IR and the island

The differences in lifestyle and culture between people of different countries can be both frustrating and fascinating. If I were to go back to school for an advanced degree (in other words if I had a lot more money than do now), I would want to enroll in an International Relations program. This program at UC San Diego is right up my alley.

Anyway, the frequent cultural exchanges that I engage in here with people of different national origins (not just Japanese) is one of the most rewarding parts of living abroad. For example, at my visit school I work with a very cool guy from Ireland. Not only does he have a sweet accent, but it's quite amusing to periodically run across words and pronunciations that differ between American and Her Majesty's English. Just the other day I learned that in Ireland there are no "juice boxes." I guess they're called cartons or something.

Being that Yoshie is an intelligent and curious young lady, we've also had some conversations about cultural differences between Japan and America. The other day she asked me about a recent, somewhat angsty post of mine, which lead to a conversation about Japan's isolationist history and bleak future if it doesn't do something about its population problem, as well as the challenges facing foreigners here. Yoshie's account of the conversation, for those of you who can read Japanese, can be found here.

It's interesting - whenever Japan's homogeneous nature comes up in conversation with a Japanese person, they inevitably mention that "Japan is an island." This is true, of course, but so is England, and look how cosmopolitan the U.K. has become. It's important to account for Japan's isolationist past - something I had read about and that Yoshie again explained when we talked about this. But further, Japan never really had an "empire" to speak of. France, England, Spain - colonies all over the world. Japan, not so much.

Most recently, the other day at school one of the new social studies teachers (I believe she's fresh out of university), who happens to be part-time (I mention this because I sit near the part-time teachers) and also one of the shortest Japanese women I've met, asked me about my roots. This kind of surprised me, because I haven't really been asked very often about that over here. She said had learned that in America, people are a lot closer to their roots in that they often identify with their ethnic heritage and sometimes know the languages of the countries their ancestors came from. I told her that this is true, but my opinion is that it gets less and less true as more time passes. Sure - we talk about what ethnicities we are. For example, I told her I'm Polish, Irish, and Alsacian (we had a good conversation about that, too). But while my grandparents spoke Polish, my mom can only speak a few phrases, and my sister and I can only speak a couple words. The longer we live here, the more "American" we become, and although we may cherish our roots, our connection to "the old country" weakens. She seems fascinated, replying that Japan doesn't have anything like that.

"Yeah, but," I said," Japan is an island."

他の国の文化や生活の違いは興味深いでありながら難しいと思う。大学院に入ったら（つまりお金持ったら）国際関係を勉強したい。UC San DiegoのSchool of IR and PSは最適らしい。去年そこで勉強したらいいなぁと思ってたけどこの頃将来にチャンスがないと思う。

とにかく、僕として海外に住んでいることは色んな国の人と話せるってはとてもやりがいある。例えば、一つの学校で、アイアランッド人の友達と一緒に働いてる。彼はカッコいいアクセントあって、よく会話するとアメリカの英語とイギリスの英語の違いを気がつく。例えば、（日本語で言葉あるかな？）"Juice box" というものある。イギリスも確かにあるけど"Juice box"と言われてない。

芳恵は賢くて好奇心のある若い女性だから、僕らはアメリカと日本の文化の違いの会話何回かした。先日は、僕に最近の不安の記事について聞いた。やから、日本の鎖国の歴史とか将来の危険（少子高齢化）とか日本に住んでいる外国人の面倒の話した。よしえはここで書いた。

面白いね。日本人と日本の同種の話するとたいてい「日本は島なんですから。」と言います。これは本当だけど、イギリスも島だけど結構国際的になったね。色んな理由ですね。イギリスやフランスやスペインはたくさんの植民地あったが、日本はそうではないね。主に日本は鎖国だったからかもね。

ごく最近、新しい非常勤の社会の先生と話してた。彼女は去年大学から卒業したかな、で会った日本の女性の中一番背が短いと思う。先生は僕のルーツについて聞いた。僕は結構びっくりした。日本にいてる間、その質問あまり聞かれてない。でも面白い話題だと思うからうれしかったよ。彼女はアメリカ人は自分のルーツ同一であるとして、よくその言語話せるって聞いたから興味深いと言った。僕はそうだけど多分だんだんそうではなくなってると答えた。もちろん、友達とかとルーツについて話す。僕はポランッドとアイアランッドとアルザスのルーツある。でも、例えば、僕のお母さんの両親はポランッド語を話せた。お母さんはいくつかの表現や言葉を話せる。僕と妹は一つ、二つの言葉しか話せない。アメリカの家族は、よくルーツを大事するけどもっともっとアメリカに住むと、ますます「アメリカ人」になる。アメリカはまだ若い国だけど、その考え方は強くなってる・・・と思う。

先生は心奪われるそうだった。「日本はそんなありませんね。」って言った。

「まぁ、でも日本は島だね。」僕は答えた。