Fluency-
Looking back on what I wrote almost 2 years ago in regards to language fluency, I can objectively conclude that although my attitude towards language learning was in the right place, my idea of fluency was fundamentally mistaken. With having significantly improved my Japanese since I began my study abroad, and continuing to do so even after having returned to the United States, I have come to understand through personal experience that the concept of fluency as a comprehensive whole is and always will be an illusion. In more specific terms, even in one's own native language one cannot talk on a fluent level in all discourses: science, law, philosophy, and other esoteric disciplines couched in technical terms are areas that take time and discipline EVEN for native speakers to master. Knowing this is not an excuse to feel discouraged; rather, it sheds some much needed light on how one should actually going about learning to communicate in a new discourse. Passive to Active- I can say without a doubt that I have made a major step forward in becoming a very active player in my own long term educational and life goals. There's a famous quote from a late Japanese author by the name of Shuuji Terayama that can be translated as "ditch the books and hit the streets". Although study and disciplined learning through books and such has its place, I found that I have improved and retained the most when it comes to functioning in certain discourses by sticking to an 80% experience/20% study routine. This of course isn't simply limited to acquiring language; this idea can arguably be applied to a number of disciplines that require a combination of retained information and practical application. Keeping Complacency at Bay- My thoughts towards this idea of keeping complacency, in other words keeping self satisfaction at bay are still in many regards the same as how it was nearly two years prior. If I was forced to say, however, I think one thing that has changed in regards to my feelings towards this idea is the framing of it. Keeping complacency at bay is not what is important here, it is enjoying actively seeking the novelty that makes like interesting for its own sake. In other words, there is no feeling of resistance on my part, but rather a voluntary, genuine feeling of curiosity. I think in my case at least this re-framing of my perspective in regards to this idea has made all the difference in my attitude towards actively seeking new information.
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While I lived in Okayama Japan, I worked at a hostel & bar located in Kurashiki City's Bikan Historical Quarters. Featured in this photo are many of the employees that I worked along side with at this establishment, all of whom I share many fond memories with.
One very interesting thing to note about this particular photo is that there is a method as to how every one is positioned in this photo. Positioned to the far right closest to the camera is the head honcho (Japanese pun intended) of the business, notably referred to as Shachou (社長). Of course this positioning is done completely with the attention of displaying his status in the company.Similarly, many of those positioned closer to the camera behind Shachou also hold high managerial positions and the like. Three of the men featured in the photo, those positioned farthest to the back and on the far left were the chefs of our restaurant. I think how they are positioned in the photo suits the idea of the chef being the one to work behind the scenes. You will also find me positioned in the far back middle, a place that I myself wasn't expecting to stand in on account that I was only a part-time worker. This is a photo shot of one of the homes that was affected by the flooding that occurred in Okayama and Hiroshima prefectures this last year. Knowing that I had the spare time as a student, I took it upon myself to go out and volunteer in whatever way I could when possible. The outside of the building as well as the entire structure of the house looks still very much intact; however due to the muddy water having completely flooded the first floor of the home, all the floorboards needed to be taken out, and on top of that nearly all of the sliding doors and furniture were completely ruined. There were only a limited amount of things that those of us not exactly trained for emergency disaster situations could do, but as I wrote earlier, I went about doing whatever I could. As a member of a larger community, one should help their neighbors in their time of need.
For those that know me very well, they know I am not the kind of person to belief in things such as fate. I would typically be the one to dismiss things that others consider fate simply as a coincidence. Every once in a while though I find myself questioning this thinking of mind, and this photo indicates one of those times. My first encounter with the Japanese language was when I was 12 years old. I was given a book at that time that covered the history of the Japanese whaling industry fairly in depth, and on the first page of that book was a diagram of the anatomy of a whale. Each body part was designated in Chinese Characters. There was something special about the language that I felt at that time which later supplied me with the interest to learn more. Fast forwarding to a little less than a year prior to now, my last night in my host town, I saw this poster while out drinking with a close friend of mine. It features a number of different whale species, and is drawn in the same style as the diagram I remember from the book that I received so many years prior. As I mentioned previously, I am not the kind of person to believe in things such as fate, but needless to say I found this coincidence a little hard to swallow. The above pictures are magazine panels from an article intended to teach Japanese children about a looming societal crisis that they will be having to face termed the 少子高齢化 (shoushikoureika). Reading it Chinese character by character, one can interpret it to mean “a change in which there’s few children but many elderly”. In other words, it refers to the Japan’s current predicament in which fewer and fewer children are being born, while simultaneously the elderly are living longer. Aside from these magazine panels, there was of course actual columns of text so this article did not read just like a comic book. As far as using this as study material for understanding both the Japanese language and one aspect of Japanese society, I found that this was quite informative. Of course, once reaching a certain level in Japanese it would be necessary to read scholarly articles and well researched books on the subject to get a much more in depth examination of this societal problem.
