VERY Frequently Asked Questions
A place where I can put the answers to the questions I have been asked my whole life and maybe can help you understand how I think about the world and my environment
Where are you from?
Well that’s a loaded question but also please be more specific.
Where were you born?
Tokyo, Japan
Where did you grow up?
Bay Area in California for K-12 and San Diego, CA for university
What did you study in university?
Computer Engineering (to be frank, not the smartest student, but I tried my best and graduated in 4 years)
What is your nationality?
Japan, also a US permanent resident
Where do you live?
Tokyo, Japan (as of Nov 2019)
What Was your first language?
Japanese
I moved when I was really young, but I was old enough to speak words and phrases. Once the amount of English in my life increased, English became my dominant language.
But you don’t look Japanese?
…okay, but what does it mean to “look” Japanese? I am Japanese by blood, I have Japanese citizenship, and I speak the language, which makes me pretty Japanese, despite how I may look to you.
But I am also Sri Lankan by blood, which doesn’t and shouldn’t take away from the fact I am Japanese.
My father is Sri Lankan and my mother is Japanese. I think the phrase is 「ハーフ」or “half” but I prefer to say that I am Japanese and Sri Lankan.
So can you speak/understand sri lankan?
It’s Singhalese. My father is Singhalese Sri Lankan.
and
I do not speak nor understand. I used to be given major guilt trips about not knowing or not understanding, but I’ve realized that I couldn’t control how I was raised and magically pick up a language if we never used it at home or at school.
Being really young when we moved, and my mother not being able to speak English, Japanese was a given and English was a necessity. My father is also fluent in Japanese and English, so there was virtually no Singhalese in the household, nor was there a need. Families communicate, and we communicated in a way that was fair for all of us.
So to be blamed or guilted into not knowing a language I was never taught holds no ground, and not speaking Singhalese does not make me less Sri Lankan.
Why can you speak/read/write Japanese?
I am not going to lie, I don’t and wouldn’t call myself 100% fluent in Japanese. As someone that grew up in California and was raised on a English language education, I can’t compete with a truly native Japanese person, even if I had a Japanese speaking household.
However, I do think that I worked hard to improve my Japanese skills and I can understand most everything, and read/write as necessary. I studied to pass the JLPT N1 in high school (age 17) and continue to read and write regularly to practice.
Living in Japan has definitely improved my overall language skills, but working in an English speaking company and surrounded by English in social media can hurt improvement.
All in all, yes I can speak/read/write Japanese but I think I have a lot more to learn.
Why did you leave america? Why did you want to work in japan?
I am not lying when I say I wanted to work in Japan since I was 5. And as a 5 year old, all I could think about was that I loved Japanese food. And not like ramen or sushi (although very good), but more like the umami of bonito, the texture of natto, and the sourness of an umeboshi with my rice. At the time, I didn’t think of Japan as anything more than the ultimate food court of my favorite flavors.
As I grew older and interacted more with people in Japan and Japanese people, I realized my experience as an Americanized immigrant was unique.
If you read all these questions, you’ll see people have no problem asking me such specific questions about my life, even if it is the first time we met. In the beginning, this irked me, like a dramatic “why can’t you just accept me for who I am, no questions asked?”, but slowly I understood, many of these people don’t know about things outside of their own environment.
In a society that is largely secluded but slowly growing more global and open, Japan needs a stronger younger generation. Although it’s not much, I thought that moving and working in Japan could help. Being the minority (and I know that there are others like me too) is no fun, so I am aware that it comes with its own fair share of struggles.
The reason I came here was not to change the whole world or everyone in Japan. The world of even just one person is enough for me, so that the next time they see a brown kid in Japan, they won’t assume he or she can’t speak Japanese, or doesn’t know how to read the menu. And maybe he or she will feel a little more at home.