How Magic: The Gathering Took Me from N2 to Japanese Fluency (opens in new tab)

When I first arrived in Tokyo in 2024, I held a JLPT N2 certification—a milestone I had worked toward for years, from when I was still employed full-time in my home country, until I graduated from language school in Ehime\. That certificate was key to landing my Project Manager job in Tokyo\. Once I started working, though, I realized that passing a test and actually “owning” a language are two different things\. I had the technical ability to navigate professional tasks, but I wanted to do m...