An update from Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures alum Daily Spangler ’14, who minored in East Asian Studies at Illinois State University.
“I decided to study Japanese because I had studied French and Spanish and wanted to try my hand at one of the ‘hard’ languages. (Heads up: it’s not as hard as everyone says it is!)
As I worked to complete my East Asian Studies minor and learned more about Japanese history, culture, and language, I fell in love with Japan. I studied abroad in Asahikawa, Japan, for one month and decided to move to Japan upon graduation. I have been living in Japan for two years now, and thanks to my Japanese studies at ISU I have found a great job teaching English to children, and have also been able to form bonds with many incredible people here.
As most Japanese people cannot speak English, it goes without saying that being able to speak Japanese has made my day to day life infinitely easier as well.
Learning Japanese has not only given me a new way of expressing myself, but also a new way of seeing the world. I am forever grateful for my experiences in the Japanese program at ISU.”
