About
会社概要
Kaisha gaiyō
My name is John. I imagine you're here to learn about how exactly this site came to be... Well... Okay! You asked for it!
I've enjoyed drawing cartoons from a very young age. Naturally, I eventually found what is called anime/manga, which is a term for a style of cartoons and comics you would see coming from Japan. The big eyes, funny facial expressions, crazy looking hair, etc. just always appealed to me. So much, that my own drawing style (which, before discovering anime/manga looked a lot like Marvel/DC comic art) eventually starting looking very Japanese-anime-like. People even started to wonder if I could draw cartoons that weren't anime-looking.
By the time I reached middle school, I was pretty nifty with drawing these anime-style cartoons. But what had also piqued my interest was the Japanese language that was always staring me in the face! I made friends with a really cool Japanese-American dude named Ryo who would speak normal every day English, but at home would speak fluent Japanese with his parents. I always thought it sounded and looked so interesting! I picked up a few words here and there from hanging out with Ryo, but trying to understand Japanese writing just seemed impossible — even though I had met ANOTHER friend in middle school by the name of Derek, who was caucasian, American, but KNEW JAPANESE. Apparently Derek had started studying the language on his own years before I met him. How in the heck did he learn to teach himself?! ("He must have been Japanese in a previous life," I would always think to myself.) But being the persevering guy I am, I started to ask questions anyway. I mean, if my friend Derek was able to do it, I can too........... Right?
"What?! The Japanese language has THREE DIFFERENT ALPHABETS I have to learn? Did you just say one of the alphabets has THOUSANDS of symbols?! How is that even possible to learn?! I would basically need to be BORN in Japan and be studying right out of the womb in order to remember all those symbols!"
And that is how the Japanese language remained to me for the next 15 years or so.
Fast forward to around May, 2011. I work as a graphic designer at home while my dear girlfriend Brooke teaches Pre-School kids and attends college. After wishing him a Happy Birthday in Japanese earlier one day, I was speaking with my friend Derek online one late night (the same guy from middle school, whom I reconnected with online years later). Of course, I had to use an online translator to figure out how to say "Happy Birthday," but he said it was correct! I had no idea if it was or not. You know how weird those online translators can be...
I had mentioned to him that it was still sort of a goal of mine after all these years to finally conquer the Japanese language. He simply said "You should start now!" After talking with Derek, Brooke (who also loves Japanese culture) asked me about this goal of mine and mentioned that one of her college requirements is to take a language class and that Japanese was available at her school. That same night, I decided it was time. Take a college class with my sweetheart while learning a language I've always wanted to learn, AND help her fill a requirement to graduate? It was a win-win situation all around. But even though the college class didn't start for another few months, I immediately started scouring the internet for sources I can use to start learning on my own. [To learn more about the steps I took to get the ball rolling, check out the blog post How I began learning Japanese]
During the learning process, I began drawing cartoons on index cards to help me memorize Japanese verbs. They seemed to work! And that's when the light bulb appeared. Why not help others learn Japanese with my drawings? If these little guys helped me learn, they might prove to be useful to others as well! So when I discovered funwithjapanese.com was available, I took it as a sign.
So here we are now, learning Japanese together! I hope that you find this website useful, even if it is just a tiny a little bit. There are plenty of useful resources online to learn this awesome language, and in my experience, every little bit helped! This website is my way of giving back to the world of learning Japanese.
I would like to give a big Thank You to everyone who has helped me put this website together and keep it maintained! All the support and encouragement will forever be appreciated.
Now let's have Fun with Japanese!