Why I Chose to Study Japanese

My initial interest in the language started with the culture in Japan as it does with most people. I've had an interest in the culture about as far back as I can remember; I even did a research project on Japan in third grade. However, most of this was locked away for a long time, since my school only had one language program, which was in Spanish. However, upon admittance to Columbia University, I discovered that I would be taking a language again in order to fulfill the core requirements of the class. I excitedly read on the languages offered by Columbia College, carefully considering how each of them could play a role in my career in science. I eventually narrowed it down to two and ended up picking Japanese for several different reasons. One reason was that I assumed that an interest in the culture behind the language would motivate me to learn it and keep up with studying it regularly. Another reason was based on some information I found online that said Japan's population is very similar to what America's is. Since regenerative medicine is going to be needed in America due to a top heavy population, the same can be said for Japan, and will likely be the route they take considering their involvement with science and technology. Because of these reasons, I decided that taking Japanese would not only be fun, but also extremely useful in my field of study.