View Single Post
(#6 (permalink))
Old
Shikan (Offline)
New to JF
 
Posts: 5
Join Date: Apr 2009
04-04-2009, 04:52 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ronin4hire View Post
That's true... but I think that if you consider your identity becoming "Japanese" at the expense of your own national identity rather than as an addition to it... then it is a flawed way of thinking.

PS- I'd find another word to describe your fascination with Japan if I were you. Generally speaking... you'll just confuse Japanese people and make Westerners roll their eyes.
Thanks for your response. I would agree that you will always have your own national identity. But that part of you will undoubtedly change whether it strengthens from an unwillingness to adapt to a different national environment, or becomes more robust with your own shifting perspective.

I'm not particularly concerned about impressing Westerners in Japan. If "metamorphosis" is in fact the offending word, it really began with a gift from my host family: a t-shirt with the phrase わたしは日本人になりたい printed on it. A few Japanese have reacted in a way similar to eye-rolling, but most find it rather amusing like myself.


"Be the change you want to see in the world."
-Gandhi

"If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!
"
-Rudyard Kipling
Reply With Quote