Leaving for Japan (Eliza)

As I set out on this journey I am a bit nervous to be flying to a foreign country by myself.  I’ve been abroad before, and I’ve flown by myself before, but I’ve never gone abroad by myself.  I’m also worried about the upcoming Japanese placement test.  Will I do well?  What if I can’t remember something I actually know and end up in too low a level?  Even though I’ve been studying all summer, I plan to study more on the plane and after I arrive if there is time.

Another thought on my mind is the dorm that I will be staying in for the first week.  What does it look like?  Will it be comfortable?  What will my roommate or roommates be like?  At least I’ll only be there a week so it won’t be too bad if I don’t get along with them.  Still hoping for the best though.  While I was thinking about people my mind wandered slightly to the problem of making friends.  That is something that doesn’t usually come easily to me.  I would hate to be an unsociable shut-in while in one of the best places in the world.  There are so many places in Japan that I want to go to, but I wouldn’t be comfortable going to them by myself.  I have thus resolved to try a bit harder to make friends and overcome my awkwardness around strangers.  So then my mind has gone full circle, returning to the original worry of flying abroad by myself and all the problems that could occur along the way before I arrive at the school.

Seminar House for orientation week.

Most of my worries will surely go away, and most of them will turn out not to be something I needed to worry about.  That’s how it usually goes.  I’m sure my nervousness will go away while I’m flying into Japan.  Everything will sort itself out and I anticipate a wonderful semester abroad.

A New Perspective (Sarah)

As I set out on this journey I’m only just beginning to catch my breath. I spent the majority of my summer working a job that a few years ago I would never have believed I was capable of. I got to work at the language camp that originally inspired my love for Japan, languages and culture in general. Just like all the summers before as a camper, it was challenging, but it was also extremely fun! I worked to overcome doubts in my own language ability and began taking on the role of not only a teacher but also a caring and at times almost parent like figure to the campers. I found myself invested in each of the students, especially the girls that lived with me, much more than I had expected. I also found myself working side by side with people who had been my teachers as a camper, which made for some interesting first interactions. I was originally afraid that working at the place that had inspired me years ago would ruin the image I had preserved of it, but it did the exact opposite, it became something even better than what I had remembered it as.

However, only two days after returning from this great experience I nearly lost consciousness for no apparent reason and continued to feel strange for days afterwards. I received an alarming suggestion from the first doctor I saw who thought that it may have been a partial seizure, which as you can probably imagine sent me into a bit of a panic. Not only was that a serious diagnosis with life long implications I had no way of fully understanding at the time, but I also plain didn't have time for this. I was leaving for Japan in a month; I had no time for a serious diagnosis. But during the ride from that first doctor’s office to the emergency room, the following five hours I spent getting tested there (with no food mind you), and the ride back home I realized that as much as I wanted to go to Japan, if there was something serious wrong, I would be staying. I had a month to figure this out. For those next few weeks I felt like I was lying whenever people asked me if I was excited and ready to go to Japan because I answered that of course I was excited and my preparation were almost done! I didn't want to explain what was wrong because I didn’t really know what to say, so I did my best to keep preparing and keep myself busy. In between the MRI’s, blood tests, eco-cardio grams and doctor’s appointments I went to the embassy to get my visa, kept track of emails from Kansai, had various goodbye parties with relatives and unpacked my things from camp that had been briefly forgotten in the confusion.

Waiting at the doctor.

In the end it turned out that the cause had been nothing dangerous and nothing that would stop me from going to Japan. So now I can say, without feeling like a liar, that as I set out on this journey I am very excited because a week ago I wasn’t even sure this was going to be possible. In the past few weeks I’ve come to understand that not only are MRI’s some of the most terrifying and strange medical tests ever, but also just how much of a privilege being able to do this study abroad program really is. For seven years I have desperately wanted to go to Japan, and in those seven years my interest in the language and culture has matured a lot. In the end, my interest led me to applying for study abroad. But I don’t think even in this past year as I applied for study abroad that I fully understood how amazing the opportunity I was signing up for was. That is until this last month where it was no longer guaranteed that I could go.

Some time during the middle of the flight when we crossed the date line and I celebrated my 20th birthday thousands of feet above the earth.

So as I go to Japan I enter into it with a different frame of mind than I had when I originally signed up. This entire summer has been about challenging myself, growing and seeing things in a new light and I expect that to continue in all kinds of ways over the next year. I expect for things I assume to be universally understood to be misinterpreted and misunderstood, I expect that there will be misunderstandings and differences between me and my host family, and I hope for things I take for granted to be challenged and re-understood from a different perspective. As a result, I hope through these experiences, and many more that I can’t even imagine yet, that everyday I will learn numerous things, whether I realize them at the time or not. But lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I hope it is a whole lot of fun!

Welcome to 2015!

Welcome to the start of the Fall 2015 group blog published by the Cities in Transition: In Search of Modern Japan class!

The courses that comprise Beloit College’s “Cities in Transition” program seek to provide students with a flexible, interdisciplinary framework to help them engage with the cities in which they are studying in contexts that extend beyond the formal setting of the classroom. The underlying premise of the program is that all urban areas are constantly undergoing transitions, and that these transitions can serve as a productive focal point of intellectual engagement on the part of students studying abroad. Faculty members in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures offer Cities in Transition courses to Beloit students studying in China, Ecuador, Japan, and Russia. An in-country version of Cities in Transition is available to Beloit students studying in Senegal. In Search of Modern Japan is the only CIT course with a blog.

This fall three students (Sasha, Ari, and Marvelous) are studying at and posting from Akita International University in Akita, the capital city of Akita prefecture. Three students (Sarah, Ruobing, and Eliza) will post about their time at Kansai Gaidai University located with easy access to two of Japan's largest cities: Kyoto (population approx. 1.5 million) and Osaka (2.7 million).  And, two students (Reid Knight and Jonah) will be writing about their experiences at Rikkyo University in Tokyo.

