[yumyumtimtam]

Originally Posted by sarvodaya

Hello yumyumtimtam!

こんにちは　サルボダヤ("sarvodaya" in Japanese)さん

I'm not too bad, thank you. I hope you're well.

That's good
I'm alright too.
わたしもげんきです！

I have been quite interested in certain aspects of Japanese culture for a long time. It started when I began practising karate around the age of 10 or so. I loved the self-discipline and even the atmosphere of the dojo. Unfortunately other things in my life (mostly school-work) cut down on the time I had available to practise and I stopped attending classes. I am actually planning to start learning aikido soon.

I see.
I had many chances to start practising Karate and Aikido, because quite a few of my friends were doing it and often asked me to join them, but I didn't... when I was about 10 years old...I was busy playing with friends like...going to the mountain and river to catch こんちゅう、めだか、ざりがにetc and playing ソフトボール、ドッジボール、バスケットボール や おにごっこ.
My mother made me to go to Piano lesson because I was always acting like a boy so she thought it's a good idea,but in 1 year I quit. I prefered running arond.
I think I should have practised Karate or Aikido or something to learn self-discipline.

Anyway, so I'm also interested in Buddhism, but that's another story really. As for learning Japanese itself, I love languages, and have always enjoyed studying both the structure of language and thinking about how different societies and cultures form and are formed by their languages. I have studied french classical greek, latin, classical hebrew, russian (ish!) and a little bit of german. My vocation is science, but I want to keep my brain in multi-lingual mode as much as possible.

wow,very interesting!
It must be wonderful to know that many languages to be able to compare and find out many things in there!

So, I hope that begins to answer your question, and you can appreciate that I enjoy learning foreign languages purely for its own pleasure too.

はい、よくわかりました。ありがとうございます。

It sounds like you've had quite an adventure, and I'm glad that you were able to fulfil your dream. I would love to hear more about your time in Europe. Did you spend much time in England? Where did you visit?

Yes, I think I was very lucky and it was a big advanture for me.
I arrived at Heathrow nearly mid-night, so I decided to stay in the airport to save money.I was a little scared because there were just many men looking strange...but I guess for them I looked strange too, so nothing bad happened.

Next day, I waited for the information centre to open and they arranged an B&B accommo in London for me.There were 4 girls in the dormitory room.They were from Australia and Argentina.I enjoyed talking to my room mates and walking around the city to look at all the famous things with many tourists around, but I really wanted to meet local people, so on the 2nd day I went to Walthamstow for having a look at the street market there.
When I got there, I thought "this is it!".I was so excited just to be there with the local people around!
I was walking down the street and found a real estate agent and the door was open, so I just popped in and asked them like..."I know it's strage to ask you this, but do you have any room for rent for a week?" I knew they would say of course not, and they did, but the ladies were very friendly and asked me "What's on the earth a Japanese tourist is doing in Walthamstow? There are many famous places to go and take photos in London! Anyway take a seat! Let's have some cup of tea" then we started chatting. They made a list of "must see in London" for me. I had a wonderful time there. When I was just about to say thank you and leave there, a lady made a phone call to an owner of a house near by and asked him to rent me a room for a week!and soon he said OK! not only that, the owner and the real estate agent ladies brought me many sheets and blankets and a TV! and not only that! The owner asked me to join him and his friends for a drink at the corner pub.(That's where I heard a lot of "ish" conversation) I had an amazing time there.
There are 2 girls sharing the same house(each room has own door for the outside,but they share the bathroom and the kitchen). A student from Africa and a local girl.They said they don't talk much each other.It was very interesting that they gave me really different information about London.
After the wonderful one week stay in that room, the real estate ladies invited me to stay at their places too. After London, I visited Hastings and Dover.
I just loved England very very much.I think I was very lucky.

So I thought I would start out by quoting your post with corrections in blue. If this seems rude or patronising please let me know and I'll stop! Apologies in advance. I won't make comments unless I find a point of interest, so please ask if a correction doesn't make sense.

rude? NO!!!!! It's wonderful ! Thank you very very much! I really appreciate it.
ありがとうございます！

I'll probablly make a lot of mistakes and Im afraind I already did in here.
So please do not feel like you have to.
I'd like you to enjoy this Japanforum and I don't want to be too much trouble for you here.
I will try not to make too many mistakes!
がんばります！

Now for "ish".

とても　よくわかりました！
ありがとうございました

Please leave your questions or just type anything you leant and practice!