Essay I will survive By Anita Lee	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
何とかしてみせます 現在日本で情報サービス関連の会社の取締役を務める筆者は、仕事で初めて来日した際、ごくありふれた状況の中でも言葉の通じないことに強いフラストレーションを味わった。 「日本を直接肌で感じたい」との思いから、のちに日本に拠点を移す直前、金沢でホームステイをしながら語学の集中コースを受けることにしたのだった。

When I agreed to marry my now husband and move to Japan I knew that I would need to learn at least enough Japanese to survive. Appearing Japanese (I'm Chinese-Canadian) and having a fiance who could already speak business Japanese were good reasons, but it was more than that. I wanted to experience Japan independently.

I hate having people speak for me. And yes, I admit to being a classic Type A personality. When I first visited Japan on business I became intensely frustrated because I couldn't make myself understood in the simplest of situations. Ordering food meant pointing to plastic dishes. Taking a taxi meant thrusting my mobile phone into a cab driver's hands. I couldn't even withdraw money from an ATM machine. I hated asking for help. I knew no one aside from my husband and asking him for daily translation was not how I wanted to live my life. Having previously lived in Hong Kong where I spoke "social" Cantonese, I knew that speaking the language would transform my life in Japan. But was it worth the energy?

Having resigned from my job in New York and with a month to go before our wedding, I decided an intensive course of study would be best. Tokyo had too many distractions. Without a job or a family to constrain my options, I chose a language course with a home-stay option. Sleeping on a futon in 38 degrees with only a fan to keep me cool may have been less than ideal but my choice gave me the once-in-a-lifetime experience of living with a Kanazawa family who were professional kimono dressers and who encouraged my "baby" Japanese practice with the geishas they served. My time in beautiful Kanazawa is one of the highlights of my life in Japan.

I accepted at the outset that I would never learn Japanese in a month, let alone in a lifetime. Reading and writing the language was not for me. My priority was to have a basic conversation with the local fruit seller, not to be able to write a philosophical essay. After the Kanazawa course I took private lessons twice a week for six months but found my Japanese ability was still equivalent to that of a 2-year-old Japanese child.

Eight years later, I continue to learn, albeit in different ways. I eavesdrop on colleagues' conversations, I listen to a bilingual radio station to learn new vocabulary and I force myself to practice with anyone willing to talk. I am still frustrated in many situations but far less so because of language limits: I now have the independence and freedom I wanted. Even though my Japanese remains at a basic level, I have reached my goal — survival.

Shukan ST: Oct. 3, 2008

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