I studied computer science and Japanese at university. Computer science because I wanted a profession where I didn’t have to speak much. Japanese because I really enjoyed Japanese classes. Even though I was terrible at speaking, I was good at grammar. In first year Japanese, everyday we had a really short dialogue that we had to say out loud with a partner, and everyday I stuttered through it. When I was a third year student, my first year Japanese teacher told me that she never thought that I was going to continue on. Fast forward 25 years, my wife is Japanese, and we speak Japanese everyday. I lived and worked in Japan for many years. If I can do it, you can, too. And as an added incentive, I would say that I now barely stutter at all compared to when I was a young student. I just took French classes a few years back and was raising my hand to ask questions constantly, something that I would have never dreamed of doing when I was younger. There is hope!