Name: Gage Thorsen

Target Language B: Japanese

Self-Assessed Phase: Phase 1
Language B Objectives: A, B, C, D Phase 1 Objectives
Language Mentor: Sarah Boutin

Profile 1:Self-Assessment of Language Proficiency

Phase: 1

Receptive

understand simple phrases,

statements and questions
identify basic messages, facts,
opinions, feelings and ideas.
Phase: 1

Productive

respond to simple phrases,

statements and questions
show my comprehension with
simple oral and written phrases
convey basic information in a
limited range of everyday situations.
Phase: 2

Interactive

am aware that language varies

according to purpose and audience.

Profile 2:Language and Culture Questionnaire

What language(s) do you use?

I can speak fluent english, some Spanish, and very

little basic Japanese

Identify your language phase for each language
you communicate in.

English- Phase 6
Spanish- Phase 3
Japanese- Phase 1

What can you do and not do with your

language(s)?

I can say my name and age in all of the languages

and ask basic questions in my second and third
languages, but past that I can only say phrases Ive
picked up over the years.

What is your cultural background?

Ive lived in America my whole life and have

followed the basics of American culture.

Do you belong to more than one culture?

Not really.

What language(s) are spoken in your culture(s)?

English.

Do you have friends from a different cultural

background?

Yes. I have friends from Norway, Japan, and I

know a woman from South Africa.

How do you feel when you encounter different

cultural experiences?

I feel invigorated and delightfully clueless because

I enjoy learning new things about cultures outside
of my own.

What do you believe is the relationship between Language, both written and spoken, is the way our
language and culture?
cultures are spread, and both are interconnected on
their purpose, content, and creation.
Why is learning another language considered
so
important?

Its hard to have a worldly outlook on life if you

only know one language. By taking on the
challenge of learning another language, you open
up your mind to new experiences and gain the
skills necessary to learn more about the world.

What language(s) other than your own have

you
previously studied?

Spanish, French, Japanese

What language will you study in language

development?

Japanese

Why have you chosen that specific language for

language development?

I have always been interested in Japanese culture

since its so very different from my own after
years of watching anime and reading manga.

How do you think you will use your target

language in the future?

I plan on traveling to Japan among other places

during my time in college and even after I

graduate, and having a firm understanding of the

language will aid me in my travels and enrich my
experiences.
What challenges do you feel you may encounter
in your language studies?

Japanese use 3 different alphabets, each with their

own writing style as well as having well over 1500
different kanji to learn, which is far different than
the 26 letters I learned in kindergarten.

How will you meet these challenges?

Ill fully apply myself to my studies and remain

motivated to carry on through the struggles Ill
face with the language barriers that lay between
Japan and English. Ive also applied to a language
and global enrichment community at UNCG
which is where I plan to attend college.

Profile 3:Language B Objectives

Objective A Goals: All phase 1 goals
Objective B Goals: All phase 1 goals
Objective C Goals: All phase 1 goals
Objective D Goals: All phase 1 goals

Experiences/Tasks: Pre-Study Reflection

Before I began studying my chosen language B of Japanese, I already had some brief
experience with the language and the culture of Japan thanks to my interest in media forms from
the country, more specifically, anime and manga. Through those art forms, I was able to learn

little bits and pieces about Japanese culture, but it wasnt enough for me to just watch it and read
little bits about it, which is where my curiosity in Japanese stems from. When I first started out
watching anime, I only watched series that were dubbed in English, which means that English
voice actors recorded translated lines that were then spliced into the animation over the Japanese
voice actors. Once I started to get more and more interested in Japan, I moved on to subbed
anime series, with subbed being short for subtitled. This was, I was able to pick up on various
phrases and words that I kept hearing, like learning the proper honorific to use when addressing
different people and memorizing a handful of words. I was still far from being in phase 1 of my
language progress, but I was really excited to get the opportunity to learn Japanese and get a
better understanding of the culture of Japan. I find it invigorating to learn about a culture so
unlike mine.

Experiences/Tasks: Mid-Study Reflection

Im in the middle portion of my Japanese language course right now. It has certainly been
a challenge learning a language so vastly different than any other I have ever attempted to learn
in all my years in school. Ive been enjoying a great deal though, as Im so used to concepts
coming to me naturally without me applying any effort, like how I was able to pass my

sophomore spanish class with a 102 with minimal effort, so being stumped and confused fills me
with an odd sense of exhilaration I rarely get to experience. With all the challenges that the class
has presented me it has still been a wonderful experience so far! Im enjoying the weekly
speaking activities and cultural research projects and how they keep me practicing what Ive
learned while encouraging me to learn more and more about Japanese culture. Another part of
the language class that I love is the language tutoring sessions twice per week. Im always
waiting excitedly at my computer every Monday and Wednesday for tutoring with Maru sensei
and all my classmates. Well all bounce ideas off each other and practice speaking while taking
breaks to play review games and read kana stories to learn new characters to write. Im enjoying
the challenge and my extremely helpful senseis and wonderful classmates. I have learned more
about the people and culture of Japan in this half of a semester than I have in the 11 years Ive
been watching anime and reading manga. I never knew that you were required to be nude in
public bathhouses and hot springs while in the water nor did I know that Japan has Culture
Schools that teach people young and old skills for hobbies and ancient Japanese traditions. It has
truly been an enriching experience that I never want to end.

Experiences/Tasks: Post-Study Reflection

Its been close to 6 months since I took my final for my Japanese class and attended my
final language coaching session with Maru-sensei and all of my classmates. I learned so much
about the culture of Japan, about the language and the way its spoken, and Ive even learned a
lot about myself throughout the course of the class. Ive learned how to memorize and study
certain types of information and how to mentally switch between my english speaking brain and
my newly formed Japanese speaking brain. I still have all my speaking notes and all my cultural

research projects, and I often look back at them to refresh myself on what Ive learned. Ive
learned about the intricacies of martial arts, about the origins of the hiragana and katakana
writing style, the existence of an endangered form of the Japanese dialect, and I also learned
about the mass amount of pressure on Japanese students like myself. Im nowhere even near
competency in the language and the idea of becoming fluent in Japanese makes my head spin,
but Im more motivated than ever to pursue my goal of being able to go to Japan one day as an
open minded and prepared adventurer and experience the culture of Japan as indepthly as
possible. I believe that Boutin-sensei, Maru-sensei, and all of my classmates have prepared me to
take the next step in achieving that dream of going to Japan and experiencing the culture Ive
only dreamed about until now. I feel as though I have been prepared to comprehend and abide by
the social, cultural, and linguistic oddities of Japan properly and respectfully. I will miss those
late night tutoring sessions where we would spend hours after tutoring discussing cool facts
weve learned outside of class and anime series that made us think or bust a gut laughing.