Japanese Lessons

I think the only thing I took lessons for (outside school) was swimming lessons during primary school. Later on Middle school I took guitar lessons but that was part of school (you had to take a cultural course each year.. things like drawing, playing instruments, singing, acting, chess, etc).

Stormtrooper outfit seems to come in handy!!!!!
You can put so many stuff in it!!! Lots of room!!!!!

Unfortunately I was in a similar situation to you. Didn't get to take any lessons I could not afford to go. Was also not sent to chinese school because I actually refused to go back then since it was at a church. How I regret that now!

Glad you learnt you mother language through self persistence and discipline. I don't think I can do that.

Japanese School, Chinese School, piano, swimming, art, figure skating, yeah. But i quit every single one except for piano. Teacher charges over $200 per hour and i still take why? xD

After school activities aren't big here. Most would rather just hang at the mall.

I use to take piano, but I can't stand it now. Does playing guitar in Rockband count? The gf is more talented with piano, violin, and playing the skin flute.

BTW... Yez guitar, missing a few strings... @.@

i took science class when i was a 3rd grader in high school. For now, want to take violin lessons so i can become kiva. lol

I've taken lessons every summer during Primary till high school.. They are Art/Painting, Computer basics, Tennis, Swimming, Chinese Language and Math Tutorials(Which my parents sent me sometime during high school summer and during after regular classes), PMT(Physics,Math,Trigonometry). I can only say that the ART/Painting was the only activity that is/was useful for me... But they are not being attended altogether,BTW. I am a man without a talent..

I remember having music lessons (solfège) mixed with normal class during primary school. Then I went to music school after class for instrument lessons (piano, trombone...).
We were a bunch of friends doing this, but we were jealous from others who did not have anything to do and were playing soccer in the play-ground... well, we were just kids who wanted to have fun, no class ^^;

Tennis, swimming and badminton, all didn't last though. Took them all just because I was chubby. ^^

Ironically they didn't have much effect, strict diet instead was more effective for me.

I took a Japanese Culture class during the summer between 7th and 8th grade. We were living in Misawa at the time, and my father signed me up and told me I was going. It ended up being pretty fun. ^_^

I got to learn piano for free cos my aunty taught me.... I learnt to hate the piano :P

i think i speak on behalf of korean americans when i say that i have taken violin/piano lessons.

others include tennis, golf, guitar, bass, japanese, and korean. good times~

i've been learning AMEB piano courses for the last 12 years and still going at it (i just wanna finish to 8th grade/level)

Guitar came in around 2004, found little interest in it. dropped it in early 2006.

language school (Chinese) for 6 years, when i was young. dropped out when my dad stopped being principal

yes, so just like Danny, i learn my kanji characters through Japanese first......=_____="

on a sidenote, when i read your post, i thought #3 was dolphin waxing
..........my bad ^^"

it's quite surprising that u learn chinese from Japanese. Lol

I took tennis lessons on weekend and martial art class on daily basis. I realized the tennis lessons didn't do me good when I fail the trail out for high school tennis team ^^; Never got to test out the martial art skill on real situation so not sure I'm good or not...

I've taken Violin when I was little, but stopped it like a year or two after I started it. I really regret stopping it, I keep thinking by now I could of been a master of violin.

Kung Fu/awesome
French cuisine/delicious
cake decorating/delicious cake is delicious

use to take
Guitar/horrible teacher
Swimming/a coach raped a girl
Vietnamese/teacher wanted the kids to become Buddhist

I took swimming and some art in the past.
Now I'm taking Japanese outside of my school. Costs $400-500 for half a year because it's an intensive course. JLPT 4 coming up end of this year =/

I made my parents pony up for piano lessons ^^ But they made me take Spanish lessons when they discovered I was forgetting how to speak it properly ^^;;;;
Spanish has been a curse for me, my Secondary School forced me to do French GCSE as I already knew Spanish, bleh~

I did 2 years of drawing school but dropped out. Then I did 5.5 years of music school where I learned to play the piano. But stopped with that too because I was too busy with school. But I'm glad that I did that, I have a good knowledge how music works and how to read it. I'm also wanting to learn bass guitar at the moment, but I still need to get my bass ^^; Sometime this year maybe ^^;

Jazz dance, ballet and Chinese school- quit dance because I wanted my weekends back, and Chinese school because it got too hard..