Please join them on their journey, ask them questions, and help prod them on to new discoveries as they explore Japan.

Kansai-ben (Crystal)

Living right in the middle between Osaka and Kyoto, I have plenty of exposure to Kansai-ben, the Western dialect of Japanese. Although Kansai-ben is not uniform across the region – Osaka-ben, for example, is specific to the city of Osaka, though it is also considered to be a part of the broader Kansai-ben. There are of course several other dialects, but the main contrasting one is the Eastern dialect: Kanto-ben, which is considered Standard Japanese.

Unfortunately, my Japanese is not at a level where I can really pick up its usage in everyday life unless I’ve been taught to look for it. All too often I get asked, “Have you heard this word?” and the answer is always no. I mean, I’ve probably heard it in the background, but it has just remained part of the vast abyss of sentences I couldn’t even begin to understand unless they were slowed way down and preferably written.

However, I have picked up some pieces here and there. The professor of my Spoken Japanese class is a big fan of Kansai-ben (even though he’s from Hokkaido), and really enjoys teaching it to us, along with slang. Recently we had a day in class where all we did was study Kansai-ben.

Part of what distinguishes Kansai-ben is its vocabulary. One that’s pretty recognizable even to foreigners is aho, which means “idiot, fool.” In the east, baka is used instead, but in the west, baka is a much more severe insult.

There are many different Japanese dialects (source: www.sakura-house.com)

There are other substitutions: akan for dame (forbidden), okan for okaasan (mother), kyousan for takusan (a lot), ookini for arigatou (thank you), and lots of others. The one I hear all the time is meccha, which means “very.” At Kansai Gaidai’s Halloween Costume Contest yesterday, I was constantly surrounded by cries of “Meccha kawaii!” (too cute!) “Meccha kakkoii!” (so cool!). Along with the different vocabulary, there are also different stress patterns.

But there are also differences in grammar. One of the easiest is that the negative verb ending –nai become –hen in Kansai-ben. In most verbs, it’s a pretty straightforward substitution, but shinai (doesn’t do) becomes seehen or shiihin, and konai (doesn’t come) becomes keehen or koohen or kiihin. Some other word endings that are a little more difficult to explain include ten, non, and yano.

I asked a few people some quick questions about the usage of the dialect. The two native speakers of Kansai-ben both immediately told me they were very proud to speak to Kansai-ben. There doesn’t seem to be as much pressure for speakers to change their accents; it’s not eradicated in schools or anything like that, though Standard Japanese must be used for written assignments, and some more casual/slangy Kansai-ben would still be considered casual/slangy, and therefore inappropriate. But it’s used all the time in advertisements, speeches by politicians, etc.

However, Kansai-ben does entail some stereotypes when heard by outsiders. Osaka-ben especially is associated with comedians and entertainers. For some Tokyoites, the accent can be grating, though this view seems to be fading away. A girl not from Kansai who I asked about it told me that since coming to the area for school, she has come to really love the accent and think it’s cute.

This makes an appropriate final blog post for me, as I’ll be conducting my research this semester on attitudes toward Kansai-ben and its usage. I’m particularly interested in the pride that speakers feel toward it, and whether they ever feel pressure to hide it when visiting elsewhere. I look forward to conducting interviews and doing research about this during the second half of my semester here in Japan.

Understanding Japanese (Chris)

Being in Japan in two months has taught me that Japanese is difficult to learn. There are many things that could be a part of that issue, but the main thing is that there are people who speak in a different dialect then the dialect that I learn in the classroom. The dialect that people speak in my area is referred to as “kansai-ben” while the dialect that I learn is not just the generic Japanese, but the dialect that is most commonly used in Tokyo. 

Cartoonish statue of Hideyoshi and Onene at Kodaiji

This would seem to be a problem, but most of the time I do not notice the subtleties of kansai-ben. There is one phrase and one grammar point of kansai-ben that I have learned while here. The phrase is “めちゃ” or “mecha.” This word is just a way of saying “very” or “really” in English.  The grammar point that I learned is ~hen. It is as far as I know just the short-form negative (for those studying Japanese language) it replaces the conjugation ~ない in use.  I hear these phrased used every once in a while, but not often. I have heard from my friends that there are professors that will accidentally start speaking in kansai-ben and have to apologize, because most students do not know how to speak the dialect.

Dialect is used everywhere that I have experienced in the Kansai region. But, most of the time I hear the standard dialect when someone is talking to me. I have heard from my friends that there are professors that will accidentally start speaking in kansai-ben and have to apologize, because most students do not know how to speak the dialect. So, someone is speaking it. I have also heard it in passing sometimes. This could be a form of code speak, and kansai-ben is mostly used within the populace, and standard is used with foreigners. It is a possibility.

Cherry tree at Kodaiji

The week before this past week, my Japanese professor came to Japan during fall break to visit, so her, another student from Beloit, and me went to Kyoto and visited Kodaiji Temple and Sanjusangendo. Kodaiji is heavily attributed with Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s wife. And, Sanjusangendo is famous for the 1001 Buddha statues that fill it. This temple was quite a site to take in. It will be hard to display the temple as no pictures were allowed in the temple, but pictures could not do justice to the grandeur of the temple. This week was midterm testing, and I spent all week studying for all of my tests. I am currently ready for a day off, but that is not going to happen. Saturday is the Nukiho Matsuri (or Rice Harvest Festival) at Fushimi Inari Taisha so I will be there experiencing this festival. So, until next time, sayonara.

Statues at Sanjusangendo (stock image)