In Japan, self introductions （自己紹介 じこしょうかい） are a big deal. One of your first goals in learning Japanese should probably be learning how to introduce yourself (your name, where you are from, what you do or what your major is, hobbies and other interests, etc.), because you will be frequently asked to do this when become a new member of a group (joining a company, etc.)
Self introductions usually start with the phrase "Hajimemashite, _______ desu", where you fill in your name in the blank. A more formal form is "Hajimemashite, _______ to moushimasu". Both mean something like "I'm glad to meet you. My name is _______." After giving some details about yourself, you end with some variation on "Yoroshiku onegai shimasu", which is a request for acceptance, a continued good relationship, etc.
Since the course is just starting, you of course are not expected to be able to do this in Japanese yet, but let's get used to the form since it is an important cultural aspect of Japan and Japanese. Posting your self introduction here is especially important if you are enrolled in my class because some of you may want to look for potential collaborators for projects that we will be doing, and this can be a great way to look for people with similar interests.
Please post your self introduction here. When you do so be sure to specify if you are enrolled in my class at UGA, so that your classmates can contact you about working on projects together! If you aren't enrolled in the class but will be studying along with us, please let us know where you're from!
I'll start:
Hajimemashite! My name is Tony Gonzalez, and I am a Japanese instructor and Ph.D. student at the University of Georgia. My field is Learning, Design, and Technology, which is a multidisciplinary field that studies ways of improving education. I live in Athens, Georgia with my wife, Noriko, and a 3-year old son, Leo. My interests include technology, computer games, math and science, motorcycle touring, and, of course, Japan and Japanese. I began studying Japanese in the mid-1980s, and have been living in Japan off and on since 1988. Before starting teaching, I worked in the IT field as a developer, manager, and entrepreneur. Besides Japanese, I have also taught AP math and computer science in high school. I love teaching Japanese the most, though, and am really looking forward to this year! Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!
Hajimemashite! Taylor desu. I'm one of the "online students." I live outside Washington, D.C. and have a background in Instructional Design and Technology. Japanese is the 4th language I've studied- I studied French, Thai and Latin previously. Like many other people here, I'm a big anime fan. I also like video games, photography and hiking. I'm looking forward to seeing how much Japanese I can learn online. I hope to know enough to get by if I go visit my sister next year- she teaches English in Sendai, outside Tokyo.
Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!
Hajimemashite! My name is Sarah. I am a 4th year Biology student. I am from Ft. Lauderdale Florida. I watch some anime and listen to some j-pop. I have always been interested in the Japanese culture. I would like to work as a biologist in Japan, and that is why I want to learn the language. I hope to get to know everyone in the class! Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!
Hajimemashite! Michael Clark desu. I am a fourth year International Affairs major at UGA. I was born in Atlanta, Ga. Some of my interests include reading, technology and electronic gadgets, board games, anime, and most recently, swing dancing and hiking. I was first introduced to japanese as a language through members of the anime club here at UGA, which I highly recommend.
Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!
Hajimemashite! Tim desu. I'm one of the distance learners. I work with databases. jiminica (Taylor) knew I like anime and manga and suggested I try taking the coursewith her and I'm interested academically in how an on-line distance learning course is structured so this kind of solved two problems at once. I look forward to seeing how the course develops and if I can pick up parts of the conversations in the original dialogue of the anime I watch! Yoroshiku onegai shimasu.
Hajimemashite! I'm Travis Lubin. I'm a first year student at UGA, and am currently Pre-Pharmacy. In my spare time, I like to make new friends, hang out with old ones, sing, play games, and read. Languages have always interested me, and Japanese has been at the top of my list of languages I would like to study. When friends of mine recommended taking this class, that was just one more reason to add it. Hopefully I'll do well in the class and have fun learning at the same time. Yoroshiku onegai shimasu.
Hajimemashite. Cheryl desu. I am not enrolled in Tony-sensei's course at UGA, but he's been my teacher of sorts for many years now. We lived in Nagoya together in the '80s, and the first night I arrived, he stuck "Remembering the Kana" (or its equivalent) in my hand and told me I would not be some ugly American who never learned the language. Now, two decades later and without much opportunity to practice my Japanese, I'm really excited about this chance to study again. A bit about me: I live in Atlanta and work as a science editor for one of the universities here. I have a son, Hunter, who just started high school. In my spare time, I do a "language exchange" with one of my Japanese co-workers, study astronomy, and play pool in a 9-ball league (another bad habit I picked up in Nihon). I look forward to learning more about you all in Tony-sensei's forum here. Yoroshiku onegai shimasu.
