My mother has refused to teach me Japanese; the little Japanese I can remember is my grandma's contribution from when I was very young, but most of it has flown out of my head. I considered taking Japanese in college, but was surprised at the intensity of Mom's diapproval. The way she talked me out of it was by reminding me of how difficult the language is (she's right about that) and how having to study it in college would be miserable, what with 8:00 classes everyday and Language Learning Lab time and etc.
It's not that Mom's ashamed of Japanese culture (she even majored in East Asian Studies), but she certainly resents it...and I think her opposition to me learning Japanese stems from that, and perhaps a desire to "shield" me from getting hurt. The latter I can understand, but I've never been all starry-eyed about Japan and I fully recognize that in Japan I would only be a gaijin: a foreigner. Still, just learning the language would be awfully nice.
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Date: 2003-10-02 10:12 pm (UTC)It's not that Mom's ashamed of Japanese culture (she even majored in East Asian Studies), but she certainly resents it...and I think her opposition to me learning Japanese stems from that, and perhaps a desire to "shield" me from getting hurt. The latter I can understand, but I've never been all starry-eyed about Japan and I fully recognize that in Japan I would only be a gaijin: a foreigner. Still, just learning the language would be awfully nice.