Yup. I got interested in Japan after reading Shogun as a kid.
When I was in college, I finally had the chance to study it well and they had a great program. What I learned there taught me how to learn in general, which I then used to learn Computer Science, which opened up a bunch more for me.
Perhaps: having tacitly written a 'compiler' for a natural language, he had aquired a subconscious appreciation for a field for which the artificial language compiler is in part the foundation. :-P
When I was in college, I finally had the chance to study it well and they had a great program. What I learned there taught me how to learn in general, which I then used to learn Computer Science, which opened up a bunch more for me.