月曜日, 3月 07, 2005
Learning Japanese...Turning Japanese
I am never really a fan of Japanese anime nor Japanese fashion nor Japanese food. But I have to confess that I'm probably the most die-hard Japanese drama fan. My motivation started with the desire to really improve my Japanese skills. I really wanted to sound natural and I know that by watching these drama, I'd pick up appropriate expressions, the right words to use given a situation. But over time, I started to get fixated with Japanese drama, especially love series. Of course, in my veins run a fully hopeless romantic blood! But also through these, I somehow learn how to deal with Japanese emotions. Yes, I wanted to study and learn their emotions, the way they think, their morals, their values and the things that really matter to them because I have realized that in order to really learn their language, I needed to understand them first and then the rest would be easy.
You may say I'm turning Japanese in many ways ~ in the way I dress up, my diet (I can now eat raw tuna and raw salmon, can you believe it?! i'm recently crazy over miso shiro! a traditional japanese soup), I have fave TV shows like the Robot Challenge, I get excited over football games and I don't usually find myself humming songs while walking in public.
These changes are obviously brought about by the change of my environment. Of course I'd be really influenced by what I see, what I hear, who I'm with, and everything else that surrounds me. My Japanese has tremendously picked up its level. Some people say I almost sound like native already (but of course I think they're just exaggerating). My hair color would probably turn lighter and lighter too, or I may start dressing multiple-layers of tees, but I may never learn to get to work straight out of bed, I may never be the same as those Japanese girls, whether traditional or the liberated ones, I may never really learn to perfect my Japanese, at least not to the level of my English but I would surely grow as a person. My deepest values are those of what the Philippines has molded in me, my color would always be the typical Malayan brown. But being here away from my homeland and living amidst a different race is teaching me how to treasure my national heritage at the same time opening my eyes to the wonders and goodness of other people. I am proud to be Filipino, but I admit to be turning Japanese. My genes is a combination of Spanish, Chinese and Filipino blood perfectly and uniquely combined to make up who I am and who I will always be ~ a human being, a person whose eyes want to see the world, whose mind wishes to learn the ways of the world, whose heart wants to love and discover the goodness of the world and whose soul seeks the graces to understand and be understood. The world would have to wait but I won't keep Japan waiting....
# posted by Unknown : 9:45 午後
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