Zhichao Diao
Interviewee: Shuhei (Japan)
Place: Lawrence lounge
10/30/2009
Me: Hi Shuhei. I’m really glad that you’d be here for this interview for my eng 191 class. I’d rather be appreciated.
Shuhei: no problem.
Me: how long have you been here?
Shuhei: Here? U.S? Like two and half months. I’m an exchange student, so I just arrived at Minneapolis on Aug 14th.
Me: you speak English pretty well, you know, no offense, some Japanese people speak English with strong accent. Kind of a hard time to understand what they mean, you speak English pretty well, how long have you been studied this?
Shuhei: You mean English? Hum ….I don’t know……I started to learn English since in Junior high school, it’s like 7th grade in U.S, so when I was like 13 or 14.
Me: Did you go to college in Japan?
Shuhei: yes, I entered university in my hometown Fukuoka, I just attended for 2 years, and then I came here for exchange. And I’ll stay for one year and then go back Japan.
Me: How is the college life in Japan? Is it same as in America?
Shuhei: I don’t know, it’s kind of the same. But here, you know, if you want to change your major, you can do it. But in Japan, we decided our major before came into college and can’t change it.
Me: Like choose the major after college entrance test but before college starts?
Shuhei: yes.
Me: How long have you been studied? How is your study life before college?
Shuhei: Like high school?
Me: Yes, like from elementary to high school, how long does it take?
Shuhei: we spend 6 years in elementary, 3 in junior high and 3 in high school. So it 12 years totally
Me: Is it good? I mean is it interesting, or teachers put lot of pressure on students?
Shuhei: It depends on teachers. Some teachers are really good, and give students well instructed lectures, and some are horrible.
Me: What’s your major?
Shuhei: In japan?
Me: yes.
Shuhei: hum…….english.
Me: English teaching, or trying to be a translator?
Shuhei: We go through lot of thing in English, like movies and reading, kind of like ESL thing. Speaking ,reading and writing. Not just English, but things related to English.
Me: about Japanese culture, what’s the first thing comes into your mind when you think about your culture?
Shuhei: it’s kind of hard (to come up with one), you know. I was born and raised in Japan for 20 years, and didn’t even think about what Japanese culture is because that’s where I live. And then I came here, people ask me like: you must know a lot about Japanese cars, and I didn’t know what I’m supposed to say…….hum….Japanese culture …May be Japanese food, cuisine, fish, and lot of rice. And modern Japanese culture, is like………do you know “otaku” ? it’s not a big word in Japan.
Me: Otaku? Oh, ok, it’s like a group in Japan, always stay at home, watch mangas and don’t talk a lot with others. they don’t fit into the community and don’t communicate with others very often, right?
Shuhei: yes
Me: Americans think it’s really cool, how you Japanese people think of this group?
Shuhei: we think they are kind of strange, lock themselves in basement and watch lot of animations. They are usually not outgoing.
Me: So they don’t really fit in the community and some of them might have psychological problems?
Shuhei: That also depends….i don’t know. That’s one kind of modern Japanese culture, just a group of people, not all Japanese .
Me: and about the manga, were you surprised when you first came to the U.S, and everyone seems to love to read manga? Japanese manga is pretty popular around the world, not only in Asia, and that’s a window that people from the world learn about Japanese culture. How would think of that?
Shuhei: hum…..when you meet someone from a different country, you need a common topic to talk about. Manga is really a good way, because through manga, we can learn a lot of things. For example, friendship in Japanese culture………like in manga
Me: ok…what about families in japan, what’s the role of family in Japanese culture?
Shuhei: family?
Me: how you were raised when you were a kid?
Shuhei: In my case, my parents are both teacher. When I was a kid, my parents told me to be responsible.
Me: Do you think your parents put too much pressure on you?
Shuhei: well, some parents have pressure on their kids….
Me: because they have high expectation on kid?
Shuhei: yes, and they tell the kids to study harder…
Me: you’ve been in America for 2 months, what do you think is the most obvious difference between Japanese and American life, especially on life style?
