By Owen Strasberg

My time this year with the Japanese Tamago program was definitely interesting, but also very enjoyable. I got to learn a lot about Japanese culture, history, and how to speak the language! Each lesson taught me more and more and was very engaging. There were some classes where we focused more on history, had a guest speaker, or even one time we made onigiri! They even provided opportunities to help the community with the Stop Asian Hate campaign. The class was great, but it was even better with the people in it. When I entered the program, I only knew one other student in it but as the time went on, I got to meet many different people who shared some of the same interests that I have. The teachers and senpai were very kind and helpful, making sure if we were struggling or had questions to help answer them so we could learn. At one point I had to take a short break to focus on my grades in school, but they welcomed me back to the class and made sure the information on things I missed was available so I could catch up. I went into this class not really sure what I was going to learn, except for some Japanese, but I can confidently say that I got so much more than that out of it. It even has made me consider career paths in Japan. I hope to continue with the classes and learn more Japanese, since I had such an amazing time with the program and people there.