WaniKani sent me this interview since I'd reached the program's max level. I figured I'd save my answers here for posterity.
Q: Why did you study Japanese?
I took German language in high school, but both its similarities to English and the near English fluency in every German person I've ever met conspired to discourage me from really taking it seriously.
I did, however, learn that the act of studying another language was a deeply perspective-altering activity. When you see how a language and a culture are inextricably linked, it triggers in me an introspection of my own ideology—what do I take for granted that's encoded into the English words I say or how I use them?
Ultimately, this led me to want to learn the most challenging language I could find, with a secondary priority for cultures that my own experience would relate to the least. Of Japanese, Chinese, and Russian, the emphasis on subtlety and harmony in Japanese culture put it over the top. Once I started studying,