Why Japanese?

As a PhD student studying the intellectual and cultural history of Song dynasty China (960-1276), it is important to learn Japanese, as a means of reading and engaging with middle period Chinese historians in Japan. After Naitō Torajirō's (1866-1934) famous hypothesis about the Tang-Song transition representing the transition into early modernity, Japanese scholarship on the Song dynasty only continued to grow and flourish. To this day, there are still certain topics, some as fundamental as how letters were sent in the Southern Song (1127-1276), which have only been researched in Japan, and this research has yet to be translated into English. Thus, gaining a broader understanding of this period of history requires the ability to read Japanese scholarship.

I understand that this goal is not one which can be reached by the end of a first-year Japanese course. In fact, swimming through this sea of new words and grammar structures, the goal of reading articles and essays in Japanese appears to be far beyond the horizon. I have, at the very least, made some progress by learning Hiragana and by starting to study Katakana this week, but there is still a lot of work to do. If nothing else, it should make for an excellent adventure.

Just keep swimming!