Integrative Narative
I originally was a geology major when I started out my college career, but having served as a missionary in Japan I was able to fall in love with the people and culture which gave me a desire to go back there and start a life (possibly permanently). (MLO 5)Shortly after deciding I wanted to teach English in Japan I changed my major to Asian Studies then transferred into CSUMB with the Japanese Language and Culture major. This program has not only increased my love for the culture and language of Japan, but it has also given me a deeper understanding. Then it has also give the most important thing, to me anyways, an opportunity to go back to work in Japan with JET.
This major has been a great wonder to me in both my ability to understand Japanese and have a greater knowledge of Japan and its people’s culture. It also gave me an opportunity to meet and interact with a great number of people who have similar interests to me. What I learned in Japan and what I have further learned here will be of great use to me when I go back to live in that great country. Then my presentation practicing in class and teaching practicing in my service learning courses have been a help in my graduating project, and will continue to aid me as I teach for JET and hopefully become an actual teacher of English as a foreign language in Japan. If it wasn’t enough that I could learn more about one culture to further my understanding of the world and other ways of thinking, I was also able to take a Mexican history course as part of my secondary culture requirement. This allowed me to further broaden my view and learn another way of thinking that exists beyond America and Japan, but can also be connected with both. (MLO 3)
Then with the different courses taken on the language side of the “language and culture” major I have been able to see my ability to speak Japanese grow profoundly, but I have also been able to gain an insight on the structure of Japanese. I was able to look at the language from a linguistic point of view, (MLO 1) and that made the language a lot more interactive and relatable with English, since I was able to learn about syntax, phonetics, and what not of the language. This isn’t even really something I had thought about in English, and it gave me the opportunity to do so. Looking at the language linguistically has really added depth to my interest in the language, and has given me much more motivation to learn the language and more methods of learning Japanese more fully. This will definitely help me when living in Japan so I can better communicate with others and understand my surroundings, but it also gives a great way to teach a language. So I can take what I have learned here and apply it to my desired career.
Coming to CSUMB has definitely been a great benefit to me here as it fits my personality, has provided me with friends, given me greater knowledge on the subject I love, and has opened the path for my career. For the future I want to continue working at Japanese, and would love to someday (soon hopefully) be able to obtain an N1 level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, so that I can more fluently get Japanese and hopefully continue to graduate school in Japan. The experience I gained here at service learning helped me also to broaden my future by realizing that it might not be so bad to teach at elementary school (I was quite against it before), so that was another aid in my future. I have, because of this department, been able to apply and get accepted to a company for teaching English in Japan, and I want to further teach after my time there is up.
This major has been a great wonder to me in both my ability to understand Japanese and have a greater knowledge of Japan and its people’s culture. It also gave me an opportunity to meet and interact with a great number of people who have similar interests to me. What I learned in Japan and what I have further learned here will be of great use to me when I go back to live in that great country. Then my presentation practicing in class and teaching practicing in my service learning courses have been a help in my graduating project, and will continue to aid me as I teach for JET and hopefully become an actual teacher of English as a foreign language in Japan. If it wasn’t enough that I could learn more about one culture to further my understanding of the world and other ways of thinking, I was also able to take a Mexican history course as part of my secondary culture requirement. This allowed me to further broaden my view and learn another way of thinking that exists beyond America and Japan, but can also be connected with both. (MLO 3)
Then with the different courses taken on the language side of the “language and culture” major I have been able to see my ability to speak Japanese grow profoundly, but I have also been able to gain an insight on the structure of Japanese. I was able to look at the language from a linguistic point of view, (MLO 1) and that made the language a lot more interactive and relatable with English, since I was able to learn about syntax, phonetics, and what not of the language. This isn’t even really something I had thought about in English, and it gave me the opportunity to do so. Looking at the language linguistically has really added depth to my interest in the language, and has given me much more motivation to learn the language and more methods of learning Japanese more fully. This will definitely help me when living in Japan so I can better communicate with others and understand my surroundings, but it also gives a great way to teach a language. So I can take what I have learned here and apply it to my desired career.
Coming to CSUMB has definitely been a great benefit to me here as it fits my personality, has provided me with friends, given me greater knowledge on the subject I love, and has opened the path for my career. For the future I want to continue working at Japanese, and would love to someday (soon hopefully) be able to obtain an N1 level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, so that I can more fluently get Japanese and hopefully continue to graduate school in Japan. The experience I gained here at service learning helped me also to broaden my future by realizing that it might not be so bad to teach at elementary school (I was quite against it before), so that was another aid in my future. I have, because of this department, been able to apply and get accepted to a company for teaching English in Japan, and I want to further teach after my time there is up.