Hello everyone!

My name is Matthew Terry. I’m a senior in UO finishing up my degrees in Global Studies and Japanese Culture. I’m taking this class because I was interested in learning more about the components that build up the Japanese language. I grew up close to Japan, and since it was nice and a popular holiday destination for us Singaporeans, my family would often bring me there. It was at this point that I started developing a genuine interest in the language and culture because of how unique and different it was. I never dreamt that I would have the opportunity to learn though and was happily surprised when I found out that UO offered a good program. Glad to be with y’all.

My hobbies are reading, cooking and online video games. I’m also a dog-lover and have 4 happy little doggies waiting for me at home. I hope I can see them soon. Anyway I look forward to working more closely with y’all as our projects come up. Hope to get along!

Hello! My name is Ira Reese-Thornton (he/him), and I’m a senior with a double major in the Japanese language and East Asian Studies. I transferred from Portland Community College last year. When I was six years old, a Japanese transfer student came to our class and we spent half the year learning the language to help her feel comfortable. From there, I’ve been interested in many things related to Japan. I hope to do something involving Japanese and writing for a career, either as a translator or technical writer or something similar (not really sure at the moment). I’m taking the class partially for a pre-requisite for my major and as a general interest — I’ve never taken a linguistics course before, so this is a new and interesting experience.

As far as hobbies go, I enjoy doing creative things like drawing (trying to get into digital art) and writing. I also enjoy playing video games. I live with my grandparents, have a cat and three rabbits, and used to play piano for several years.

よろしくお願いします。

Hello Class!

My name is Julian Nassar and I am a second-year Japanese and Computer Science Major. I am taking this class both as a requirement and as a general interest in the course’s material. I have always been an avid enjoyer of Japanese culture and language and having so many different courses available has been great to pursue more knowledge in academia about Japanese as a whole. My interest in the Japanese language started with my love for Japanese based role-playing games and only expanded outward from there into history, culture, and all sorts of other facets of Japan.

My hobbies include playing videogames and watching anime with friends, writing my book that I’ve been working on for the last little while now, watching movies, and creating music. I also have a giant cuddle monster of a german shepherd husky who does not know his own size as he all but throws his body onto my bed when I’m sleeping.

I look forward to working and learning with you all!

Hey my name is Mike. I’m a Senior studying Crime, Law & Society. I initially started off here with the intent of going into Law School and trying to shape human societies. Found out that Law is pretty boring so I decided that I’m going to become a bridge for the Japanese & American space industries. My greater goal is to become an Astronaut and help in molding humanity into a mindful space faring species. I think most of us can agree that we’re a bit far from the ideal but I still believe that we can become something greater.

As far as my personal life goes, I have two huskies that are my best friends. My hobbies include archery, astronomy, pursuing cultural and linguistic fluency in Japanese, and playing video games from time to time.

I look forward to working with you all.

力一杯頑張ろうと思うってるので、よろしくお願いします

Hello, I’m Liam Sherry I am a second-year student majoring in Journalism with a minor in Japanese. I wanted to take this class for my Japanese minor requirement. I’ve been studying Japanese since early high school because I wanted to learn a less common language in school rather than Spanish for example. I was super fortunate to have a great Japanese teacher in high school that gave me a lot of love for the Japanese language, people, and culture.

My hobbies include my favorite sports hockey and lacrosse as well as hiking and music. One of my biggest new hobbies is photography especially landscape photography. I’m excited to take this class this term and hopefully learn a lot about the linguistic side of Japanese.

Hello I am Kieran (they/them). I’m a junior and i’m majoring in linguistics and minoring in japanese. I took this class because its a cool intersection between my major and minor. At first I wanted to learn japanese because I wanted to watch anime in japanese without subtitles, now I just want to speak and understand the language. I became interested in linguistics because I thought it would help me with learning more languages and to an extent it is kind of helpful.

As for my hobbies I like to knit and draw. I mostly do digital art, but sometimes I do traditional. Sometimes I’ll make short comics that are about 5 pages long. Most of them are just concepts or unfinished drawings though, I don’t really have any of them published. Here is one of the drawings I did last October.

Hello，My name is Jiayi Liu(ジャイ　リュウ）.
This is my five year in UO, and I am try to transfer my major to asian study.
I want to take this course because I want to know more about Japanese language and want to take one Japanese course in term.
I know Japanese and study Japnese before ten years despite I didn’t contiune to study. During ten years I still like Japanese modern culture and like to listen to Japanese music like vocaloid songs.
After I start to play a Japanese website game with literature theme, I begin to read Japnese literature. My favorite Japanese writer is Shimazaki Tonson. Now I still try to read his books as possible as using Japanese version.

Also I like to play game espeacily rpg and adv. Now I am working on my own game. I am responsible for script and game main project.
In the future, I want to publish Japanese version. It is my dream before several years.

はじめまして　　フです

専攻は日本語で，日本語を学びながら日本の文化も学びつもりです。目標は日本語の翻訳を上手になるこどです。日本のアニメど音楽が好きで，日本語を専攻どしで選びました。

最近夢中になだこどはvtuberです。vtuberの翻訳もやでます。そして、ゲームも好きです。シャドバ，モンスターハンターが一番好きです。本に行ったことないけど、今後機会があれば絶対に行きます。

よろしくお願いいたします。

Hi! My name is Maya Lorton. I’m from Portland, Oregon and this is my second year at the University of Oregon. I’m a business major with a Japanese minor. I’m really excited to take this class with you all!

I’m taking this class because it’s a requirement for my minor and I also want to learn more about the Japanese language. I’ve been studying Japanese since kindergarten through the Japanese Magnet Program. Since I was 6 years old when I started studying the language, I didn’t really have a choice, but I grew to love the Japanese language and culture through my classes. I’ve also been to Japan three times on class trips. My most recent trip was in 2017 when I went to Sapporo for a month as an exchange student. Being able to go to school in Japan was an amazing experience and I’m hoping I can visit again soon.

My hobbies outside of school and work include hiking, art, and cooking. When I’m not doing school work I’m usually working a shift in the Carson kitchen. I’m very excited to not be living in the dorms this year so I can do my own cooking. I haven’t been able to explore around Eugene very much, but I can’t wait to find new hikes and adventures to go on in this area. Recently, I haven’t been able to do many of my hobbies with how busy I am with classes and work, but when I do have some free time I like to paint. I’ve been working on making some art for my apartment.

I’m looking forward to getting to know you all better!

Hello, everyone! My name is Gabrielle Sarao (pronouns she/her), and I’m a senior in Global Studies with a minor in Anthropology and Japanese. I’m looking forward to hopefully travel to Japan next year and to many other countries in the future.

I have almost always been interested in Japan, especially since I hosted a Japanese student, name Chia, while I was in middle school. She was only around for a week, but I became hooked on Japanese culture and language. I took this course because my advisor mentioned that I was really close to achieving a Japanese minor, so, why not? I’m actually very excited to learn all the intricacies of Japanese language, as it allow a gateway to further understand the language, and to learn more about Japanese society. Fun fact: My knowledge is anime and K-pop is very limited, but I love Fullmetal Alchemist, and I’m very excited to try some Japanese sports and learn more about traditional culture and religion.

I tend to be a well-rounded person, so I love a lot of different hobbies. I enjoy riding my bike, hiking, listening to music, drawing, and reading fantasy novels. I am also  big Dungeons and Dragons fan, and I enjoy listening/watching D&D podcasts. My favorite bands include and lot of alternative, 80s rock, and indie music. Panic! at The Disco is my favorite band. Anyway, looking forward to having a great fall term despite all the craziness.