I’ve been working on this one a while.
I am always looking for ways to be a wiser person. Although I have a basic understanding of many cultures all over the world, I decided that in order to be a more complete person, I should also have a deep understanding of one foreign culture.

The culture had to be:
- Very foreign (probably not Europe or the Americas, and not using the roman alphabet)
- Successful (because no country can be very successful with a bad culture)
- Accessible and welcoming to Americans (bonus points if the country was once a colony of or occupied by Britain or the U.S.)

This gave me a short list of Asian countries which included Russia, the Philippines, India, Japan, China, South Korea, etc.

I love video games and want a career in them. On my list, only South Korea and Japan have a large consumer base for video games. I finally decided on Japan because of other things, like anime, and because it’s much more popular here, so it would be easier for me to find things to study while still in the U.S.