I'm here because...

Hi, my name is Stephen Pomes and I'm a senior electrical engineering student at Columbia University specializing in analog circuit design. I chose to take Japanese for many reasons, but mostly because of my interest in Japanese movies, anime, and video games. I've been playing video games since before I could read and many of my favorite games originate in Japan such as the Final Fantasy series and Metal Gear Solid series. Growing up, I also played games like Pokemon and Super Mario Brothers and watched anime such as Dragon Ball Z and Gundam Wing, all of which come from Japan.

I find it difficult to write hiragana perfectly, taking into account both stops and continues on every character. It's especially difficult for me to emulate the lifting effect that is done with a paintbrush. I still feel very accomplished since now I can actually read hiragana and it doesn't just look like a huge jumble of drawings anymore. On the other hand, it has been relatively easy to get started with the speaking of the language as I have already been able to pick up some vocabulary or phrases from anime and movies I've watched.