When you are a foreigner in Japan, you find yourself in the news more often than you would back home. Back in America, I'm pretty sure the only times I made it into any sort of periodical publication was the Black Sheep Newsletter, a newsletter associated with the Black Sheep Gathering, a fiber festival that I won several awards at. In my previous trips to Japan, I've been in the newspaper twice (to my knowledge) and on local TV once or twice. None of these appearances were planned by me, but they were arranged by study abroad coordinators.
Now, I'm living in Japan, and this trend continues. A couple weeks after arriving at my school, the nutritionist asked me about food for the winter holidays. I explained about roast turkey for Thanksgiving and Christmas, which prompted one of my students to ask me if we cut up the turkey before eating it. The article was written by the nutritionist and English sections corrected by me.
Later, the principal asked me to write an introduction for the school newsletter in English and Japanese. Not knowing what exactly he wanted me to write about, I wrote several examples that he could pick from. He ended up using all of them (after cleaning up my grammar in the Japanese sections). Later, the head of the local English club said she saw my introduction and was so happy that I wrote so much. Of all the ALTs who have worked at this school, she has never seen one write such a long introduction. My technique for writing things with translations is to write the Japanese first to make sure I'm not writing something outside my level then translating into English after, which results in simple English sentences. The English club leader is pleased with this because it allows English learners to read something real that isn't difficult. My goal with writing a long introduction is to introduce myself to the parents of my students so they can understand who I am and feel better about my spending time with their children and their tax money paying my salary.
And now, for the current crown jewel of finding myself in the news: getting there on purpose!
A few weeks ago the vice principal was putting fliers on our desks and explained that it is from a local newspaper. The newspaper has a segment about young people in the workforce asking them questions about what motivated them to get their job, what their job is like, and what makes the job worthwhile. Figuring it was a good challenge, I said I would do it. I wasn't sure they would be interested because I'm a foreigner and can't speak Japanese that well, but I heard the vice principal saying "oh, she speaks Japanese" over the phone and that was good enough for them. To prepare, I wrote up a document with answers to all the sample questions so I could study and just in case I blanked during the interview. Come interview time, I was expecting someone to accompany me but nope just a "here's a room, do your best!" and there I was sitting with the reporter. Between my prepared document and her paper with questions in English and Japanese, we had a good framework. However, somewhat to my surprise, I didn't really need to use either.
Most of their questions were about why I decided to come to Japan (plus an "ideal type" question because this segment also specified 'unmarried' and I guess they are trying to solve that hahaha). Armed with my 10 days of studying and learning words like "cultural exchange," "motivation," "opportunity," and other related words, I did my best to explain myself in wacky Japanese. When leaving, the reporter told the vice principal "I didn't even use Google Translate!" which was honestly pretty surprising for both of us. Less than two weeks later, an article about me was published.
Their title quote is "I want to tell them the world is wide," which is honestly a pretty good takeaway from my motivations to be here. I could honestly care less if my students speak good English, because any language and/or curiosity about the world is going to give my students more opportunities and experiences. Japanese has given me many interesting opportunities, such as this one, so I don't think English is the answer to everything. They did write "English" instead of "foreign language" like I said in the interview but you win some you lose some. It's a pretty good interpretation of my attempts to communicate my feelings through broken Japanese and hand gestures. Below is a translation of the article, as translated by me and a dictionary.
Thanks to a Japanese aunt and an uncle* who speaks Japanese, she was in contact with a lot of Japanese culture and became interested in Japan. While in college she studied abroad in Niigata and Akita and after graduating came to Japan. Since last November, she has been working as an ALT at a junior high school. Her motto is “teach in a fun way.” She writes an English board every day, makes English games for class, and tries to get students familiar with English. “If students can find a purpose for studying English. I want to help students who want to study abroad in the future, I want to tell them the world is wide,” she says. Her goal is to pass the Japanese Language Proficiency Test N2 level. Her hobby is knitting and in winter she wears hand knitted scarves and hats while walking to work. Her ideal type is “a kind and smart person.”
*the actual article says grandma and grandpa despite my efforts to explain it’s my aunt and uncle
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