By Rakiya Washington

While in the Japanese Plus Program, I have been informed by multiple presentations by various visitors. One of the most interesting visits was Stouder-Sensei’s visit. She was a foreign language teacher from Washington Latin who spoke of how she learned Japanese and the struggles she went through. Most importantly, she provided us with tips on how she overcame obstacles with learning Japanese and the determination she applied to her desire of learning Japanese.

She told us that since she was born in a place without much diversity, she was not exposed to other cultures, but when she learned about other cultures, she wanted to connect more by learning the language. When she traveled to Japan herself, she was able to adapt to the Japanese culture and way of thinking. For example, she explained how in Japan she was considered a “giant,” but in America she was average size. Her story just pushed me to be even more interested in Japan and it also made me desire traveling to Japan in order to experience the things she had. I really like Japan and its culture and I would love to be able to become semi-fluent in Japanese and immerse myself in the culture physically.