Selecting a Second Language

MY ancestral languages are German, English, Scots, and Ullans. One fourth of the population of my North Metro Atlanta city speaks Spanish. And, half of each service at the Greek Orthodox Church I attend is conducted in Greek. Still, I am a seventh generation American who can only speak English.

I want to be bilingual. Learning German, Scots or even Ullans would help me with my genealogical research. Learning Spanish would be of great benefit around my neighborhood. Learning Greek would be very fulfilling at church. But, all of those languages are Indo-European. I want to learn a second language from a different language family.

Out of the thousands available, only ten world languages have over 100 million speakers each! Of those, only Chinese, Arabic and Japanese are non-Indo-European. After serious evaluation of the benefits of learning Chinese, Arabic or Japanese, I chose JAPANESE!

I would love to impress you with a lot of highbrow blah, blah, blah about how and why I selected Japanese as my second language, but, the simple answer is . . . I love Japanese! - Japanese heraldry, Japanese video games, Japanese robots, Japanese food, Japanese martial arts, Japanese science fiction, Japanese comic books, Japanese game shows, Japanese cars, Japanese civility, Japanese sports, Japanese music, and Japanese etc.! Japan is awesome!Being able to speak Japanese will increase my job skills and financial opportunities. Japanese will be a fun, rewarding and profitable challenge.