class tedious, the time entirely wasted. When would I ever have occasion to say "Puellas amo ego" or "Britannia insulla est"? Never.
Japanese is something else. I was gobsmacked when I got off a troopship for ten hours in Yokohama harbor in 1955. I was illiterate and speechless. Japanese was both humbling and challenging.
I studied Japanese when I was in the Army in Japan. I studied Japanese in college. Because I did not finish the collage's language requirement, I resumed Japanese study in my mid-50s. I took two weeks in an immersion Japanese course in Japan in my mid-60s. For 1,150 days straight I've been reviewing Japanese on the Duolingo website (a site I heartily recommend for beginners and for review).
All this has meant I have not needed to speak English on visits to Japan. It meant I could lead two tours in Japan. I speak enough that I am able, as a friend said, "exchange ideas in Japanese." I am certainly not—and will never be—fluent. Nor am I able to read a Japanese text without help, which is why I continue to plug away at Duolingo lessons and short story translating.
I do it because, as the headline on this post says, studying Japanese is fun*. So that's why I study a foreign language.
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