Hajimemashite! My name is Ray Barrett, I am a third year student at UGA and I am majoring in International Affairs and History. I have been more recently interested in Japan and Japanese culture and have only lately been introduced to Anime, but I'm not going to kid its pretty awesome. I love learning Japanese as I took Japanese I at another college but sadly we didn't learn any Kanji so thats what I look forward to learning the most. I love sports, games, hangouts, and all things that are geeky and non-geeky. I am confounded about what I am going to do with the G time project but hopefully i'll pull something out of my mind.....oh and then there is karoke......its going to be a very interesting semester. Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!
Hey, Morgan! Thanks for your introduction!
I'm sorry about the formatting problems that you had, and I apologize for forgetting to tell people about this. What happened is that weird things happen if you write something in Word and then paste it into a form here. Word inserts all of this random formatting garbage that shows up as strange characters in your post.
You can solve the problem by either typing posts directly into the forms on this site, or by pasting not from Word but from a pure text editor like TextEdit (Mac) or Notepad (Win) with no formatting.
Sorry about that! (^.^;
Hajimemashite! My name is Brian Russell. I am a first year student at UGA. Right now I have no set major, but I am considering Sports Medicine. I love sports and I played Football all 4 years in high school. I am a 1st degree Blackbelt in Ho Shin Do and training in Brazilian Jui Jitsu. Originally I thought of taking Korean, because that was where my Master is from, however, I decided upon Japanese due to my interest in Japan's culture and hopefully my eventual trip to Japan (I dont want to be an ignorant foreigner). I look forward to studying with you all. Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!
Hajimemashite! My name is Stephen Patton and I am a 1st year Linguistics, Anthropology, and Biology major. I am a big fan of theater, particularl musical theater, which I have spent most of the last four years doing a whole lot of. That and dance. I took ballet throughout high school. I have studied throuh Japanese III in high school and I hope to minor in it. I am also taking Chinese this semester and I want to study Korean too at some point. Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!
I first became interested in Japanese culture after watching a few episodes of anime. It all started with the art. Anime was the driving force in me teaching myself to draw. While watching anime, listening to their music, and snacking on their funny snack food, I fell in love with the culture and always loved to learn more.
Other than my art I love to be outdoors, and play Irish/bluegrass fiddle.
Let me know if you want to work on the G-Time project in a group! I’m looking forward to getting to know everyone! Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!
Hajimemashite, Shannon desu. I am a first year student here at UGA with the current intentions of majoring in Biochemical Engineering. I want to become a fluent speaker of Japanese, because I hope to study abroad in Japan and possibly purchase real estate there in the future. My interests include: Japanese, lolita fashion, cosplay, watching anime, getting onto youtube, running when I am not horribly out of shape, listening to music (my roommate/ long time best friend got me into J-rock, I love it =), hanging out with friends, dancing, singing in private, and daydreaming. I am so happy to be in this class and am really looking forward to learning a lot more Japanese. I can currently only say 5 words in Japanese (it's sad, I know), but hopefully by the end of the semester, I'll be able to hold up a conversation with one of you. I feel this is going to fun ^_* Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!
Hajimemashite, Cody desu. I'm from Lawrenceville, Georgia and this is my second year here at uga majoring in Ecology. I plan on becoming a marine biologist so for me Japanese is just something I wanted to take and not really a requirement. I'm a huge nerd and I enjoy video games, playing D&D with my friends, cats, and some anime/manga. I hope that, in time I can watch an episode of anime in Japanese and find out what they're really saying. I know the English version is lying to me, I know it. <.< >.> Anyways... I'd like to partner up with someone for the G-time project, I have a few ideas but nothing that concrete. Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!
Hajimemashite!
My name is Christina Drewke, and I am a freshman majoring in Political Science. I realize going into a completely different foreign language (especially Japanese ;-.-) is difficult as a first year, but my dream is to one day become the ambassador between the US and Japan, so fingers crossed!
I have been, to put it simply, obsessed with Asian culture since I was a wee babe. My father, his brothers, and my own brother all watch anime, so I too fell into the habit. However, I took off and got into the J-pop/rock scene, “FRUiTS Fashion”, Jdoramas, etc and eventually got the idea in my head that I HAD to learn Japanese. This was the class I went constantly to Oasis to find, and luck was clearly on my side when I found ONE spot open a week before school began. Clearly, a higher power is telling me I need to learn this language, so I will make the best of it :].