I guess as I grew older just wanted to hang out with friends, but when high school started, it was english/maths tutoring >_>

i quit chinese school i juste getting bored there and i become lazy in home games and anime all day

PRimay school i basket ball win 12 time gold medal our team was crazy me i am a shooter 100% in everytime !!

Wow, Japanese primary school kids really seem to have much opportunity.

I was too lazy to do anything in primary school and even if I had the motivation, it'd be too expensive.
Currently, teach myself art, music and a bit of programming. I learned piano for a while but, after my teahcer passed on, I stopped. Now I'm starting guitar :)
I'm not sure if being 'self-taught' counts though.

I got my numbers confused, which one is number 3 again? seriously. ^^; nice mod on the utility belt, never would have thought about the 'velcro'ed transparent back. about the question, I tried to learn the piano on my own back when I was a kid (no formal schooling for it). but I did have taekwondo class back then. wonder if I could still do those kick without breaking me hip. ^^;

I took swimming lessons long time ago when I was a wee tyke back in the 90's, at some beach resort club. Currently I take Japanese and guitar lessons at a nearby community center.

Can't play any musical instrument to save my life. I wanted to learn the piano. I might do that someday. For now its just a dream.

I quit weekend baseball, arnis and art instruction when i was in elementary. As for music, took no out of school classes. Had instruction from my dad and older brother on how to play the guitar when I was in highschool.

Sure did- I got my 1st degree black belt in Tae Kwan Do. Would have preferred kendo to supplement.

Ah yes, i take time outside of school to learn Japanese ^_^ My tutor tutors me from home, so i don't even have to go anywhere xP

Me learned Tae kwon do when I was still schooling. After I missed my grading for black belt due to illness I sorta lose steam and quited. Really a waste, now that I think about it.

I remembered taking drawing lessons during my primary school years, but would really love to learn the piano.

When I was in elementary school I took lessons to learn how to play guitar.
I've resisted around a week before getting bored...
Well, at least my little brother learned drums and now he is singing with a band. ^__^

Nope, never did any lessons outside school but I'd love to try Kendo...

I was inspired when I watched bamboo Blade and when Tama-chan shouted "Meeeeeeeeeeeeeen!"... I thought to myself, "That's cool!"

When I was younger, my parents signed me up for Organ, Violin, and Harp (the huge ones you see in orchestra). Incidentally, I wanted to learn to play the guitar, but my mother signed me up for violin instead. Maybe she thought the violin was a miniature guitar. -_-;

I also learned Music Theory, though I quit all music lessons when I entered high school. Although I don't really know how to play them anymore, my love for classical music probably stemmed from there (though I hated practicing).

I also learned swimming and Mandarin, though my Mandarin is pretty crap.

I only remembered I did take some drawing and swimming lessons before..

I use the kanji like chinese words when I really cant read anymore of the japanese words to roughly guess whats it about ^^;

Took swimming lessons during elementary school for about three years till I got bored with it and quit...
I've been going to kendo lessons for about two years now.

Yes, I do take... uhh.. self-taught lessons but not when I'm in primary school.
I'm current learning Japanese (self-taught) and guitar (self-taught). Let's work hard!

My parents never forced me to take extra curricular activities like music lessons or Chinese school. I kind of wish they did now though, as I'd love to be able to play the piano or guitar and also be able to read and write Chinese.

Cool to get an insight inside all the nooks and cranny of your storm trooper armour, Danny (I'm sure you were joking about the skid marks, right?). I like all the mods you've done and at one point I was going to suggest you paint the gills / fake air vents of the helmet from blue to the dannychoo.com orange.

Wow, so you see everything in a tinge of green when you're under that helmet!

lol, looked comfy inside

I had piano lessons but not anymore. Nice suit. Can you sleep in it? :D

primary school learn swimming before, until primary 6. At secondary school have join the chinese orchestra, and I learn the erhu(二胡) instrument, now totally forgotten how to play. After 2 year of the chinese orchestra then i join Karate until end of my secondary school.

don't do any after school lesson
recently want to go to cram school tho

Outside school I had swimming, tennis, English and guitar (accustic). I never wanted to learn how to play the piano or violin 'coz I thought they were boring, and luckily my parents never made me do it. Now I'd like to learn how to play an electric guitar but I don't have much time.

I did ballet, till my first Computer ever entered my room... then it was over. ^^;
I didnt cut back on sports stuff though but it weren't "lessons". Private inline and ice skating.
Though i wanted to take Japanese lessons, around the area where i did grow up there were none and driving 4h to get me to a lesson and back home would not have worked back then for my mom lol. Why did my parents build a house on the country side... i'm a city child at heart *grumble*.

