Hello all. I actually did the blog from two days ago yesterday, and so I decided to bump posting the latest update to today.
Today’s J-List post is below. You can also read it on the J-List website or the JBOX.com site.
The world has been shocked and awed by the terrible disasters of the Indian Ocean tsunami and before that, by the earthquake in Niigata, Japan, near where J-List is located. Today Japan solemnly marks the 10th anniversary of another terrible disaster, the Great Hanshin Earthquake, which did an incredible amount of damage to the city of Kobe a decade ago. Before the 7.3 magnitude quake struck on the morning of January 17, 1995, Japan had felt pretty secure that they were safe from strong quakes because of their strictly-enforced building codes. However, the nature of the quake and the age of many of the buildings combined to cause a huge amount of destruction, and over 6400 people lost their lives. I had happened to visit Kobe a few months before the earthquake and made friends with the manager of the Old Spaghetti Factory there. Happily, no one at the restaurant was injured in the quake and they reopened soon after.
When a person learns a foreign language they actually develop a second personality, which takes over when they’re speaking that language. In Japanese, my personality is very different, and I’m often surprised at how different both halves are. Japanese tend to be humble, and in Japanese you often use the word sumimasen (excuse me) in situations where Americans would say “thank you.” My wife is much more assertive in English than she is in Japanese, since English is just built that way — you always say the subject of sentences and use “yes” or “no” to clearly indicate your opinion, unlike in Japanese where meanings are often more vague and nuanced. It’s been very interesting watching the development of an “English personality” in my children, too. In English, my daughter is cute and feminine, since she usually plays with other girls in English, but in Japanese, she’s a pure tomboy, even using the male first person pronoun (boku used by boys, instead of atashi which is used by girls).
I’m enjoying my time here in San Diego. As usual, I’m stocking up on things I can’t easily get in Japan, like shoes, clothes, and English books. You don’t think about things like cough syrup until you live in a country where you can’t find the brands you want. Japan is a great place, but the medicines they have are far too weak to work on a big gaijin like me, so I stock up on Nyquil, Alka-Seltzer, and other things I think I might need in the coming months. Soon I’ll go back to freezing Japan, but until then I’m getting as much enjoyment out of the balmy San Diego T-shirt weather as I can.
