It's been about a week

It's been about a week, or maybe two, since I stumbled onto the online treasure trove of material that a youngster by the name of Koichi has assembled, videoed, linked to, evaluated and blogged about, and what I saw made me decide to sign up. I mean, what other textbook is recommended by Mr Ando?



Koichi has youth, energy, savvy and a zany wit. I grok what he's on about, and I figure that signing up for his online Text Fugu is going to be well worth the money on every score. I can already see his useful tips about studying efficiently rolling over into organizing the rest of my life. And this from someone the same age as my eldest daughter.

So I've signed up, and I've started to find my way around his online textbook (and hunt through it for a bounty of typos), and to establish a daily routine of study. A few tips that I've picked up already:

• set achievable lists
• donlt learn kanji in Japanese schools order
• list your specific motivations
• list your likely future excuses
• use Anki
• use 'Endnote'
• create video clips (for my work)
• have a workspace devoted to the goal

I'm in!

After almost 20 years about dragging my feet about learning Japanese, I've finally taken the plunge. What has it taken to decide me? Well, several things:

1. I've been married to my Japanese wife for over ten years, now, so the relationship looks pretty permanent ;-)
2. I've moved to Japan to live - probably for good (gulp!)
3. I've discovered a neat online base that suits me right down to the ground.

Learning Japanese, I think I'm learning Japanese, I really think so. I figure that I've run out of excuses!