In my spare time I learned how to play the clarinet. I also did some sports like soccer, and basketball, but never at the same time. I actually work for a school district and the amount of after school activities parents make kids do is insane. Kids should just be kids.

I had Swimming Lessons when i was a smahild but besides that...Nah never had any lessons.

i never learned anything after school [it was always after school vg time ;)]

but ive learnt to play drums since and i find that people who take lessons generally aren't that good and learn slower. the best thing ya can do when learning music is get a good book and listen to a wide range of music [important]

Can't remember ever taking out-of-school-lessons. Heck, even swimming lessons were provided by school. My brother took keyboard lessons, but quit after a while. Me, I'm as tone-deaf as a troll, so never been into instruments.
BTW, interesting how a post about instruments and such can go to the inside of a trooper really quick XD

I want a free Haruhi bunny too!!!

lol at skid marks

been playing lead and rhythm guitar for almost 25 yrs. played ina few bands and the largest crowd was 11,000 people. :-) yes, it was a rush!

Most of my extracurricular activities would fall into that "budo" category, but I was also on my high school's debate team for three years. (Scary.)

Quite an admirable amount of work you've put into that armor. It surely must be one of the best suits in the world after all your tinkering – probably much better than the originals from the old movies, anyhow.

If you're thinking of painting the gills orange, why not stamp the dc logo on the forehead or somesuch?

Never took any outside lessons other than swimming. I do know how to play the guitar but i'm self taught for the most part. My friends and I share tips and tricks together when we jam.

danny the inside of your helmet looks totally different from mine. in mine, the green shades are 2 separated peices.

i'm also having trouble wearing my glasses inside my helmet. too tight. >.<

i took chinese classes when i was young but i was so bad at remembering all the characters that i never passed the first grade

danny you going to build a gundam armor?i want to see you dance in that

let me see - piano, drums, guitar & swimming

those were my 3 out of school classes. the piano i gave up just after grade 1. the drums i got pulled off it after a few weeks since my mum didnt want to get me a drum kit & also she was worried about the noise they would make & the neighbors complaining blah blah blah. swimming i use to do a lot of & was taken swimming for over 3hrs by my parents every Saturday for over 5 years, i dont go swimming much anymore. due to other responsibilities. guitar i use to have tuition both in & outside school. but my mum was so uber paranoid when i wanted to get lessons from a few people who advertised in a newspaper after i left school.

of course there will always be crap teachers & good teachers but you wont find out which one they are till you take 1 or 2 lessons with them. after i couldn't get support from my parents my guitaring is pretty much self taught. Im not as good a player as i want to be but then im not that bad at all

huh! the anime house!

i frequent that shop! why they don't give me anything! lol

no lessons for me.. i skipped everything. i spend my time watching cartoons on tv @ home ^^

im a lucky kid. well in a way.. haha

danny do u know Kieth and Shannon?

Learnt swimming, piano when I was young. Joined the school concert band in secondary school (13 yrs old) playing the trumpet. Been playing for bout 6-7 years till now. Currently taking Japanese lessons. Really hope I master the language some time next year.

Btw I think Chinese is much more difficult than Japanese. Or maybe cause I'm still at the basics of Japanese.

I learnt how to organise a library in my free time. it was horribly boring and i ended up doodling on all the spreadsheets.

I took piano lessons for most of my life and usually practiced 4-6 hours a day. Now that I live in a tiny apartment and have no room for a piano I really miss it...'~'

unfortunatly not. came from a small town and the only afterschool things were sports.. usually football.. twas not that athletic..

wouldn't have minded learning more, see that alot in animes where they have alot of clubs.. tennis, swim, etc.

I'm from a small town also, so I didn't have a lot of opportunities for those sorts of things.
I did take dance lessons through most of elementary school (starting when I was 4 years old). When I was in jr high/high school, I played the flute and (sometimes) the piccolo, but that was all through the school. In college I took singing lessons through the music department for my major, and a couple of dance classes as well.
I've always wished I could play the violin though. I think it's a beautiful instrument. I like the flute well enough, but there's just something about stringed instruments that I really love.

Learned the piano and took exams (up to Grade 6) when I was young. Played the saxophone in my school band, and not too long ago, I picked up some guitar and violin.

