"During my undergraduate degree, I minored in Japanese. I didn't start taking Japanese until my fourth year but wish I had gotten involved sooner. After my first semester of Japanese, I decided that I was going to take at least one Japanese class each semester until I graduated because I enjoyed the classes so much. I started looking forward to Japanese more than any other class.

Taking Japanese was one of the best decisions I made while at Tech. I have an introverted personality, but after I started taking Japanese, I met a lot of people who had similar interests to me like anime and Japanese music. I became more involved when I joined the Japanese Student Association and participated in club activities. I even helped tutor another student who was taking Japanese.

In March of 2018, I participated in the annual Japanese Speech Contest and won the grand prize of a round-trip ticket to Japan. I attribute my success in the contest to my parents, professors, and friends who helped me practice. I was honored to be asked to be the emcee for the annual speech contest both last year and this year.

I would encourage students at Georgia Tech to learn a foreign language. Knowing a second language opens new doors. You'll discover many things that you never knew about before. For instance, I learned about Rakugo, Japanese storytelling, during my second semester at a Japanese book club held by Kyoko Masuda-sensei, and I instantly fell in love with it.

Even after graduating, I am still in contact with my Japanese professors. They all played a huge role in my Japanese language learning. They not only made me look forward to going to Japanese class every day, but they also took time outside of class and during office hours to help me practice my conversation skills."

- Joshua Baldwin, B.S. in Computer Engineering, Japanese Minor, 2018; M.S. in Global Media & Cultures with Japanese concentration, 2021

Baldwin has recently been accepted in to the Global Media and Cultures master of science degree program where he has chose Japanese as his concentration. His dream is to work in Japan as a software developer and is pursuing his graduate degree to aid in his endeavors.