The First Misunderstanding

When choosing countries back in January, I went largely on instinct, and partially on what little I knew of the countries, but one thing I didn’t take into consideration was language. This may sound silly, because after all, language is a significant challenge you will face in a foreign country, but I honestly thought language would not be an issue. Perhaps my ignorance was a good thing after all. In this way, my decision wasn’t influenced by fear of something too difficult for me to overcome. It wasn’t until after I found out that I was going to Japan that it hit me, “hey…..they speak Japanese“. So here I am: after four year of Spanish, four years of grueling verb tenses and conjugations, just when I’m finally beginning to feel like I’m really going somewhere with Spanish, I’m dropping it all to learn as much Japanese as I can in a matter of months. Needless to say, my Japanese isn’t exactly where I want it to be, considering that I leave in less than two months. But as soon as I received my host information packet in the mail, I ran to the computer to send an e-mail to the Fujii’s (my first host family). Even though the Fujii’s speak English, I wanted to show them that learning Japanese is important to me, so using what Japanese I know, along with my handy-dandy English to Japanese dictionary, I carefully composed what I thought was a marvelous display of my language skills. I will post a copy of my e-mail:

Konnichiwa Fujii Sans! Watashi wa Margaret Haney desu. Juu roku desu. Amerika, Oregon, Salem kara kimashita. Nihongo ga benkyoo chuu desu. Ongaku, dokusho, shashin, supootsu, kaimonu, ryokoo, gitaa, to trompeto ga suki. Nihon no bunka kyoomi ga arimas. Kendoo, juudoo, no taiko kyoomi ga arimas. Watashi wa ugokashimas desu! Doomo arigatou gozaimas goshujin no tame ni!

Sayoonara,
Margaret Haney

Now, to the untrained foreign eye, it probably looks like a load of rubbish, but if you happen to be fluent in Japanese, you’re probably having a grand old time laughing your head off. It makes sense for the first few sentences with only a few minor errors. I’m Margaret Haney, I’m sixteen, I like……, I’m interested in….., I’m learning Japanese, ect.

But then things go wrong. Utterly and terribly and awfully wrong. Apparently, I then proceeded to say “I am work like machine! Thank you very much for my husband!”

Blasted dictionary. Don’t even ask how.

Thank goodness I had Bron, (an exchange student in Japan from Australia), to check my message over e-mail. Unfortunately, my ridiculous e-mail had already been sent. I have been wondering why I have received no reply. Yep. I think I know now. They must think I’m a raving lunatic.

This morning I sent another e-mail, in English this time, apologizing for my mistakes and explaining what I meant to say.

You know, I’m beginning to realize that I will experience a whole lot of awkward, embarrassing misunderstandings during my exchange.

I might as well laugh about it, because, you’ve got to admit, it is pretty funny.

The Exchange Student

I don’t remember a specific, climatic moment when I leaped up, pointed my finger toward the sky and shouted, “I want to be an exchange student!”. In fact, I don’t distinctly remember deciding this at all, it just sort of…happened. Throughout my life, I always had a sense of adventure, a pull to the unknown. I’m not sure where it comes from, but I think every small child has it innately. For some reason, we tend to lose this as we grow older. We become accustomed and content with the safety and comfort of every day life. Fortunately, I never lost this. And ever since last October, a great adventure is becoming less of a day-dream, and more of a reality.

I never planned on going to Japan either. To make a long story short, I went into the first orientation wanting to go to Italy and came out wanting to go to Japan. How did this happen? Quickly. Like I said, I never imagined myself going to Japan, but when I visited the Japan table during the country fair, I just sort of knew, this is it. I know this will sound like an order of stupid with extra corn and cheese and a side of ridiculous (I’m still in pizza mode from work), but after visiting the Japan table and learning more about it, I just felt very excited and full of wonder and far away and peaceful and purely happy. People often ask me, “why did you choose Japan?”. Well, firstly, I didn’t technically choose Japan, I only suggested it initially. Then I was torn between Thailand and Japan. Extremely and excruciatingly torn. As I explained my confusion, one country officer remarked, “I’m sure you’ll make the right choice”, which is ironic because the choice I made when it came down to the final ten minutes before deadline, wasn’t the result I was given. So perhaps I didn’t make the right choice, but the right choice was made for me.

What it comes down to is this: it doesn’t matter where you are sent (or what resources or circumstances you are given for that matter), only what you accomplish in the time, (and when you consider a year from a broader perspective, it’s a preciously small amount of time), you have there.

In two months, I’m going to Japan, the last country I ever thought I would spend a year in.

I don’t think I could be happier.

Hello

Hello. This will be my travel-log for Japan. For now, I will update sparingly only on matters concerning Japan, Matsuyama, and my exchange. I would, however, like to tell you about how I got to this point, and about the wonderful city that I am going to. And I will. But it happens to be finals week, so I am a bit short on time. Stay tuned for updates.