"Could you become a friend to exchange
language?"
This
message was sent to me by an old lady I met at a language event. I have to admit, I
was furious when I saw it. And why, you may ask? It's only fair, right? If I'm
learning Japanese from someone, then I should at least provide them with
something in return. But simply put however, I'm sick and tired of people only
taking interest in me because I happen to speak a certain language. And I feel
like with every new person I meet, they fail to see the person underneath with
a personality, opinions and interests; they simply see a walking opportunity
for themselves.
Recently,
I've realised my Japanese has been waning due to lack of study. I still go to
class once a week but on occasion, I've had to cancel due to work commitments.
Similarly, I still do my language exchanges in the week but again I may have
had to cancel or my partners have had to cancel due to their own commitments.
The consistency just hasn't been there. Additionally, I go to work where some
Japanese ability is necessary and I still struggle to speak in spontaneous
situations. Often I don't understand completely or I do and I can't respond
competently. I get very nervous very fast and it shows. But ultimately, I only
have myself to blame. It's become a problem so I decided to start taking action
again.
I feel like this is somehow permanently affixed to my forehead |
I
found another language group however and this group grasped my interest because
unlike typical language events where people feign
wanting to exchange, this event was geared towards foreigners who wanted to speak
Japanese. English speaking was not a requirement. It was really early in the
morning for me but as I needed to be in Tokyo anyway, I decided to go.
There
were seven of us in total and only two foreigners including myself. The minute
I arrived, I was greeted in Japanese so I felt like this was the real deal. We
entered into a restaurant, introduced ourselves and the conversation began. I
got talking to an old lady and a guy that I had met at a previous event, while
the other four broke off into their conversation. It was very rare that we used
English even though it was clear that some of the Japanese natives could speak
it. Conversation was very broad and I even learnt some things that I hadn't
before; not just about the language but about culture, sports...etc. When it
ended, the host mentioned something I felt like was very true. That usual
"language exchange" events often end up with foreigners mostly
speaking English and that he created the group to give us an opportunity to
speak Japanese. I felt so thankful.
I
exchanged details with the old lady and then me and the guy hung out for a bit
afterwards. We went to Akihabara and played games even though he had told me he
had no interest in games whatsoever. As I had a met him at an event before, our
conversation lapsed into English which I thought nothing of at the time but as
I'm sitting here writing this, I can't help but wonder if the reason he'd
decided to tag along was to get his fill of English. He had expressed interest
in British culture however which may have been another reason but ultimately,
I'm not so sure what his motives were.
When
I returned home, I saw a message from the old lady who had sent me a picture of
cherry blossoms. I replied in Japanese and then she replied in English. I
replied again in Japanese and she sent me a message back in Japanese with some
English at the end. All subsequent messages then came in mostly English followed
by the question up top. She also asked me asked me if the sentence was grammatically
correct sparking off realisations within me. This woman may have come to an
event meant for foreigners speaking Japanese but her motives were clearly to
find someone to help her with her English. She'd done her part by participating
in the event, it was her turn to get her fill.
I
was quite annoyed. I'm an English teacher and people pay me to speak and teach
them in English. And despite living in Japan where English ability isn't
particularly that great, I live about 70%-80% of my life in English. If this
was any other country, I feel like I would have been forced to learn the
language (I've heard that the French are particularly unforgiving) whereas in
Japan, people drop in thank you's and
hello's at random. I realise that the
Japanese don't get much opportunity to practise using English themselves but I
feel like Japan is the only country where the people are so borderline desperate
to speak the language that they forget that foreigners are more than just an opportunity;
they are people too; they might want
to learn a language too; they might
want to make friends too; heck, they
might not even speak English in the
first place.
I
haven't responded to this woman yet. I already have two language exchange
partners who I'm rather happy with. I'm not interested in having anymore. But I guess the fault lies with me, myself. The lady was nice and all
but she did often drop random English words into the conversation at the event
now that I think about it. We're also generations a part so we could never
really truly be friends. And most
people are not so kind as to want to help anyone without getting something in
return.
I
want to attend that event again and I've already decided that I'm going next weekend
as well but I'll just have to be cautious. There's always a catch, isn't there?