Why I chose to study Japanese in English

Because I hope to read research articles and historical materials in Japanese in the future. I major in Chinese history and much research from Japanese scholars on related topics is very important. I learned a little Japanese when I was in China. Now I am learning it in English as I am in the States, pursuing a master degree. But if I were in China, I also would learn Japanese.
There is a difference between the experience of learning Japanese in Chinese and in English. When I was in China, we directly started from Hiragana and Katakana, and the teacher would suggest us to write Kanji if possible, as it is more familiar for the Chinese people. But there was a problem that we could be more likely to forget the right pronunciation of Japanese words when it is Kanji appears in mind first. So I think it is really helpful for me to review or learn words in Hiragana. A challenging thing for me in the past four weeks was that sometimes I did not distinguish some Hiragana like ''ga'', and ''ka'' pronounced in a word just like between ''ga'' and ''ka''. It influenced me to remember the correct spelling of the words.