Akira Mizubayashi is a Japanese man who fell in love with French. He learned it so well, he obtained scholarships to study in France – twice. After getting his doctorate degree in French, he returned to Japan and taught French for the rest of his life. In his own words, this meant happiness. Mizubayashi wrote a memoir in French about how he learned French and how it changed his life – “Une langue venue d’ailleurs.” (affiliate link)
I bought this book in 2014, read 70% of it, and never finished it. Life happened. When I embarked on this journey of reading 50 books in one year in 2023, I knew this would be one of the books I absolutely had to finish. Continue reading