Josh B Self Introduction

My name is Josh Brauner and I am going into my 5^th year of studies. My major is bioinformatics which is under the medicine bachelor and essentially combines health science, computer science, and statistics. I am also pursuing a minor in Japanese. I have several reasons for wanting to do a minor in Japanese and subsequently doing the group study program to Japan. The first of these reasons is personal. I have always wanted to learn another language and Japanese culture has fascinated me for a long time. I have been watching anime for over 10 years now and that is where my initial interest in Japan came from. In 2014, I got to visit Japan for 10 days as a school trip and got to experience what the culture was like first hand. What fascinated me most was how the Japanese seamlessly mix the old traditional Japan with modern Japan. During my travels, we visited many temples which somehow seemed to be perfectly normal despite being in the middle of busy urban areas, a sight that is far less common in western society where the closest equivalent is the presence of churches. My next reason for wanting to learn Japanese and go on this program is academic. As mentioned, I am pursuing a minor in Japanese which, at this stage in my degree, I need this program to complete. Furthermore, I am planning on pursuing my graduate studies in Japan either at the University of Tokyo or an institution in Osaka. I am choosing Japan as my place of study because it is currently a leader in my field being that my field is reliant on the development of technology. My final reason for wanting to learn Japanese and take this program is professional. Upon finishing my graduate studies, I plan on continuing to work in Japan at a research institute, likely connected with whoever I work under during my graduate studies. What I am most looking forward to during this group study program is exploring the anime culture of Japan as well as the sports culture, specifically figure skating. I have already mentioned my interest in anime but what gets me excited about sports and specifically figure skating in Japan is that the Japanese people have a reputation for being some of the best fans in the world, supporting athletes from any nation and figure skating happens to be one of the most popular sports in Japan. I am really looking forward to experiencing that for myself and being able to explore how figure skating became so popular in Japan.

こんにちは。ジョシュと申します。私は今、学生五年生です。私のせんこうはバイオインフォです。私はアニメを見るのが好きです。私もスケートをするのが好きです。私は日本で学生員をしたいです。よろしくおねがいします。