Why Swan learns this?

In about 2 months, I will embark on a trip to Japan and train Naginata with my college team under all the best Japan senseis. Jā, it really is in my best interest and survival to learn a little Japanese. Also, I have been missing out on all the Naginata inside jokes in Japanese, which makes me understandably super sad.

So far I have really been enjoying learning and especially writing Japanese. Hopefully, I can manage to understand normal-speed spoken Japanese in time to save myself from doom (embarrassment).