This Japanese class that I have taken has affected me quite a bit! I have gained many things in taking it and the results are very pleasing! I am glad that I was able to take this class as part of my Capstone Project, as I have always wanted to do so anyway! However, all things must come to an end. Unfortunately this is the end of me taking this class, as the Capstone Project is coming to an end. Thus, I reflect upon what I have done, what I have gained, and what challenges I have faced and perhaps even overcome.
Learning another language always requires critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity. Throughout this class, I have thought critically about the syntax of the kanji. Like English, or any language for that matter, Japanese has its form of grammar. As I have mentioned before in my previous blog posts, the order in which words are placed and their values create meaningful sentences if done correctly. For example, in Japanese, a simple sentence like "Sushi wa umai desu." is composed of a subject and a predicate, "Sushi," being the subject and "wa umai desu," being the predicate. This sentence can be further broken down into "Sushi," being the noun of the sentence, "wa," being the verb of the sentence (in this case it means "to be" or "is"), and "umai," being the adjective (meaning "tasteful") that describes the sushi. This is similar to how English is, having a subject and predicate in a sentence which can be further broken down similarly to what has been said above. Although, Japanese does have its differences from English. For example, Desu is a copula, a word that links a subject to a predicate and is often used as "it is," or "to be," in English. However, as one may notice from the sentence previously stated, desu is stated at the end of a sentence. Also, one may take notice that wa also means "it is." This is one of the many things that make Japanese different from English. To form grammatical sentences, one must think critically. Further more, since the Japanese culture has deep roots in the ideals of respect and honor, one must also think critically about the words one uses so as not to offend anyone. This ultimately leads to the issue of communication. We as humans are social creatures; we communicate everyday, be it in written, verbal, or physical form. Throughout this class I have learned how to communicate through the usage of all forms. I have learned that, in Japanese culture, bowing is a form of respect. This is a physical from of communication, the conveying of respect. Also, I have learned that Japanese also has its own form of honorifics, which is also a form of respect in verbal or written form. For example, one may tease a friend by adding the honorific, "-chan," (meaning cute). Although, this all depends on the person's opinion. They may like it, feeling that it is a complement, and thus the honorific will not be insulting. Also, there are many more honorifics, especially those of rank and business. This is similar to English, as there are also many honorifics. Learning to speak Japanese, however, requires collaboration between teacher and student. The teacher must be willing to teach the student and the student, in return, must be willing to fulfill the teacher's requirements. Learning another language is not so simple and thus I needed my teacher, my mentor in this case, to collaborate with me and teach me how to write kanji and speak Japanese. Although, I did have the fundamentals learned on my own personal free time beforehand. Furthermore, to reduce the difficulty of learning Japanese I needed to collaborate with my classmates. I sometimes assisted them with topics or ideas that they did not understand and, in return, they did the same for me sometimes. Collaboration was also needed to practice our speaking. We created many sentences and, since language is a form of expression, in other words, a form of art, we got creative with our ideas and began using more vocabulary to add some flavor to our sentences.
Thanks to this class, I have gained a wonderful experience by hearing about my classmates' reasons for taking the class as well as their experiences. Their personal stories delighted me. Learning about the Japanese language and culture has enlightened me even more so than I could ever hope to imagine. I have gained relationships from a variety of people doing a variety of things. One may even call this a network or connections to which I can ask for help or help those I have connections with. This will help me socially and personally in the future as I build even more relations. Furthermore, taking this class has helped me communicate even better with my friends from the other side of the world in Japan. For that, I, personally, am extremely grateful to my mentor. I have gained more knowledge on how to speak Japanese more properly as well as increased my vocabulary. To me, this is priceless. As a person, I feel that I have grown in a way that I could have never done without my mentor. I have become more social, more appreciative, and more motivated to communicate with more people in a variety of ways. After all, language is the key to the world.
Although, there were some difficulties along the way. Learning another language is never easy. The language one may be learning may be quite different from the language they already understand. Writing in another language may also be difficult. Furthermore, it is not easy to present or communicate in such a way that one may be out of their comfort zone, in other words, making mistakes is embarrassing and the fear of this embarrassment makes it difficult to learn another language. I, personally faced these challenges. Japanese is quite different from English. Luckily, I understand Cantonese and thus I had a much easier time with Japanese, as Japanese and Chinese are similar and, in fact, Japanese uses Chinese characters. However, my understanding of Cantonese did cause some misunderstandings. For example, in Cantonese, the usage of the term "ma," is quite broad and can mean many things, such as "but" or "mother." In Japanese however, it has a different meaning and is more defined. This caused my confusion. Thankfully, this was clarified by my mentor. Furthermore, although writing in Japanese is similar to writing in Chinese, writing in Japanese was different and I have not written in Chinese for many years. I had a difficult time writing in Japanese, however, all I could do was put in my best effort. This effort paid off as I began to write in Japanese better than I had ever done before. I was afraid of making mistakes and I came to despise making mistakes. However, I tolerate it and learn from them. Taking this class has reinforced this ideal. I now take more risks in the process of my growth as a person, despite my position on making mistakes. Although, it is still embarrassing to make mistakes. All one can do is put at least 100% into everything they do and not be afraid to take risks in order to grow not only mentally, socially, and physically, but as a person in general. This is the growth mindset that I adore. Thanks for following me in my adventure in learning Japanese!