Take drum lessons every thursday after work. Love it to death. :)

I used to take Soccer (hated but it was fun to try to hit some people with the ball) and Volleyball (I still like to play). And I used to take Japanese lessons as well, but since it was too far from home my parents asked me to stop going.

And I would loved to have learned how to play a instrument, especially Piano or Violin.

Most of the extra lessons I took were for sports. The sports I took them for was:

Swim Team
Baseball
Football
Basketball
Volleyball
Tennis
Hockey
Golf

I went to a music school for a year (my mother insisted), but I gained nothing from there:P And also I got my drivers license from an another school.

swimming piano tae kwon do had it all, but decided to do my own thing so now i ride bike/skateboard and play electric bass self taught =P easy at 1st but hard 2 master

I was first introduced to piano lessons, had swimming for summers to help my asthma (danny-san you should try swimming as an additional recreation sport it helps my breathing...or are there public/private pools there? heehee sukumizu... XD)

in grade school was enrolled at the special arts and writing programme of my school. Then I moved on to playing the violin (because I was *GASP* inspire by Sailor Neptune---SAILOR NEPTUNE!!!!!) then later, since I suck at math, I had extra lessons from a personal tutor :/

personally, I still can't play a guitar to save my life. even rockband/guitar freaks won't cut :/

$100 for a HOUR??! you peeps are crazy! when i was learning to play the piano as a kid our public music school charged about $30 A MONTH! you had a teacher that he would teach you for a hour 3 times a week and you had class where you learned about music in general 2 times a week plus you'd get music notes.

Wow, didn't knew the stormtrooper costume had so many details and parts...

Anyways, at least when I was young, it was very common for kids to have schools outta schools. Specially middle classed kids.

Among others, I took classes for:
Piano, guitar, kumon, english, oil painting, basketball, judo, kung-fu, swimming... yeah, guess that's it.

Not more than 4 at a time, and some of those only lasted a couple of months though.

I remember at some point I had to drop some stuff because I was a teenager with stress symptoms.

But anyways, don't regret. I abandoned piano for guitar, then I abandoned guitar.

And now I'm thinking of going back to piano... maybe I'll post some piano videos on my blog soon.

Now I'm only left with swimming classes.. really love it. All the rest is past, though it would be nice to go back to Kung-fu classes...

Outside from school, I've taken piano lessons for 3 years, swimming till life guard training, 1 semester of Okinawan Karate, and up to orange belt in Taekwondo. Other than that I've self taught myself guitar, drums, bass, keyboards, and piano and now I teach all those instruments to youngsters on the side for some extra moneyz. Recently college and anime take up all of my time lolz.

Karate for 6 years and running, Piano for 5 years, Violin for 4 years... However these were all in secondary school. I just went home and lazed around when I was in Primary

The lessons i learned did not require any after school or activity clubs. I learned my graffiti & art on my own. I've been drawing since i was a little kid, and i picked up the art of graffiti on a regular daily basis. Besides, it makes me a few bucks here and there.

So no i never really took any lessons in my life before.

Somehow I got suckered into piano lessons when I was a kid, but I never really liked the piano. However I did end up playing the saxophone and love it. I did take some lessons for sax outside of school, but that didn't last very long. I guess for me I either learn it in school or teach myself.

Danny your english, it's called football man :P

im taking japanese lessons in the local university.

Currently teaching myself guitar. I quit my classes after realizing the teacher wasn't so great, but at least i know the basics now.

After becoming accustomed to playing the acoustic guitar for so long, i found it was much better to play electric and, in time, hopefully, i will get to the level where i can shred. Will be fun. ^^

In addition to music I am also learning Japanese and want to get good enough to take and pass JLPT.

Yea, I took piano for a several years. Hated it with a passion near the end.
Grinding through the curriculum became too much of a chore. Just quit one day.
I made it pretty far too. Another year more of study and I could have been teaching others how to play the piano.

But now Ive slowly taken it up again. Play it for relaxation and just to pass time. Part of me now wishes that I kept playing all those years ago. Ahhh regrets-gotta love em.

I also had the opportunity to take chinese lessons the weekends too. It was more for reading and writing as I already knew how to communicate verbally.
Went through it all, but I didn't retain very much :P
Wished I learned enough so I could read some newspapers/magazines.
Sigh...regrets regrets.
Never too late though I guess...

I quit piano a few weeks ago after taking lessons for about 5 or 6 years. My wrists started to hurt sometimes from all my typing, piano-playing, and healthcare (not at the same time). I'll probably still play on my own though.

The only lesson I took was swimming.

