Hi all, this is Tsuyoshi from Japan. I preferred to be called Yoshi as the pronunciation of the sounds of “tsu” is kind of hard and don’t want to make it a burden. Anyway, I’m in my third year and majoring in Sociology here at UBC. I am taking this course for literature credit and really randomly chose this course for the credits. But it seems to be no regret since it has a nice flexible assessment system.
However, I have seldom interacted with literature in my life and I can even count how many literature books I have read, like around 2 or 3 (and those were also for my school assignments, not for my genuine interest. This is because I honestly don’t like to read books at first and I always expect to get some practical knowledge that I can use in my daily life, which sounds very boring for some people. When I read poems, I always am like “okay, so what?”. That is one reason why I am such a boring person, yes I admit it. So, thanks to UBC, it gives me an opportunity to immerse myself in this literature world where I have not been to that much.
As for the expectations that I have for this course is that I want to be able to express myself with more freedom as I can write pretty much anything on my mind (like this introduction blog post, I really enjoy writing this), how I like or dislike about that literature unlike other disciplines like science or sociology. So I hope it will be a nice place where I come to like literature and increase my engagement with this discipline.
As a reaction to the first lecture video by Jon, I would say I was surprised and attracted to this course. Because I thought I really would be dealing with a specific culture or country related to “Romance”. However, as he mentioned where Romance studies are in his video, the paths to Romance studies are widely scattered around the world and ultimately there is no specific one place that attributes Romance studies. In the meantime, I maybe have understood why he said “inventing Romance studies”. It is not something constructed or created by autonomous but collected by someone who intended to create the genre. The literature themselves are not being “Romance studies” as they want to be so. I want your opinion on this. Perhaps there’s no special meaning in it, simply relies on our interpretation. But if you have some opinion on why “inventing”, please share it here! 
The above pic is a pretty and beautiful jellyfish I met at Sumida aquarium just a couple of days ago. It gave me a chill.
Hi Yoshi!
I really enjoyed your introduction post! I don’t think you are a boring person for seeking practical knowledge from books, it’s a really useful perspective to have:) I really liked what you had to say about the “Romance Genre” being collected rather than constructed, I think thats a really good way of thinking about the genre and the material we’ll be studying in this course.
Hi Yoshi!
I was also surprised that there wasn’t a theme surrounding a specific culture, or area we would be dealing with. When i first thought of romance studies, I thought we would be discussing texts related to France, Italy ,and Hispanic countries as those are where the romance languages come from. However, to my surprise, these texts come from all over! I also look forward to expanding my horizon beyond my typical literature genres I enjoy reading.
Hi Yoshi!
Thanks for your blog post and nice to meet you (sort of haha)! I definitely agree with you about poetry, I have never understood it. I see you don’t really enjoy reading, however if you are interested in some easy, and captivating, reads I can definitely recommend some! I am doing a minor in Sociology, so I assume we somewhat have the same interests!
Hi Yoshi!
You do not sound like a boring person at all! Since you’re Japanese, I am sure you’ve heard of (or perhaps read) Murasaki Shikibu’s The Tale of Genji which is a classic of Japanese literature and considered to be the world’s first novel and one of the greatest works of literature of all time. I plan to read it after this term ends. Are you currently in Japan? I would love to visit Japan and experience the spring there. As for poetry, I think poetry and literature are ways people were able to learn and master their language and preserve it. I think it is very tragic that modern education no longer places an emphasis on the classics and on producing well-rounded moral people but people who are only smart enough to follow instructions and operate machines. Therefore, your dislike of poetry and literature isn’t really your fault.