I first started studying Japanese in High School, back in 1994. One of my challenges has always been being diligent in learning Kanji - it's not something you can just "get" like many aspects of schooling, you really have to put in the effort. My challenge has always been finding a real reason to focus on it, beyond just for the sake of learning.
For a while, I kept studying Japanese at University, and made it to my final year - again with the bare bones knowledge of Kanji required to pass. At that point, my progress halted. I failed my final year Japanese classes, and finished off my degree(s) in Computer Science and Finance, and that was the extent of my Japanese for many years.
Along the way, I picked up Magic: the Gathering hobby. I acquired a few Japanese cards along the way, but haven't put a concerted effort into being able to read them, so they haven't really been put to much use. Given it's perfectly legal to use any language cards in any country, I'd like to be able to play with my Japanese cards, but don't want to until I am comfortable reading them (even recognising that my opponents won't be able to do so).
In 2019 I was lucky enough to take a trip to Japan for the Rugby World Cup. While there, I was faced with missing my first MTG prerelease in many years. I figured, why not try doing a prerelease while I'm here? I played at Hareruya Nagoya, which was close to my hostel, and they were very accommodating, allowing me to look up cards on Gatherer as I went, but it was very awkward and slow for my opponents. Communication was mostly fine, but learning new cards as I went was tough.
But how to best learn? Since I've also been working on learning website development using Python, utilising the Django framework, I thought this would be a good opportunity to develop two skills. I have set up a Wagtail installation, and aim to create my own reference of common words used in MTG, and build my knowledge as I go.
Some of my main goals: