Every Monday morning I attend a Japanese language class which is taught by a wonderfully sweet Japanese woman who has been living in Italy with her French husband for years. The teaching language of the class is Italian due to the obvious fact that we’re in Italy. But surpringly enough there are few Italians actually taking the course. There are Spanish, Mexican, British, Russian and Canadian (me!) students. The level of the class is very high and my fellow students VERY keen (most are older and without kids to occupy most of their time and brain cells). I’m trying my best and actually learning an amazing amount of Japanese characters (it’s primarily a writing and reading course). I’m hoping this will help us out during our upcoming vacation to Japan (although not likely).Amazingly enough I can actually read what she is writing on the board here. Seriously!
Look what a good student I am. As you can see I can even ask “Are you happy?” in Japanese. I think it will come in handy when we’re there.
Jillian In Italy 
Keep it up! Japanese is such a nice language to learn.
I’m currently learning Chinese in German (despite being British). Learning a new language in a different language is quite the challenge!
頑張りましょう!
Hmmm Chinese in German. That also sounds like high impact aerobics for the brain. I just love writing those beautiful characters. Makes our alphabet look so….boring. Good luck with the Chinese!
Wow! I am boggled by just thinking about it. Impressive.