City skyscape photo that I took from Odaiba

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Three languages

Yesterday I conversed with native speakers in English, Japanese, and Spanish. It was the first day of my life that I ever had a small glimpse of what it would feel like to be "multi-lingual." It was great. I was out with friends, and we spotted a Mundo Latino store, which turned out to be a small convenience store with goods from South America. I bought chifles and talked a little bit with the store keeper, who was from Chile and had been living and working in Japan for the past six years. And later in the day, a Japanese woman who was hanging out with us asked how much Japanese I knew and then was asking me questions in Japanese to let me practice some. And also last night, I got my first e-mail in Japanese (written with Roman characters though -- I can't read kanji) that I could for the most part understand what it meant. Anyway, so it was a very exciting/motivating day. :)

2 comments:

Jonathan Yoder said...

That is such an awesome thing to discover. I wish I was better with languages, but they never seem to really stick for me, that and I haven't had any chance to have to practice/learn a language like you have.

Sarah Elizabeth said...

Wahoo! Congratulations. I remember what it was like on SST when I was able to speak French and not feel like I had to search for every word. It is such a great feeling to be able to communicate! I hope you are well. I still miss you a TON!