Growing Up: How the Japanese Major and College has Changed My Life
I started college at Butte College in Oroville, California. My GPA was about a 1.9, and my confidence in my academic ability was almost completely shattered. In order to convince myself about the importance of getting through college I had two forms of motivation: 1. Going below a 3.0 overall GPA would have resulted in my dropping out and joining the military, and 2. studying Japanese to my heart's content was what I wanted in my life when I was eighteen. After going through community college in two years, I managed to transfer out from Butte College to one of the few CSUs which had a Japanese program.
In coming to California State University, Monterey Bay as a wide-eyed, still naive 20 year old male coming from Chico, California, I had exactly one thought: I absolutely had to become a Japanese Language and Culture major. At that point in my life, I had spent about three and a half years of my life studying Japanese, and I felt the need to expand upon all of the knowledge I had gleaned from basic level textbooks. After the last three years I have spent at CSUMB, I am pleased to say that my thirst for knowledge in relation to Japanese language and culture still has not been completely sated.
In summary: I want to continue studying for as long as their is still material to be covered.
When I first got to CSUMB, I thought my only focus would be on studying Japanese language, but I soon was made aware that understand the culture is just as, if not more important than studying a new grammar point or ten new vocabulary words. This one change in my way of thinking is probably the only change I have had towards my thoughts about studying Japanese and the goals related to it.
I consider myself lucky I was able to make it from high school to the end of my college career without changing my end goal of becoming an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) through the JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) program. As a cultural representative of America, I will go to Japan to teach English in the school system there, and with me I will be able to take the experiences of acquiring a second language and be able to share with my students. However, it is difficult to say I would have been able to obtain this experiences without the careful guidance of the Japanese program.
Through the 5 MLOs, I have ultimately been able to increase my ability to communicate with the Japanese community in a respectful, culturally aware manner, and have also learned how to effectively share my own culture while simultaneously being sensitive to Japanese culture. MLO 1 helped me in obtaining the basic language ability I needed in grammar, vocabulary, and sentence structure so that I could communicate in a second language. MLO 2, on the other hand, granted me the cultural understanding required to use the tenants of MLO 1 to its fullest potential. MLO 3 gave me another window in which to compare another culture to Japan, even if the two civilizations were separate by an oceans and centuries. Through MLO 4, all of the above MLOs were enhanced to a level where I would be able to do academic research and then utilize 21st century technologies to exhibit this research. Finally, my study abroad experience, which falls under MLO 5, empowered me by giving me a way to understand the practical uses of Japanese in an everyday situation.
Only time will tell if I will continue on to graduate school in order to become a translator, which has been the goal since my first step on the journey to becoming a first-generation college graduate. However, it is very clear to me now that Japanese will continue to be a force which will govern how I grow and what career paths I will proceed along.
In closing, I wish to express a common saying one of my teachers years ago in high school: "The more we learn, the less we know". Looking back upon that quote with the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia, I finally can recognize the meaning that quote holds. I can never stop learning, never stop growing because there is literally no place for which one cannot develop themselves further without realizing there was more to comprehend than we could have possibly imagined. With this quote in mind I will now go forward to my future, knowing I can never stop growing as a person or professional.
In coming to California State University, Monterey Bay as a wide-eyed, still naive 20 year old male coming from Chico, California, I had exactly one thought: I absolutely had to become a Japanese Language and Culture major. At that point in my life, I had spent about three and a half years of my life studying Japanese, and I felt the need to expand upon all of the knowledge I had gleaned from basic level textbooks. After the last three years I have spent at CSUMB, I am pleased to say that my thirst for knowledge in relation to Japanese language and culture still has not been completely sated.
In summary: I want to continue studying for as long as their is still material to be covered.
When I first got to CSUMB, I thought my only focus would be on studying Japanese language, but I soon was made aware that understand the culture is just as, if not more important than studying a new grammar point or ten new vocabulary words. This one change in my way of thinking is probably the only change I have had towards my thoughts about studying Japanese and the goals related to it.
I consider myself lucky I was able to make it from high school to the end of my college career without changing my end goal of becoming an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) through the JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) program. As a cultural representative of America, I will go to Japan to teach English in the school system there, and with me I will be able to take the experiences of acquiring a second language and be able to share with my students. However, it is difficult to say I would have been able to obtain this experiences without the careful guidance of the Japanese program.
Through the 5 MLOs, I have ultimately been able to increase my ability to communicate with the Japanese community in a respectful, culturally aware manner, and have also learned how to effectively share my own culture while simultaneously being sensitive to Japanese culture. MLO 1 helped me in obtaining the basic language ability I needed in grammar, vocabulary, and sentence structure so that I could communicate in a second language. MLO 2, on the other hand, granted me the cultural understanding required to use the tenants of MLO 1 to its fullest potential. MLO 3 gave me another window in which to compare another culture to Japan, even if the two civilizations were separate by an oceans and centuries. Through MLO 4, all of the above MLOs were enhanced to a level where I would be able to do academic research and then utilize 21st century technologies to exhibit this research. Finally, my study abroad experience, which falls under MLO 5, empowered me by giving me a way to understand the practical uses of Japanese in an everyday situation.
Only time will tell if I will continue on to graduate school in order to become a translator, which has been the goal since my first step on the journey to becoming a first-generation college graduate. However, it is very clear to me now that Japanese will continue to be a force which will govern how I grow and what career paths I will proceed along.
In closing, I wish to express a common saying one of my teachers years ago in high school: "The more we learn, the less we know". Looking back upon that quote with the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia, I finally can recognize the meaning that quote holds. I can never stop learning, never stop growing because there is literally no place for which one cannot develop themselves further without realizing there was more to comprehend than we could have possibly imagined. With this quote in mind I will now go forward to my future, knowing I can never stop growing as a person or professional.