"Foreign" Language
One evening, when I was at home with my family watching the news, I watched parts of a report on Japan that featured a question-and-answer session with a person who spoke Japanese. I was instantaneously mesmerized, and as magnificent sounds tumbled out of his lips, I strained to construct the meaning of what he was saying. I instantly realized that the language was a riddle I had to unravel. In the following year, I decided to enroll in Japanese classes. I have developed a deep affection for Japan as a nation and its culture. In fact, acquiring Japanese proficiency has been ingrained in my sense of self, and I now identify with American and Japanese cultures.
Although most of my friends began learning Japanese simply because they were anime or manga fans, I consider the language the greatest magnetic component of the nation's culture. Japanese only has a small number of grammatical exclusions, as opposed to English, which has numerous and is similar to the established system for which Japan is known. Japan has three schemes of writing, hiragana, katakana, and kanji, which comprise many characters to make up for how simple it is to master the conventions. Additionally, a certain stroke sequence for each character needs to be followed, turning writing into both an artistic medium and a means of communicating.
The most remarkable part of Japanese cultural identity, outside the fun of piecing together tonal phrases and scratching out characters no one else can comprehend, is the jarring contrast between the ancient and the modern. A friend's family in Kosai, Japan, took me in for five weeks during my summer vacation last year. Adolescents in Japan wear summer kimonos and use cell phones considerably more advanced than those used in the United States when out and about during festivals. Clubs like tea ceremonies, flower arrangements, and marksmanship are offered after school, but the nation is also known for being technologically advanced. The juxtaposition of modern skyscrapers and ancient Buddhist temples was striking in Tokyo. What amazes and fascinates me about this nation is its ability to value its past while looking forward to the future.
Although being born and raised in a metropolitan area of the United States meant that Japanese was never a part of my identity, I can confidently say that it is an essential component of my identity as a young adult. It seems like the more I educate myself regarding the surrounding cultural identity, the more I educate myself about who I am. Although it is arguable whether a person from the West can ever feel as though they "belong" in Japan, I am certain that I would never feel as though I belonged anywhere if I did not pursue my passion of becoming fluent in the language and gaining as much information as I can regarding the Land of the Rising Sun, Japan.