Start: Back in kindergarten my teacher was Japanese and one of the last days of class she gave us kanji worksheets. I swore to always remember the character 雨. It wasn’t until middle/high school did I learn she was Japanese looking at her name and the paper crane she folded for all of us. Then, in middle school I found manga at Borders. I studied abroad for 9 months or so, and dropped Japanese for a while. Now, I want to get back to the level and go beyond it.
read Japanese novels
read josei/seinen Japanese manga (more smoothly)
talk to Japanese fandom (more confidently in colloquial terms/be up-to-date or figure out slang as I do in English)
be able to express complex thoughts and theories - be able to read research papers or speak to a doctor
Khmer ភាសាខ្មែរ
Start: I’m Cambodian-American! I was born in California, but Khmer was my first language until I went to public school and washed it out. I swear, my parents tried, but maybe there’s probably some shame and lack of necessity growing up. I’m what they call a receptive/passive bilingual, someone who understands (so much more) than they can speak/write. I still have some reading and speaking ability, but I want to improve. We’re a rarity now… :/
become a certified medical interpreter
read Hunger Games in Khmer
help tutor others in our native language and develop learning materials for English - Khmer or Japanese - Khmer
live in the motherland for a bit and pick up “Central” Khmer
Korean 한국어
Start: I took Taekwondo classes and reached blue/black stripe belt and used to be an involved K-Pop fan… it’s kind of a given? Also, I enjoy that there are vocabularies that sound the same in Japanese making it easier to digest. Same with grammar structure. I hope these will motivate me to learn Cantonese and Mandarin, eventually.
read Korean novels
read Korean manhwa
be able to watch K-dramas/documentaries without subtitles
be able to speak to locals during trips
Spanish Español
Start: Work. I tried Spanish in high school, but it never clicked. The teacher was too interested in being called Doctor, and that’s fair that’s not easy to achieve, but I learned more Spanish in the last 6 months working in a clinic… Now I want to learn the grammar and syntax.
be able to communicate with Spanish speaking patients about appointments, future appointments, and simple non-medical discussion
be able to differentiate Spanish dialects
learn Castilian but branch into Mexican and Puerto Rican Spanish
American Sign Language (ASL)
Start: Once again, in kindergarten, I had a Deaf classmate, and so we learned some ASL through the interpreter. We incorporated ASL into our class performances. We never saw it as weird or extra work, it was so seamless. I’ve forgotten what we learned, but I want to communicate with our Deaf and HoH community.
attend Deaf and HoH events
be able to hold a conversation with community members
French
Apparently, Cambodia/Kampuchea chose to be colonized by France? to protect themselves so… it would be cool to read documents I can’t find in Khmer about them. Enough said.
German
No immediate necessity in my life. I just want to be able to cause I met some cool German folks abroad.
2026/07/22