Integrative Narrative
I chose the Japanese Language Major because of my interest in Japanese Television. As a child I often watched Anime with my older brother. But that wasn't where I became interested in Japanese culture. I discovered Japanese live action television through watching Korean television. I started watching Japanese television shows called dramas and it became a hobby of mine. Before I knew it I had watched over a 100 dramas and started to look into where I could learn more about the language and culture. This hobby has sparked my passion for the Japanese culture. As of this year I have watched over 100 Japanese dramas/television shows. The shows were of a variety of genres such as human drama, mystery, romance, psychological, and historical. Through these shows I was able to learn about Japanese society, history as well as other issues centered in Japan. Along with my interest in music, I am able to learn new phrases, different forms of speaking (polite and formal) and words to use in conversation when the opportunity presents itself. My knowledge in these aspects has also allowed me to be more open about what I like about Japan. This knowledge has also made me more curious about the culture and the people. That's when I discovered the Japanese Major program at CSUMB.
I have learned a lot from this major. Throughout my college career I have fulfilled all MLOs (please read further in the MLO section). I learned a lot about the Japanese culture, including food, customs, history, the country, and various other things. I learned how to present and speak in Japanese. I learned from my classmates who taught me other things about Japan that I didn't know about. For example one of my classmates was interested in Lolita fashion, and she taught me about the Harujuku area in Tokyo. In my writing class freshman year I wrote a research paper on Japanese delinquency better known as juvenile crime. Through my research I was able to learn about the laws of Japan as wells as social issues. I became interested in this topic after watching several films centered on the topic. I was able to compare and contrast reality and how a filmmaker perceives the topic. In my Japanese Culture and Civilization class I was able to write a research paper on The Fujiwara family, an influential group of individuals. I wrote about how the family influenced Japanese culture as well as the government of Japan. I am also curious about the Fujiwara family and their influence in Japanese literature. My initial goal in learning Japanese was to perfect my listening skills. Over the past 4 years my skills have strengthened but I am far from perfecting them.
The areas I am most proud of in my Japanese are my speaking skills. I have pushed myself in speaking Japanese in order to make friends. One day I was hanging out with a group of exchange students and some senpais and one of my senpais told me that for the rest of the day I have to speak in as much Japanese as I know. And with that chance I was able to practice my speaking skills and during my sophmore year before going abroad I was able to strengthen my skills. I am now working toward raising my level even further. I would like to work toward taking the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. I need to work on all aspects of Japanese Language. I really need to focus more on reading and writing kanji. I want to read more and listen more. I want to start preparing for the test after graduation.