By: Owen Fugit

Editorial Editor

Aiming high on the court and diving deep into language, Los Gatos High School junior Fineas Langan is fascinated by almost everything; from linguistics to badminton, cooking, and piano, Langan is a true Renaissance man. 

This year, Langan is taking four AP classes:  AP Calculus BC, AP United States History, AP Music Theory, and AP Physics. Some of his other courses include Japanese Three Honors and English 11. Additionally, Langan plays Badminton for LGHS and is an officer of three clubs, one of which, the Linguistics Club, has members who come to share their love for the art of linguistics. Langan said, “It’s the study of languages … how we speak.” He added, “I kind of fell down the rabbit hole maybe six months or probably over a year ago. It’s kind of just been a slow boil. And at a certain point, I just started ranting about all these facts and connections.” One thing led to another, and this year, after some encouragement from friends, Langan put together the Linguistics club. Langan also plays on the LGHS Badminton team, cooks, and plays piano in his free time. He enjoys learning new things and developing new interests, a trait displayed by his sudden love for linguistics. 

With so many high-level AP classes, Langan finds the time to enjoy them all, saying “a lot of my favorite classes are the harder ones in some cases.” With a particular emphasis on Japanese Three Honors as one of his all-time favorites. Langan has taken Japanese throughout his high school career and plans on continuing his Japanese education well into the future. This year, Langan is the treasurer of the LGHS branch of the Japanese National Honors Society (JNHS), which he described as “a larger organization…It’s more nationally recognized than a bunch of other clubs, because it’s a much larger thing. And I guess the main point of it is to spread Japanese culture and language.” Additionally, Langan is an officer in the J-Pop club, a local, student-run club where students “talk and share music together,” with “karaoke occasionally.” The impact of Japanese on Langan is significant, even opening up new horizons for where he wants to apply to college. This summer, Langan is “doing a Japanese tour thing that the school is holding, and that’s to Tokyo to one of our sister schools there…like a homestay program.” Langan looks forward to his senior year as well because of the opportunity to take an AP Japanese course and push his knowledge further. 

In every aspect of his life, Langan finds details to examine, passions to cultivate, and new interests outright. Whether it’s the study of language or simply karaoke with friends in the J-Pop club, Langan does it all, putting him squarely on the path to success in college and beyond.