Every day trying something and every day finding happiness

1. Self introduction

Student: 4th year student at IUK

Hometown: Minamisatsuma city in Kagoshima

Major: English and Japanese teaching

Hobby: traveling (Taiwan and South Korea)

Likes: Studying foreign languages, exercising

Dislikes: Writing some essays...

Dream: Being a great Japanese teacher in  foreign countries

 

Don't say, "I can't". If I believe myself, I can do everything!


Internship in Taipei

Volunteering activity

               at elementary school

International exchange


2. My trip and survey in Taiwan.

 I went to Taiwan and I visited Kaohsiung, Taichung and Taipei for five days. Taoyuan international airport, many night markets, shopping mall, I tried to do my interview to people. But I felt they looked like strange because suddenly I ask some questions to people lol. So I asked my friends to do my survey about my graduation thesis. Anyway, I was so relaxed, happy and excited to see my wonderful friends.

3. Why are Taiwanese so Pro     Japanese?(G. thesis)

 These days, there are many Taiwanese people who like Japan. For example, this is a special movie about an international marriage. This story is about a Japanese man and a Tawanese woman who get married. Especially, young people in Taiwan like Japanese culture such as dramas, movies, animation and so on. My graduation thesis's theme is "Why are Taiwanese so Pro Japanese?" I'd like to talk about it.

How do people study Japanese in Taiwan?

 Recently the number of Japanese learners is increasing. Almost students study it using textbooks but some people uses drama, film and anime. These are all Japanese so very difficult for Taiwanese people to understand. But fortunately, they can understand seeing Japanese subtitles. It's easy to study for Japanese learners. 

The best way to study Japanese for Taiwanese


Observation as for my thesis

Making a questionnaire about my graduation thesis and sent out this questionnaire to all Taiwanese people that I met.

 

 The period is from November 16th to 20th, 2017

The investigation area is Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung.

 

   Local Taiwanese people that I have met.

 

     Twenty people

 

During my college days, I’ve been to Taiwan again. Last November, I went there to look into this theme for twenty people that I met. Through this survey, I felt and learned various things that people in Taiwan start to be interested in Japan more and more.

 

Firstly, Taiwanese people regardless of age and sex young and old men and women like Japan, especially they says that cities in Japan are clean and little garbage. The best thing that people like Japan is Japanese personality. Taiwanese people think that Japanese people are always very polite, kind, earnest, cautiously and so on when they do something. On the other hand, other people say that Japanese people’s character has a strong point and a weak point. The former is as I mentioned, Japanese people are usually so kind to other people. However, the latter is that Japanese kindness may have a harmful result. For example when Japanese try to do something for a Taiwanese, Taiwanese may have a distance a little bit because Japanese tend to do prudently too much. If Japanese people do something carefully too much, they will have a lot of stress. Because the number of people of death from overwork is increasing, it will multiply in the future. Moreover, personality is said that it is related to blood types according to some doctor’s data. Almost Japanese people have type A blood. This blood type means like methodical, serious and stuff. On the contrary, most of Taiwanese people have type O blood. This type means like roughly, sociable and stuff. These relationships may connect with personality. Also, almost there are a lot of people who don’t know about foreign countries and the international situation. People in Japan are under the impression that their country is the best country all over the world. These consciousness are there are good times and bad times. The former is they take pride in their country, the latter is they are indifferent to other countries. Furthermore as for jobs and politics, the female position is too low. At the present, Japanese women are not having more working opportunities very much. Some Taiwanese says that Japan takes care of women cruelly since before.

 

Secondly through my survey, all 20 Taiwanese people I spoke to study Japanese. Not only children but also old people can speak Japanese, especially Taiwanese teens and university students are very popular, high school and universities in Taiwan have a lot of the department of Japanese. Moreover, the number of Japanese school and Japanese learners are increasing every year too. Students in Taiwan study it in there. However, people study Japanese each their way. The most popular way is using Japanese culture such as drama, movie and anime. In Taiwan, there are a lot of Japanese TV programs and have exclusive Japanese TV program’s on the Internet. People enjoy watching these programs and studying Japanese through regular programs for Japanese people. Furthermore, there are many Japanese translations in many places of Taiwan and Taiwanese companies begin to introduce and teach Japanese. For example, I’ve done my internship at a software company in Taiwan. This company is introducing Japanese and takes in Japanese education. Therefore Taiwan is still popular and use Japanese. Originally, People said the start of studying Japanese was their interest and curiosity. Then they learned many Japanese words and people could understand them. Through studying Japanese independently, they could study abroad, travel in Japan, get the level 1 of Japanese-Language Proficiency Test and make friends with a lot of Japanese people. Also, some people use SNS to study Japanese. This is said to one of practical way of studying Japanese. Recently, remarkable development of SNS around the world is splendid make Taiwanese people happier. LINE, Facebook, Twitter, these SNS can use both of Japan and Taiwan so people are easy to get along with each other immediately. Furthermore in my opinion, studying abroad is one of the ways to learn Japanese effectively, for students can reach their ears and speak Japanese every time. Some people say that the best way of learning language is to study its grammar and writing skills, other people say that the best one is to improve their speaking and listening skills. I prefer the latter to the former because communication is more important than grammar and writing. If so, Taiwanese students try to communicate with Japanese people during their studying abroad.

