Reflections

Learning Japanese has been a continuing struggle for me. I began my study of the language last August, almost as a complete beginner. My skill was limited to a fragmented knowledge hiragana, the numerals one to ten and several words and phrases I gleaned from watching anime in Japanese. That is to say, I was next to clueless. Since then I’ve made a lot of progress. From the time I arrived in Japan last August and continuing through my studies under Nishida sensei at UC, I’ve been very fortunate to have a lot of support from my teachers and my fellow students. My ability has slowly increased to the point where hiragana and katakana are easily understood and my knowledge of kanji expands every day. My vocabulary and grammar skills have also made a quantum leap since August. And yet, I have so much left to learn. It is frightening sometimes to think that, after nearly 10 months of study, I’m still so far away from fluency – from being able to sit down over coffee and read the newpaper in Japanese. Right now it takes me an hour and a half with my kanji dictionary to read one article. Heck, we don’t even have to be that ambitious; I had to study to go get a haircut!

Someone once told me that, when learning a foreign language, there comes a time when you crest the mountain and are able to pick things up at a much faster pace. I took this to heart and made it my goal to climb the mountain in order to secure my path to fluency. But every time I think I’ve reached top, I come to realize that the summit still lies far above. I’m seriously beginning to doubt that such a point exists. Perhaps in learning Japanese the summit of the mountain is fluency. In the end it is of little consequence – my eyes are still on the summit and my legs are still strong (forgive me for carrying out my metaphor to the bitter end).

But my language studies have done more than simply teach me Japanese, they’ve challenged me to make every day a learning experience and to look more closely at the world around me; to consider more carefully my interactions with others and to open my eyes to another culture that, I have come to realize, I had not truly understood, even on a basic level. In fact, still don’t think I’ve chipped off much of that iceberg! I’ve also made many wonderful new friends in my travels and studies. Before last August I could never have imagined the diverse group of people I’ve been fortunate enough to meet. I become more aware every day that there are kind people to be found all over the world...and at home as well. As other people reach out to me in kindness, I feel that, not only do I want to reciprocate that gesture, I want to do the same thing for new people.

When I say “struggle”, perhaps that creates a negative image in your head; that would be a grave misunderstanding. But learning Japanese has been, and continues to be, a struggle – a struggle against myself, against my own laziness, fear and pride. It has also been an adventure. I look forward to what it will send my way in the future.