So back in 2018, when I was still a medical student I had received an e-mail for an exchange program in Japan, more specially, Tokyo medical university. As I applied with my local medical student body in Malta I thought, going to japan would be a great way to explore another country while also combining it with medicine.
Personally, I always enjoyed travelling, coming from a small island I’ve always admired other cities and countries because of the diversity they offered.
living in a small place made me realize the lack of possibility and the opportunity cost of living on such a small island.
When i sent in my application I knew that the places for Tokyo were limited, however I applied. in April of 2018, I had received an email reply telling me that my place was not accepted and my application had been cancelled.
This did not persuade me to keep my plans up for the Trip to Japan. So I decided to book my flight with Emirates (Malta > Dubai > Tokyo) and start searching accommodation, using Booking.com.
The only problem with me going to japan was the barrier language! So I basically had to find a way in order to learn the language in an easy way (at least the basics) just to help me survive my 3weeks in japan.
After stumbling across a video on how to memorize anatomy flash cards using a free flashcard system ANKI, I said to myself “why not use the same study method to learn Japanese using flashcards.
Using ANKI as a system was a great stepping stone to help me start off and understand the basics. Spaced repetition is the way in order to consolidate memories.
I highly recommend the app to anyone wanting to study something fast.
The next app i used to learn Japanese was DuoLingo, a free language app that helped me learn a great deal of basic hiragana, katakana and conversation. I an still till this day studying and trying to improve my Japanese level. With the aim of one day moving to Tokyo
Basically an application led to discovering a new language that i never had any previous interest in. sometimes in life when we look for opportunity other opportunities might pop up that help us realize what we are actually looking for.