Learn German

When I compare my knowledge of languages to that of my parents, I feel ashamed. It's not that I haven’t studied them, but they have taken a ridiculous amount of language courses. I went to a bilingual school where I had to learn German. In the afternoons I used to go to learn French at a language school. Of course I never needed to learn Japanese, as I was born there.

It is not necessary to say that my parents can speak all of the languages I’m able to speak, plus others. It’s fair to clarify that they work for the Japanese embassy and they need to be abroad most of the time. For instance, they could learn English because they took some English language courses in the UK at least five times. In that country they also took other courses for different languages. I find very funny that my mum studied to be a personal trainer for stretching, but it's her mind that has been stretched through learning all these extra languages. After moving from England, they were able to learn French, because they took a few French language courses in France. One of my best friends is French: Pierre Menard. He was deeply impressed with my father for his fine pronunciation. It's a great advantage studying a language in the country where it’s spoken natively. Having never been to Europe, I think it is a great merit of mine, understanding two European languages pretty well.

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