SELF ASSESSMENT 1

I actually don’t know any hiragana, katakana or Kanji phrases, words or even letters at all. This Japanese class is my first exposure but I’m excited to learn. 

I’ve always wanted to learn Japanese calligraphy and thought of the lettering as beautiful. 

I do recognize Japanese pictures and know some of the culture from an older sister that goes to Japan yearly. She brings back stories about her trips, and foods and gifts from Japan and whenever I see her. She doesn’t talk about the writing and speak other than speaking Japanese sometimes to tease us because I don’t know what she’s saying. She lives 1500 miles from me so I don’t see her much, maybe once every 2-3 years. 

My interest in Japanese came when I was young.  I admired the Japanese pottery and paper umbrellas in a local World Bazaar store. I never knew what the writing said but I thought it was so beautiful. 

I think the thing that really started a secret Japanese longing was when a girlfriend gave me a large paper Japanese umbrella. It was blue with beautiful writing on it. As a child and I treasured it.