こんにちは！！Hello from the US!

Introduce Yourself Here
#1

Hi everyone! I’m Kelly from the East Coast of the US. I’m originally from Pennsylvania, but I’ve lived in Boston and more recently NYC for the last 15 years.

This is my first time participating in the Polyglot Conference. I am a bit nervous, as I’m more “aspiring future polyglot” than current, but the online Polyglot community is so inspiring that I decided to overcome my shyness. I grew up monolingual (with small bits of German from my father sprinkled in) until I began studying French from grades 8-11.

After graduating I was a bit of an esoteric language dabbler for many years (began learning Japanese in college, some basic Icelandic and Russian) and about a year ago began taking it seriously, starting with Japanese! I’m planning on taking the JLPT N2 next year (was preparing for N3 this year, until the US exam was shut down (コロナのおかげで). I’ve worked in many fields, including the wine industry, film & television, and am currently completing my TEFL certification.

I hope to learn a lot from both forum participants and presentations, and to hopefully make some new friends!

よろしくお願いします！

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#2

Welcome! This is also my first time participating :blush: I’m very much a beginner in Japanese, but want to learn more. What are your favorite resources? Arigato!

2 Likes
#3

Hi, @Heather! First and foremost, if you haven’t already, learn Hiragana & Katakana. It helps with pronunciation and learning sentence structures, as well as being an essential foundation for studying Japanese. Beyond that, WaniKani has been an invaluable tool for learning Kanji and vocabulary. I also like BunPro for grammar, and I highly recommend getting a tutor! I am an introvert and tend to try to do things on my own, but once I moved past the beginner stage I quickly realized that I needed more guidance. There are SO MANY resources out there, and sometimes it gets overwhelming! My tutor and I used Genki as a loose guide, and it helped me get past the beginner-lower intermediate hump. I hope some of these will be useful for you!

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#4

Thanks @Kelly, I’ve learned hiragana and katakana, and will def check out your suggestions. Much thanks :pray: