It has been 35 years since I first came to live and work in Asahikawa.
It goes without saying that, I really like this city.
こんにちわ。 初めまして！ スノーマンと申します。
旭川に来てから、 もうすでに35年 が経ちました。
やっぱりこの街が大好き ということですね。
When I was about 6 years old, I first showed an interest in foreign languages.
私は６歳の頃から、 外国語には興味を 持っていました。
The first one I learned was German.
My father was a dentist, and he would listen to German Language Conversation tapes almost every day, while he was making dentures and inlays for his patients.
At that time, I remembered quite a bit but, nowadays I have forgotten most of it.
You know what they say; "Use it or Lose it." It really is true.
その当時は、 結構覚えたのですが、 今では覚えたはずの ドイツ語をほとんど 忘れてしまいました。
皆が言うように 「Use it, or lose it.」 （使わないと、 使えなくなる） これは本当にそうですよね。
When I started junior high school, I wanted to continue my study of German but there weren't any classes, so I settled on French.
I studied French for about 3 years, but French spelling and pronunciation are difficult, and I never had a chance to use the language in real life so, I sort of lost interest in it.
During my 4 years in high school, there weren't any elective classes in a foreign language that I wanted to study so, I had no desire to study a new foreign language.
Right after graduating from high school, I signed up for active duty in the USCG. As a result, I was sent to the Japanese island of Iwo Jima. It was on that tiny island that I had almost daily contact with members of the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force. This situation provided me with the opportunity to study the Japanese Language.
高校卒業してから、すぐに U.S. Coast Guard （米国沿岸警備隊） に入隊しました。 仕事の関係で、 日本の硫黄島に 派遣されました。
Japanese is completely different from the vast majority of European languages, and when I first saw the written words, I felt like it was some type of secret code or cipher.
"I wanna break this code!" I said to myself and thus began my
daily obsession of hours upon hours spent with my head buried in books, and my ears tuned in to native spoken Japanese on cassette tapes.
I say it was an obsession because, the more I did it, the more I liked it. I was all consumed by a burning desire to achieve a certain goal. Become able to read Japanese language newspapers and magazines.
日本語はヨーロッパ圏の 言語と全く異なる言葉であり、 最初見た時には 暗号みたいに感じました。 「この暗号を解きたい」 という気持ちが高じて、 毎日毎日何時間でも 日本語の勉強に没頭しました。 学んでいくうちに、 私は日本語が とても好き になりました。
学べば学ぶほど 奥の深い、日本語に 魅せられ、日本語熱に かかってしまった のです。
I have achieved my objective. Nowadays, many years later, I can in fact and often do, peruse
common publications produced in this country.
However, things like novels, essays, commentary on political issues etc., are still not quite crystal clear to me.
Yeah, I still haven't finished my study of Japanese, but at least I get to use it every day.
In January of 2018, I started learning Chinese, again.
After English, Chinese is the 2nd most spoken language in the world. I want to be able to speak, read and write Chinese fluently by the year 2030. Then, I will also be able to do translation work between, Chinese, English and Japanese.
I always need a goal to strive for. It makes life, so much more interesting.