I hope to make friends with all of you.
Yoroshiku onegai shimasu !!
Hajimemashite~
My name is Lauren. I'm a third year at UGA. I hope to major in international business. I first became interested in Japanese in high school, but up until now I have never had a chance to learn to speak the language.
I am not really a big fan of anime, but I do watch a little bit every now and then. I love Japanese music!!! Some of my favorite bands are D'espairsray, MUCC, Alice Nine, Dir en grey, X-Japan, and the Gazette. I currently help to promote the band Peelander-Z (a relatively unknown band based out of NYC that you should look up on myspace!). I want to learn to speak Japanese so that I can communicate better with the members of this band and, hopefully, go on to work with other Japanese bands in the future.
My other hobbies include singing, writing, reading, and going to concerts. If anyone ever wants someone to go to a concert with please keep me in mind!~ haha I love them :)
Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!
Hajimemashite, Callie desu! I am a sophmore here at UGA, majoring in Linguistics and probably minoring in Latin (taking Japanese and Latin at once is going to be weird). I come from Warner Robins, just south of Macon, though originally I was born in England - my father is ex-military, and my mother is British. I'm taking Japanese for my Non-Indo-European language requirement for Linguistics, but also because I've been a mild anime/manga fan for quite a while now. My hobbies/interests are reading, playing and listening to music, tv, theatre, sci-fi/fantasy, and anime/manga. I hope while taking this course and the next I will learn as much as I can of Japanese while just experiencing a Non-Indo-European language and broadening my linguistic horizons a little bit. Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!
Hi, Xun Lin! Users can't change their names on their own (I don't think...), so I just changed it for you. Please let me know if you wanted it changed to something else. =)
Hi everyone, my name is Xun Lin. I'm from China, but I've been in Georgia for about 10 years now. I'm a Junior majoring in Finance. I'm majoring in Japanese only because I just wanted to know a different language. Japanese seems interesting, so here I am... Also, I've been watching Naruto for a few years now; I guess it'd be nice if I could understand a little bit of it. My favorite things to do are to invest in stocks and play sports (basketball mainly).
Anyone know how to change my username to my own name?
Thanks
Hijimemashite! My name is Lauren Teasley. I am a sophomore double majoring in Telecommunication Arts and Film Studies. I chose to take Japanese because I am interested in Japanese films as well as the culture. I also studied it in high school. My interests are video games, shopping, reading, and watching movies. I am excited to learn japanese this year and hope to stick with the classes for several years. I look forward to meeting everyone in class.
Hajimemashite, Rachel desu. Hello, I am a Pre-Journalism major here for my fist year at UGA. I'm loving the city, and everything about it thus far! I love languages and I love learning about different cultures. I decided on Japanese because I plan on studying abroad somewhere around Kyoto in a year or two, and I would love to be able to get around without embarrassing myself. My interests include reading, writing and movies-- film study, not going to the movies, although I enjoy that as well. I am so excited to start learning the language, I've already been reading my "Remembering the Kana" book, so as not to fall behind as so many of you already speak Japanese! I'm not a fan of anime, but I did spend three months watching every episode of Sailor Moon. I guess that is not very hard core, but it's better than nothing. I also loooooove pokemon. Let me know if you're interested in joining up with me for the G-time project. I plan on doing something with the culture and history, maybe even some literature. I'm so bad with technology, I won't be able to make a website or anything so I hope to write an introduction to the culture for new to Japanese speakers, like myself.
Yoroshiku onegai shimasu
はじめまして！
My name is Leah Surgent. This is my 3rd year in college, but I just transferred to UGA so I could major in Japanese. I self-taught a little bit and took a course last year in my old school, but it wasn't that great...so I'm still a beginner. I've always been interested in the language and culture of Japan, practically everything about it! I'd love to have a job one day translating and localizing things like video games and anime. Of course, I also like playing and watching them, as well as reading manga and listening to J-pop and other Japanese music. I would be more than willing to work with someone for the G-time project, since I currently have no ideas...but I'm up for pretty much anything! Feel free to message me if you want to work together or just chat about anime/etc.
