My Journey to the Land of the Rising Sun.
My Journey To The Land Of The Rising Sun
“Konnichiwa (hello),”
“Ko-ni-chi-wa,”… I awkwardly repeated this Japanese word that I knew. Actually, at that time, was 21 and just finished college and obtained my associates in medical and surgical technology. This was a major turn of events in my life all by just saying the word “sure” in a conversation to my childhood friend, Daichi Armand, to go on a trip that changed my life forever. I even asked him, “Japan can’t be that different from America other than the language?”
He replied, “You will see.” with a mischievous smirk on his face. I went the rest of the weeks before departure as nervous as can be thinking on the decision I had made. On August 25, 2010, I was going to be put to the test mentally and really see what I was made of when it came to cultural shock. On the day we were going to leave, I looked around in the American airport one last time and said to myself, “Well this is it.” And didn’t look back and got on the plane.
With all of the stops and layovers, I had arrived in Japan from America 15 hours past time. (It was only supposed to be two hours past schedule.)
When I got off of the plane, I looked around and it was like stepping into a new world. I didn’t speak any Japanese at all, and all of the Kanji & Kana (Japanese writing system) looked like portraits of kindergarten drawings to me. As I made my way down to the luggage area, I was greeted by Daichi’s mother, Kaede Takeuchi and she said the one word I knew in Japanese, “Konnichiwa.”
After the greeting, there was a sudden pause and awkward silence. She looked at me for awhile, and she said slowly “Oo-bento-mochimasuka?” Mrs. Takeuchi said. I attempted to repeat it, but she looked at me just as confused as I was at her. Daichi was getting a pretty good laugh out of this from both parties as he knew both languages and he said to me, “She is asking do you want lunch?” (Oo-bento-mochisuka is have you had lunch.”)[ 大弁と持ちますか. ]
I quickly responded “Yes ma’am.” and Daichi played as the translator. She looked at me and smiled and continued rambling Japanese and I was clueless to the entire entire thing. I then told Daichi, “Well you’re going to have to teach me something. I can’t stay somewhere two months and not have any communication at all.”
Well, he recommended that we go ahead and leave the airport and head home for a quick lesson in language and culture. The first lesson was all about the writing systems and how to carry yourself in Japan. At the second lesson, both of us had an electronic dictionaries in hand. When either of us were confused, the other definitely looked it up in the dictionary. However, we preferred using body language to show the meaning because it was a direct and easy way. When I communicated with her, I totally forgot the shyness and embarrassment that I had before and was able to communicate with confidence. How to make each other be understood is the most important objective now. Most of time I guessed as best as I could. If it was right, I would see her big smile; if it was not, we would laugh at the ridiculous guess. Everything looked very fine, and I was able to speak some Japanese in one month time. This trip was a very valuable lesson to me that culture is different everywhere. Dont ever think that everyone everywhere is the same based on where you are from. The "CULTURE SHOCK" just may surprise you!
“Konnichiwa (hello),”
“Ko-ni-chi-wa,”… I awkwardly repeated this Japanese word that I knew. Actually, at that time, was 21 and just finished college and obtained my associates in medical and surgical technology. This was a major turn of events in my life all by just saying the word “sure” in a conversation to my childhood friend, Daichi Armand, to go on a trip that changed my life forever. I even asked him, “Japan can’t be that different from America other than the language?”
He replied, “You will see.” with a mischievous smirk on his face. I went the rest of the weeks before departure as nervous as can be thinking on the decision I had made. On August 25, 2010, I was going to be put to the test mentally and really see what I was made of when it came to cultural shock. On the day we were going to leave, I looked around in the American airport one last time and said to myself, “Well this is it.” And didn’t look back and got on the plane.
With all of the stops and layovers, I had arrived in Japan from America 15 hours past time. (It was only supposed to be two hours past schedule.)
When I got off of the plane, I looked around and it was like stepping into a new world. I didn’t speak any Japanese at all, and all of the Kanji & Kana (Japanese writing system) looked like portraits of kindergarten drawings to me. As I made my way down to the luggage area, I was greeted by Daichi’s mother, Kaede Takeuchi and she said the one word I knew in Japanese, “Konnichiwa.”
After the greeting, there was a sudden pause and awkward silence. She looked at me for awhile, and she said slowly “Oo-bento-mochimasuka?” Mrs. Takeuchi said. I attempted to repeat it, but she looked at me just as confused as I was at her. Daichi was getting a pretty good laugh out of this from both parties as he knew both languages and he said to me, “She is asking do you want lunch?” (Oo-bento-mochisuka is have you had lunch.”)[ 大弁と持ちますか. ]
I quickly responded “Yes ma’am.” and Daichi played as the translator. She looked at me and smiled and continued rambling Japanese and I was clueless to the entire entire thing. I then told Daichi, “Well you’re going to have to teach me something. I can’t stay somewhere two months and not have any communication at all.”
Well, he recommended that we go ahead and leave the airport and head home for a quick lesson in language and culture. The first lesson was all about the writing systems and how to carry yourself in Japan. At the second lesson, both of us had an electronic dictionaries in hand. When either of us were confused, the other definitely looked it up in the dictionary. However, we preferred using body language to show the meaning because it was a direct and easy way. When I communicated with her, I totally forgot the shyness and embarrassment that I had before and was able to communicate with confidence. How to make each other be understood is the most important objective now. Most of time I guessed as best as I could. If it was right, I would see her big smile; if it was not, we would laugh at the ridiculous guess. Everything looked very fine, and I was able to speak some Japanese in one month time. This trip was a very valuable lesson to me that culture is different everywhere. Dont ever think that everyone everywhere is the same based on where you are from. The "CULTURE SHOCK" just may surprise you!