 

Thirdly, people who are answering questions about my thesis are thinking that Japan is the safest country in the world. Peace and order in Japan is good, the number of crime are very few, therefore people are easy to go sightseeing and study abroad in Japan. According to pie graph 4 and 8, Taiwanese people want to work in Japan and five people who make friends with me work in Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka. The biggest reason is the salary in Japan is more expensive than Taiwanese one. They work there and save money while they enjoy in life in Japan.

 

Finally through this survey, all 20 Taiwanese people I spoke to said as follows for Japanese people. It is that the society in Japan has what people really feel and what people are supposed to say. This is the worst problem in Japan and not only Taiwanese people but also other country’s people hate this problem. Whenever Japanese people talk with each other, people use their private opinion and public stance. They tend to care the atmosphere of communication especially, Japanese girl and ladies than Japanese boys and men often use what they are supposed to say, however they don’t say their true intentions. If people look at it positively, they will read between the lines. However if people look at it negatively they will disturb between the lines or tell a lie. Needless to say, this communication style is peculiarly Japanese own culture so it cannot be avoided. Nevertheless, I don’t agree with this style. Why do Japanese people usually use not what they really feel, but what they are supposed to say? Probably when Japanese people talk with each other, they always worry about their partner’s feeling and sometimes use a noncommittal reply. By then, people in Japan ingratiate themselves with partners. Though this communication is one of Japanese traditional culture, this big problem has to change without delay in the future, I think.

 

 On the other hand, Taiwanese communication is pretty different from Japanese one. When people in Taiwan chat and talk with each other, they do frankly without hesitation. Therefore, people can share various opinion and information at a time. Actually, Taiwanese people are a good communication using their private opinion not public stance. Although this communication method may include a speaking ill of people, people can have an open and honest talk by themselves. That is why Taiwanese people who cooperated with this questionnaire and all Taiwanese like what they really feel and they hate what they are supposed to say. They can have a strong and truthful trust relationship in the future.

Opinion about my thesis

 

I think the big difference between Japanese people and Taiwanese people are personality and the way to think of things. When, Japanese people do something, they tend to care surroundings elaborately. Typical example is the time of communication. Japanese people talk with their partners trying to please each other out of necessity. For example, Japan has the relationship of pecking order. Such as company and school, many places have this relationship. When Japanese people talk with their senior who is older than them, they have to use a term of respect for him. Viewed objectively, conversation of Japanese people has the invisible wall between each speaker. On the other hand, Taiwan doesn’t have the relationship of pecking order and Taiwan doesn’t use a term of respect very much. It goes without saying that there is no invisible wall between each speaker, I think. On the contrary, young Taiwanese people talk with old Taiwanese people friendly each other. The difference of conversation rule is related with traditional culture and character. Almost Japanese people have type A blood. This blood type means like methodical, serious and stuff. On the other hand, most of Taiwanese people have type O blood. This type means like roughly, sociable and stuff. These relationships may connect with personality. All twenty Taiwanese people said that Japanese culture has the typical language culture. It is the relationship of what Japanese people really feel and what they are supposed to say. Especially, what Japanese people are supposed to say is very terrible from the perspective point of view of an outsider. Unless Japanese people say their private opinions, that invisible wall will disappear. Therefore, Japanese people must surely say their real intentions while people in Japan talk together.

Recent events around me in Miyazaki

My classroom decolated the poster about the star festival on July 7th.

I hope all wishes will come true in the future.

Also these days, I felt the difficulty of my job. In particular, it's very hard for me to use time well. Then, the amount of my job is gradually increasing such as parent-teacher conferences, flyer distribution, and so on...

I feel I'm really dissapointed...