I originally developed an interest in Japanese last year when I left Columbia and lived in Hawaii for the year. I tutored for a family with a child who studied Japanese, so I taught myself a little bit so that I could help him practice, and I would use the little Japanese I knew to talk with Japanese tourists as well. I found the language to be engaging rather than discouraging because it was challenging, so I enjoyed learning it much more than I had enjoyed learning Spanish previously. I have some interest in Japanese literature and tv/film as well, so the idea of being able to understand those two mediums in their original language is enticing to me. I also took an 11 day vacation to Japan in the Spring of last year, and I was enchanted by the culture and the experience. My greatest challenge thus far in learning the language has been learning how to write characters as well as remembering all of the small grammatical details that are easy to leave out or make errors on.