First things first: Who am I to answer this question?
Hi! My name is Jana. :) I’m someone who was born and raised in the United States in a monolingual household, but I’ve been interested in other languages and cultures for as long as I can remember. I began learning Japanese on my own when I was thirteen, but I didn’t get the chance to go abroad until six years later, when I spent a summer living with a host family and teaching English in Japan. This got me completely hooked on the experience of living abroad, and I’ve been slowly making my way around the globe ever since.