Nihongo wo hanasemasu?

Do you speak Japanese? No? Don't worry about it! Neither do I.  But I'm learning.

I was having writers block so I posted on facebook for my friends to offer suggestions.  Responses that came back are: Write about learning a new language, and to do a WHOLE post in Japanese!
While I really don't think that writing a post in Japanese 20 minutes before work starts is such a good idea, I will have to go with writing about learning a new language.  Maybe next time Tim!

So a lot of people are probably wondering why I picked Japanese in the first place.  Well it's simple really.  I've always loved Japan, I lived there for a year and developed an interest in it, and my fiancee and all his family are Japanese, so it's really a tool of convenience.

I've been in a class with a great teacher named Tim for about a year and a half now, and I've learned so much!  We've made it through an entire beginners book and will start on the 2nd book in a few weeks.  I'm not gonna lie when I say that I am terrified and excited all at the same time.  A new books means more knowledge, but it also means more things that I could possibly forget, plus more grammar and vocabulary!  Yikes!

Some are wondering if Japanese is anything like English.  Here's the thing.......yes and no.  It's sometimes similar, and sometimes way off in left field to my brain.  The writing system is one of those way off into left field things.......The Japanese have 3 (yes 3!) different writing systems.  Hiragana is loopy and the writing system learned first (ひらがな), Katakana is used for foreign words and looks a little more harsh (カタカナ), and then there is Kanji (愛), which you can see on the lamp post just above.  It's quite complicated and was adapted from the Chinese characters. These are the hardest for me to learn and it's quite a slow process.  While Yuta says I don't really need them, and can just ask what things say, I personally, still want to learn, so that I can write letters to my friends or whatever, but do it properly.  You can't half ass learn a language.

I've been trying to speak Japanese more with Yuta around, but I still find I am very nervous when I speak it, even with someone I know so well.   I guess this just means that I need to study more and learn more vocabulary!  Anyone wanna give me a few good study tips?