A Proper Introduction

I realize I haven't properly introduced myself, or given you the full details on my study abroad program, so here it goes~

Hello!

My name is Halah Mohamed, I am a senior at the University of Toledo pursuing a Bachelor of the Arts degree in Studio Art (with a concentration in New Media) and a minor in Japanese.  This 2013-2014 school year I will be studying as an exchange student at our sister school, Aichi University, in Nagoya, Japan.

You may want to know how I became interested in Japanese, as a language and a culture.  I wish there was a simple answer, but in reality there have been a lot of influences.  I hesitate to say that it started back in grade school with Pokemon, only because at that time I had no idea it was a "Japanese Animation".


I did end up following anime very strongly between middle school and high school, but only as entertainment.  I liked to read so I would read both books, and comics, Eastern and Western.  Same with cartoons, both American and Japanese.

In high school, I really started to develop my own art.  First it was fanart, doing my best to copy images from the shows I watched, and then I started practicing with the "How To Draw..." books.  My style was heavily influenced by manga (Japanese comics), and consequently my stories began to take place in Japanese culture.  I was curious about Japanese names, mythology and writing, but it didn't really have an interest to study the language yet.

When I told people that I will be in Japan for a year, most of them replied with, "Oh, that's great! You've always wanted to live in Japan!"

...Excuse me? How long is always?

At this point in my recap, I am still in high school and I'm really just a huge comic and animation fan.  I'm comfortable at home and have no interest in traveling.  As for languages, when I was younger I was taught Arabic, and in my first two years of High School I learned French.  But, once we started getting into the millions of verb conjugations I began to loose interest. Then, something unexpected happened.  As of my senior year, my high school was going to offer a new language: either Japanese, Chinese, or Arabic


The school decided on Chinese, and to fill a class I decided to take the first course.  I didn't have any expectations going in, but I found out that I really enjoyed learning an entirely different writing system.  The words were pictures, and could be put together like puzzle pieces - it quickly became my favorite class.

But wait, this is Chinese, right? And I'm studying Japanese now... what happened?

To put it simply, everything has a time and a place.

 During my freshman year at the University I took 2nd-year Chinese; though I had wanted to take Japanese also, the classes were already full (I'm sure many of you understand this). After Chinese 2 (Intermediate Chinese) there really wasn't another class I could take, so I quickly signed up for Japanese.  Immediately, I was hooked.

At the time, I was working on my own graphic novels series more and more, so I was watching and reading less and less.  However, since my series took place in Japan, I could apply what I learned in class to my work.  That led me to doing even more research into the culture: NOW I really wanted to know everything I could.  But, did I really want to live in Japan?

Not yet. Not quite yet.

I had never even been to Japan! I mean, sure, there's tons of information out there on what it's like, but I had no experience whatsoever.  So, I had to go see for myself.

Fortunately, every year the head of the Japanese department offers a 3-week study abroad trip in the summer.  Once I completed my second year of Japanese, me and a group of about 10 other students and our professor headed off to Japan.  Even though the trip was very structured, it still gave me a chance to see modern Japan with my own eyes.  It was peaceful, and comforting.  The food was delicious. You could walk anywhere, or take a train.  It seemed to fit my personality very well.

This was, of course, just a 3-week trip, a vacation if anything.  Living there alone was another different ball game, and it was something I would need experience in if I wanted to work in Japan after I graduated.  So I decided it was time to take another test run, and I told my professor "I want to study at Aichi [for a year]!"  Only two students could go at a time, so I patiently waited two years (from our trip in 2011, until now, 2013), studying, saving money, and bothering every student that was studying before me for any information so that I could prepare.

Now my time has finally come.  I can say "I am pretty darn sure I want to live in Japan," but I'm giving it a year of course.  Two weeks of adjusting in, and it's so far so good.  Now I'm just preparing for the school work that is about to come my way!  First day of the semester is tomorrow~ Wish me luck!

Until next time, take care!