The bento box is perhaps one of the more recognizable products of Japanese culture for those who have a keen interesting in Japanese food culture. Essentially a boxed lunch of sorts, they can be found at all convenience stores in Japan; however, the ones photographed above are seasonally exclusive ones that are constructed to evoke the image and atmosphere of spring. For someone like me coming from an a coastal Californian environment in which most foods I eat on a daily basis can be obtained throughout the year, I hear that those born and raised in a Japan have a higher sensitivity to seasonal change due to cultural and environmental reasons, one of those being food culture. For example, one things we can identify spring with is the orange slice placed in the bottom bento box. Of course, that’s not to say that there aren’t seasonally exclusive foods here in America as well; however, fruits and vegetables of all kinds are easy to come by from my experience.
This is a picture of my typical study environment. Often times during the evening after having finished all my classes for the day I would return to my dormitory to study Japanese. I own a number of different Japanese grammar encyclopedias, frequency dictionaries, and other study materials so it was easy for me to study in my dormitory in the evenings. I would often do this before heading out to pick up food for the evening, and sometimes continue to study even after having ate dinner. This habit did begin to change as my stay in Japan came closer to the end, in which I was prioritizing events to make use of everything that I had been learning. As I stated previously, however, evenings were primarily study time if I didn’t have other plans made prior.
This is just a snapshot of one of the many pages of Japanese notes that I took down/was given while studying the Japanese language and culture in Okayama, Japan. If you make the opportunities for yourself to be surrounded by the language of your host community, there will obviously be more information that you can take in all at once and readily remember. That is precisely why it is important to take notes so that one can refer back to the valuable information later incase you can’t recall it off the top of one’s head. Also, I find myself taking many notes by phone as well but I found that taking notes on paper was more conducive to remember the information in long run, which studies concerning memory and recalling information have been found to support. Have fun with your language studies!
I am staring at a posting in my classroom of three adults dressed in casual travel attire, carrying luggage, and proceeding from the airport with excited looks on their faces. The caption reads "Language is adventure". This is true in my case: the thing that excites me the most is learning new languages, about new languages, and language in general. I am not multi-lingual yet, but I have made a conscious effort and some of these strategies have helped me improve in my retention and immediate use of the language I have learned. Here are some things I do which I would suggest for others.
1. You can't respond if you can't understand - This is a very simple concept, but it is very important to consider: if you are unable to understand what one is saying to you, or if you are unable to understand a text, a song's lyrics, then you will not be able to respond with any sort of meaningful response. The ability to listen and understand comes first and foremost. This is evidenced by the fact that all babies begin learning their mother tongue(s) before their born by listening to the language spoken by their mother. In this same sense, I feel that its best to prepare before living in a foreign country by digesting any kind of media that one can get one's hands on. 2. Meta Linguistic Phrases - This kind of strategy is context dependent and is quite limited in its application, but for someone who plans to be a student in a foreign country, I will be living within an environment I can use meta-linguistic phrases to effectively speed up my language acquisition and comprehension. For example, if you do not understand what a word means, you can ask for someone to explain that word using words. This kind of construction in Japanese is found in the grammatical structure 「何々」というのは? If one is asking about a specific word, this is how it would be used 「飲み物」というのはなんですか。ーーー「飲み物というのは飲める何かの事です。」This strategy will be useful in learning how to ask language specific questions without reverting back to one's native language. This strategy may also be helpful considering that one will not always have the opportunity to fall back on one's native language given the situation. 3. Make use of Every Opportunity to Speak -In my case, my ability to speak effectively on the fly is probably the worst of my four language areas when it comes to Japanese (reading, listening, writing, speaking). I do feel that I have gradually gained the confidence to at least be open about my Japanese studies, but I have certainly not reached the point of speaking freely without any apprehension. This is natural, however, and will disappear with my progression in my studies as long as I take every opportunity available to me to make use of what I have learned. Speak, speak, speak, speak. That's all that needs to be said. And if you make a mistake, speak again until you clear up any misunderstandings. Seeing as how I will be living in a foreign country for 1 year, I am sure that I will be having to reorient my way of thinking quite a bit. If I am unable to do so, it seems fair to assume that I will have a very difficult time adjusting to a new way of life (that might sound a bit melodramatic, but stay with me). For now, there is only so much I can so that I will swim rather than sink when thrown in the Japan’s cultural water’s so to speak. I feel after discussions had in class, these may be appropriate strategies to keep in mind during my adjustment period.
--- Empty Mindedness As children, we were constantly absorbing information about our native culture(s)’ customs, and learning about social norms and taboos through hearsay, personal observations, and by breaking these norms. As an adult, we may be hypersensitive to these customs because of our experience, but when being thrown into the thick of a culturally different setting, we may become like children again, having a lack of cultural know-how. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing however; we have been culturally conditioned at least once before, so being experienced in that regard, I feel that as adults we can speed up the process of cultural learning through conscious observation, and almost by approaching this with an empty mind. I use empty mind in a way that is like the term open mind, but with an emphasis on its neutral nuance. I find that the term open mind has a positive nuance that denotes cultural acceptance. This is nice, but my purpose here is not to hold another culture in awe, but to learn and internalize it in a way that I will come to understand it more naturally, like a child does when orienting to their native culture. How will this be accomplished? There is a myriad of ways one can accomplish this.
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May 2019
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