Shuhei: the first thing I’ve noticed is the drive direction. We drive on the left side in Japan. And Americans wears shoes all the time, and we take off the shoes inside of houses. And Americans usually hold the door for person behind them when they go through the door. That’s cool and nice. We don’t do that in our lives. it’s not like we are not kind or nice, but that’s just not the way we show out kindness.
Me: Something about the economics………you know after WWII, Japan was in a serious situation. But it developed rapidly in just a few decades and that’s the period your parents lived. You probably learned history of this period, what do you think is the most important factor that let Japan change so much and so fast?
Shuhei: Hum……hard working. I’ve heard that Japanese people are creative, but they are very good at imitating. So like, American created car in the first place, and then Japanese can make the best car of the world accurately. That one way we develop our economy.
Me: do you think that’s also something you are proud about your culture?
Shuhei: yes,
Me: do you also have something else that find different ?
Shuhei: well, sometimes, you know even lot Japanese live here, but they don’t speak up a lot, they don’t show their talent actively. Some of them do so because they are shy, but some people just don’t show it actively even they have the ideas because nobody asks them.
Me: Americans want everyone else to hear their voice and they speak up all the time. But Japanese people are not?
Shuhei: right. Because my culture, like sometimes Americans cut off your speaking and interrupt to say what they think, we don’t do that.
Me: kind of being aggressive
Shuhei: yes, kind of.
Me: how do you think of Japanese language?
Shuhei: we have 3 different characters in Japanese, one is some of Chinese words, and others are Hiragana and Katakana. When we learn English, we kind of translate English to Katakana, which sounds odd to Americans. For example, English word ”nervous”, we pronounce it as “na – va - s” (va has a strong “b” sound) in Katakana which is much different. It’s not real English after translation. Because of Katakana, Japanese English speakers sound strange to Americans.
Me: but there’s no problem for Japanese to communication with Katakana, even Americans don’t understand it, right?
Shuhei: right. Also , word order is different. For example, subject, verb and object in English, but we say in Japanese as subject, object and verb goes at the end.
Me: if you want have a person to stand for Japanese history, which one would you choose?
Shuhei: well, actually, we learned Japanese history in elementary and junior high, but after get into high school, we could choose which part of history you want to learn. I chose world history, so I don’t remember much of Japanese history. If you want me to choose, then I’ll pick Yukichi Fukuzawa. He created the Japanese education system, and I think that’s the basis of Japanese education. His photography is printed on the Japanese currency.
Me: do you think there’s misunderstanding of your culture, from people in another country.
Shuhei: yes. Do you know JP network, the Japanese culture club on campus? I attended one weekly meeting, and all Americans are talking otaku thing and they think that’s how Japanese like. I mean, that just one part of Japanese, not every Japanese people is like that. And also, when they talk about Japan night’s topic, first thing they come up with is Yakuza, and I was like, oh my god, Yakuza are really bad guys, they are Japanese mafia, how can we talk about that in front of people. And they thought that’s funny, and we all think that inappropriate to let this represent Japanese culture. They are kind of making fun of Japanese culture.
Me: did you try to correct them?
Shuhei: yes. After the meeting, we talked about it and says it’s not funny and inappropriate to present it. Then we chose another topic, like festivals.
Me: is there any festivals going on right now in japan?
Shuhei: well, there are lot of different festivals depend on different regions, we don’t really have a national festival.
Me: so Japanese people wear traditional clothing kimino and play traditional games in these festivals?
Shuhei: yes.
Me: ok, last question, if I go to Japan, where would you suggest to visit? Like landmarks, it could neither natural or cultural.
Shuhei: maybe I’ll suggest Kyoto.
Me: oh, that the capital of Japan hundreds years ago.
Shuhei: yes, that’s a big city and there’s lot of traditional buildings. You can see women wear kimino walking on the street, it’s really traditional.
Me: cool. In lot of countries, young people think traditional clothing is old and ugly, but in japan, you could see both traditional and modern clothing and they are all popular.
Shuhei: yes. That’s a great place to go.
Me: alright, that’s pretty much of it. Thanks very much for you time !
Shuhei: no problem
No comments:
Post a Comment