lan·guage
/ˈlaNGɡwij/
the method of human communication, either spoken or written, consisting of the use of words in a structured and conventional way.
shinjuku:
It’s hard to be the outcast in any situation, especially when it’s a whole country of people you don’t fit in with. Even going back to Japan and being mesmerized by the bright neon signs flashing at you to come to this karaoke bar, this exact ‘mish-mash’ dialect I grew up on was a key factor into making sense to who I am. I could have practice Japanese my entire life, which coincidentally I somewhat did, but some of the conversations I would have sounded like an excerpt of a teacher talking in a “Charlie Brown” episode. It put into perspective how difficult it was to feel that sense of exclusion from a culture that makes up half of your identity.
SHukudai:
The dictionary definition for language is “the method of human communication, either spoken or written, consisting of the use of words in a structured and conventional way.” The lines of this concrete definition get blurred when you grow up learning multiple languages at once. Re-wiring your brain to combine English words with Japanese words and making them sound cohesive I would say is harder than taking the SAT. You begin to become so used to, it begins to feel like second nature, it’s only until you notice other people don’t understand that your grandmother has been saying dinner’s been ready for 20 minutes. Family dinners are always fun, although to an outsider, one might find it confusing that there’s some sort of unknown Japanese-English hybrid language.
tomoshibi:
My house as a kid was always filled with art. I guess not every kid had to switch languages to read what they actually said.