よろしくおねがいします！
はじめましてみんなさん！
My name's Meg and I'm a sophomore at UGA majoring in International Affairs and Japanese. I attended high school in Columbus, Georgia where I took Japanese all the way through Japanese 4 but I haven't been in a Japanese class for about a year and a half now - I missed it very much! I really enjoy studying other languages and cultures; I ended up taking almost all of the languages my school offered because of that, which was slightly confusing. ^^; I used to be really big in anime and manga during middle school, but have lost some interest (save for my undying love of Neon Genesis Evangelion). I'm very much into J-music; pop, rock, and random theme songs and actually saw the Japanese band VAMPS this summer for their American tour. :D
Other hobbies include traveling, wasting my time on the internet, writing, thinking, and learning. I'm looking forward to the rest of the year studying Japanese!
よろしくおねがいします！
はじめまして、メーガンです。
(Hajimemashite, Megan desu.)
I come from Canton, Georgia. I am in Tony-sensei's Japanese 1001 class, however this will actually be my third year taking Japanese. Before college, I took two years of Japanese online, so I can already read the kana, just very few kanji. That, and I tend to use the wrong forms of certain words (but that is usually intentional, seeing as how I dislike being exceedingly polite or overly feminine, so I tend to use the "guy" words). Japanese is my major, and I hope to maybe teach English in Japan for a few years before going on to translate manga/anime/video games/normal books, all of which are hobbies of mine. That's about all I can think of right now...
よろしく。
(Yoroshiku.)
はじめまして.
Hi, I am Li Zhang. You can also call me Chelsea. I was born in China and came to U.S since 17 years old. This is my second year in UGA. I am majoring in marketing now. I had been in Japan for one month when I was 13-year-old. Although I only had one month to live in Japan, I completely love this country. As long as I recall my memory of the days I spent in Japan, I feel so sweet. I love the food there, such like sushi and all kinds of snacks.( Oishi!!!:) )I am also a very big fan of Japanese anime, music and fashion style. X-Japan is my favorite band. I still remember that how hard I cried when I was watching their last live show which played before their disbandment in 1997. I cannot list my favorite anime one by one because there are whole bunches of anime popping up in my mind currently.
If you have any anime experience to share, please consider me!!!
Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!
Hajimemashite! Albert desu. I am a 2nd year student here at UGA majoring in management information systems. I am studying Japanese because I am 1/4th Japanese although it doesn't really look like at and no one ever notices, I am still proud of the little Asian blood running through my veins. I would like to learn Japanese so I could more easily talk with some of my relatives mostly my Obaa san. I am just a fan of just about everything that is Japanese minus some of the wierd things, like used school girl panties in vending machines...I'm not to fond of that. I am also a big fan of J-rock and some J-pop some of my favorite bands are Abingdon Boys School, UVERworld, Oragne Range, and Fact. I'm actually some what addicted to anime watching atleast 1hr a day, that is of course a bare minimum. With all my anime watching I still find time to have a life doing things like playing video games, working, tennis, biking and anything else that catches my fancy for the moment. With all that said, this is actually my second time taking this course....And no I am not proud of this fact at all...I fell into the awful trap that alot of freshman fall into... staying out way to late, pushing homework and studying back to the last second and just being a complete retard about school in general. So now I'm back again....This time knowing exactly what to do.
はじめまして、ケルシーです。
I am a student in Tony-Sensei's JPNS 1001 Class. I actually intend to major in Japanese, and I'm thinking about minoring in International Relations. I've had an interest in Japan since I can remember, but I absolutely fell in love with the country when I went there for a semester of student exchange during my junior year of high school. I was completely immersed--I lived with a host family, and was plopped down RIGHT in the middle of Japanese high school classes--and it was one of the the scariest, most confusing, and most wonderful experiences of my life. At one point I learned over 320 kanji and I was pretty good and speaking, though I have naturally lost some since I have not been able to use it since I returned to America.
I am not really interested in much anime, though I know of a few shows, and I don't mind people who love it. I am more interested in the fashion, the lifestyle, and the people of Japan. If you'd like to partner up with me for our G-Time projects, just send me a message! :) I don't have any ideas as of what to do yet... I don't mind a partner with little/no Japanese experience, though I just have to put it out there that I really don't feel that I would be very interested in a project that revolves completely around anime or J-Pop. Sorry, just not my cup of tea!