At first I learned how to play the trumpet, but quited because of my growing interest in table tennis, tennis and badminton.

Hmm... When I was really small, i took up swimming, but then the deeper water scared me off. ^^;

That was followed by violin, which i started since i was 8 and only finally stopped now due to declining interest.

Then my CCA (Co-Curricular Activity) was Band, meaning i had to play the Saxophone for 4 years. But i don't now.

Yes currently self-learning japanese. Just hope that doesn't wane any day like the other stuff i did in the past. :x

i used to play basketball outside school (well in the begining i had to learn how to play it) it was really fun & right now i'm currently learning to play the guitar, i used to play the piano when i was a kid but then i just stopped practicing & forgot how to play it hehe

I took a lot of lessons outside of school. mostly during the summer. Swimming, martial arts, advanced math and science lessons, dancing, piano and etc. Only the piano was the one that I really kinda regretted because I didn't finish the lessons. Now I don't know how to play the darn thing.

Lessons like these are quite normal actually because most parents here wants their children to have other talents or skills developed especially during the summer time when there are no classes so that their minds won't be idle and not go to waste. :D

Didn't have money to take any lessons, But now that I am working I can, even though some will think it is too late to take any lessons, I still do it, just to make up for lost time in my childhood :)

I went to music school and music school only, so I'm not sure if that counts... I was homeschooled for my standard education, and music school was kind of like my regular school.

Now that I teach music theory and piano lessons, I can tell that my happiest and most successful students are those whose parents monitor their work, and the grown-ups who often regret being lazy, as kids, when it came to music...

I've taken a piano lesson for a while when I was eleven years old but that didn't last long as I have to move away to Australia. But when I was fourteen I started to self taught guitar. Been playing guitar ever since but sometime I wish I had taken guitar lesson, learning it the right way instead of plowing it through without any guidance. My other source to learn guitar is through instructional videos.

Mom forced me to take classical piano for 14 years under the Suzuki Method. Got to go to Japan because of it (and went home with gundam loot) so I guess it wasn't a total waste. Though now I absolutely hate the instrument.

Learned the violin for a while whilst I was young, but since I lacked any reasonable ability I gave up and spent time the time drawing instead. And guess what, I've come a fair way since then. Teaching yourself isn't a bad thing at all :)

Meh, i do a plethora of things. Web Design, Animation, Metal Sculpture, Multi-Media Production...but those were all jobs more/less. I got paid to learn these skills and keep doing them. ^3^

i never toook after school lessons and taught my self electric keyboard and how to draw after 3 or more years im still pretty much rubbish at it. i wish i took piano and art lessons :(

i think most children in singapore have extra lessons, on both acedemic and physical. during my time it wasn't so bad but kids nowadays have their weekends packed with tuitions , swimming music lesson etc

Hahh.... I remember taking piano and drawing lessons. @_@
I play the guitar/bass/piano/drums, but not very good at guitar.

I remember hating my drawing lessons with a passion though. XD

I find it a little crazy how moms make their kids keep these super busy schedules: 5:30 English, run to piano class at 7:00, then after that cram school for high school entrance exams that won't take place for another 7 years, etc etc etc...

I did ballet and piano when I was a kid, but only one at a time, and only on Saturdays. I self-taught myself how to play the guitar when I was in high school, too. I can't do anything really well, though.

didn't know you had spare parts under the belt...
Anyway, Fender Strat owner here o

I mostly took flute lessons starting in the fourth grade, and stuck with it through high school. I also took American Sign Language at the community college to fulfill the foreign language requirements; I didn't particularly want to take Spanish or French, which is all my high school offered.

Speaking of my flute, I should dig it out. Found a whole bunch of fan-transcribed anime sheet music I want to play.

Childhood was inactive, and I really didn't do much. Until now, it's been boring. Besides art club in middle school, lessons weren't really there or rather my laziness for actually trying to looking for them was. Thought it would take up too much money and stuff. But now after having so much free time and reading all these comments, I feel like doing some ECC. Gotta do some at least before my high school years are up and having only college and work to look forward to. I guess this is my motivation right here ^^

One of my guitars looks amazingly like yours :D

thats really cool

i take japanese out of school to learn it, because they dont offer it here. :/

Ive done all sorts of sports, soccer, golf, swimming, skiing and I still play the piano and Cello.
I guess at our school, most people end up doing sports outside of school (eventhough most of them also play on the school teams) but other than that, i dont think they do much else...