learning japanese (i think i'm learning japanese)

(Those d*mn soundtracks in my head!)

Anyhow, I really am going to be learning Japanese this summer. I just registered for a summer session class here at RIT (one of the nice perks of working here is free tuition for me, Gerald, and the boys).

Two hours a day, four days a week, for five weeks. Ack! It's taught by someone that comes highly recommended, though, and the first five weeks of the summer session are best for me in terms of free time--no teaching, no faculty meetings, but the boys are still in school. When I've taught summer classes in the past (out of economic necessity), I've always opted for the first half for that reason.

I'm planning to apply for a fellowship (a Fulbright, ideally) for research and teaching in Japan for the 2005-2006 academic year, so learning a bit of the language first seemed like a wise idea. We'll see how it goes--I don't have much of a facility with new languages, and the thought of trying to learn not just vocabulary but also character sets (three of them, no less!) is more than a little daunting.