Oh yeah... and I'm a big fan of L'ARC~EN~CIEL!! You should totally message me if you feel the same way! :D
よろしくお願いします！
Hajimemashite, Luke desu! I'm a freshman here at UGA and am majoring in computer science (for now at least). I'm from Peachtree City, which is about 20-30 minutes south of Atlanta. Since so much technology comes from Japan, I figured learning Japanese would have something of a connection to my major; but after 5 years of Spanish, I also thought I was about due for a change of pace. I've never been to Japan, but I would love to someday. I wouldn't consider myself an avid manga/anime fan, though I have read (Gantz) and watched (Fullmetal Alchemist) some. I do love sushi and other oriental food (mostly Chinese). Even if I don't become fluent in Japanese, I would like to at least be able to hold a conversation, and I'm sure this class will help me to do just that. Feel free to ask me anything else you'd like to know.
Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!
Hajimemashite. Shutoh Mitsue (alias) desu. Virtual gakusei desu. I am an engineer by trade. I am 1/2 Japanese. I was born and raised in Southern California and live in Los Angeles County. I also live near two major Japanese cultural hubs - Gardena and Little Tokyo - that have many "authentic" Japanese restaurants and shops full of Japanese materials such as manga, newspaper, magazines, books (both adult and children) and Japanese people who are native speakers from Japan. Gardena has a long history of Japanese immigrants and ties to Japan. I may be overstating, but I believe it is a fairly, maybe only somewhat, well known area by Nihongojin for such a small city. I may be fourtunate to live here while learning Japanese, as it gives me easy access and practice capabilities. I will just have to work up the courage to actually try and converse in Japanese with some of the native speakers. When I meet new people and they find out that I am 1/2 Japanese, I am frequently asked if I speak Japanese. My answer up until recently has been "I only speak a little food." Since I have recently started to study on-line materials, I can speak a little more. Hopefully this class will help me greatly improve my Japanese speaking ablily. It actually already has helped, since I have been using some of the materials posted by Tony-sensei for the past few weeks. My interests and hobbies include martial arts, drawing, anime, and Japanese. I am looking forward to the virtual aspect of this class and I am very katajikanai to Tony-sensei for offering this to us virtual students. Dozo yoroshiku!
Hajimemashite, Ben desu! I am a freshman student this year at the University of Georgia. I am interested in taking Japanese because I am majoring in Journalism or Broadcasting and I figure I could be a foreign correspondent for a major communications company if I am able to learn to speak Japanese fluently, at least that is my goal. I also visited Japan over the summer for two weeks and I fell in love with the Japanese culture, especially the food! Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!
Hajimemashite, Arnold Lee to moushimasu. I'm a 4th year Applied Biotechnology student at UGA and am originally from the Alpharetta/Roswell area of Georgia. My hobbies and interests include reading manga, watching anime, listening to KPOP and JPOP, playing DOTA, and reading scientific/medical/news articles. The reasons why I decided to enroll in the JPNS 1001 course here at UGA is because I'm fascinated by the Japanese culture and also due to my interest in possibly teaching English in Japan once I graduate. I hope this class will broaden my knowledge and interest about Japan and the Japanese people, and hopefully come in handy if I do decide to go through with teaching in Japan. Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!
Hi, all! I'm sorry that I haven't been able to respond to everyone's greetings individually, but the beginning of a new school year is a bit crazy for me. Things look to be off to a great start, however, and I'm really excited about what looks to become a very interesting year. Not only do I think that we'll be doing some interesting things in the JPNS course, but based on the scores on our first quiz it looks like I may have one of the best bunch of students I've ever had before! (^-^/
I would like to send a special welcome to all of you who are not enrolled in my JPNS class, but will be studying along with us over the upcoming school year. Studying anything 100% online is hard, and when you don't have the threat of a bad grade showing up on your transcript, or don't have the need for credit hours to graduate, then it becomes all the more difficult to avoid falling behind as the pressures of your daily life try to pull you in other directions. My hope is that if you get involved with others through this site, then social aspects will make it easier to maintain the motivation to continue your studies. There is nothing on this site that you aren't welcome to participate in, so please never hesitate jump in and make comments, or otherwise take part in what's going on here. Even better, please consider proactively doing something interesting on the site! Though I know the features aren't well documented yet, please feel free in experimenting with the "Create Content" menu to try blogging here, or creating a group related to an interest of yours. It looks like there are plenty of people interested in Japanese music and anime, for example! (This all of course goes for enrolled students, as well!)
This is a new site, and I expect to run into bugs and other problems, but if I can beg for everyone's patience I will do everything I can to support everyone's learning and having fun here. If there is anything that I can do to help, please let me know! (^^)