“Gotō City? Where is that?” I typed in Gotō, Nagasaki on GoogleMaps; the map zoomed in to a remote island. I slowly zoomed out to catch my bearings. I realized I will be living and teaching on an island which is almost as close to Korea as Japan.
This July will be exactly four years since I studied abroad in Akita, Japan. I am celebrating this anniversary by signing on to a one year contract with the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program, which will not only allow me to teach English but to learn Japanese and continue my cultural studies. I knew some token phrases and kanji–Chinese characters which the Japanese adopted–years ago so I’m attempting to catch up and hopefully surpass my previous efforts with complete immersion on Gotō . Despite its utter beauty, I doubt the island receives many foreign visitors; thus I anticipate that outside of the school I will primarily converse in Japanese. I couldn’t be more elated; learning Japanese is one of my goals!
Four years ago I arrived in Japan as a romantic. I felt moderately confident in my linguistic abilities, I was thrilled to visit a country I admired for years, and I eagerly awaited absorbing new and life-changing experiences. My enthusiasm was cooled somewhat by the reality of studying at an international university: while I loved my time at Akita International University and the friends I made there, my ability to learn Japanese was inhibited by students who wanted to speak English! When I did travel around Japan, I was typically too slow to switch back to my mediocre Japanese after relying on English. Culture shock never bothered me abroad but my inability to express myself successfully in Japanese did bother me.
[Brace yourselves: a Game of Thrones reference is coming. Well actually you just read it but I have another one too.]
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I am mentally conditioning myself to adopt the “John Snow Theory of Life”, which I made up not too long ago after receiving inspiration from Dogfish Head Brewery’s “Beer to Drink Music To” Belgian Tripel. In short: I know nothing. I return to Japan with the desire to teach and learn but I frankly admit that my knowledge of Japan is minimal, that this will be my first time teaching English as a job, and that Japanese is a challenging language to learn. It’s not my intention to sound depressing or discouraging; I just want to be realistic and not romantic. In short it will be an incredible learning experience and I will arrive with the deepest sense of humility (that I am capable of). I can hardly wait!
Embedded in a book I read recently is a quote from Socrates which I find applicable: “I decided that I was wiser than the man who…thinks he knows something when he knows nothing. Because while I may not know anything, at least I never pretend that I do.”*
That’s all for now. Stay tuned for more!
*Reid, T.R. Confucius Lives Next Door. New York: First Vintage Books, p. 144.