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Immersing yourself in another nationality

UberScout

UberScout

Please Don't Be Mad At Me 02/09/1996
V.I.P Member
You probably know where I'm going with this...

As I struggle in the everlasting battle to learn Japanese past katakana and kanji, I find that immersing myself into a Japanese atmosphere really helps me a lot with learning it. It also helps me relax, because the ambient music, for example, just kinda unwinds me and lets me focus. I never thought the sound of a koto would be so engaging!

But would this cause some kind of....I don't know....disconnection between me and reality? Not in a psychological/psychotic sense, but more like "I've listened to so much Japanese music that now I think I'm in Japan"?

Don't know if there's a line to be drawn here...

Another thing I should point out. I once saw a Facebook article that said if you type in Google " died on [whatever your birthday is]" you'll get links about who your ancestors are.

I found some interesting ones:

Ono no Michikaze - Wikipedia

Junnosuke Inoue - Wikipedia

Osamu Tezuka - Wikipedia

This is so freaky, because I don't even FEEL that close to it, yet I somehow inherently know so much about it...
 
I was failing Japanese in high-school and half-way through the year the teacher said, "if you do this one assignment and agree to transfer out of my class, I will pass you," and I had done NO work all year.

So I copied the one assignment from someone, transferred, and got a D. :)

And just to say something actually relevant, off the top of my head, I imagine it could cause a disconnect to the severity of a deja vu, just a moment or three of an odd, hard-to-describe-feeling that is akin to what you describe.

Just my penny.

Because it's not even two cents.

It's just a penny! :eek:
 
Huh, lol I am feeling similar with the Korean language. I am obsessed with Korean dramas and find the differences between South Korea and North Korea to be most interesting.

Languages and me, are a bad mix, but I do find myself mimicking what I hear.
 
This is not an uncommon feeling for people who like anime and manga - I've seen this for quite a large number of years in the art communities I participated in... I mean, while this is not a nice term - but the word "weeaboo" exists for a reason, the Western person obsessing and wanting to be of the Japanese culture because of all the media they had consumed. They learn/want to learn Japanese, want to associate with the culture, want to go and live there. It is a different way of life, most of the time it's an attempt to escape the chaos they feel surrounds them at home.

Immersion for language learning purposes is a common technique too - most people learn a language the best when they can get in the mindset and surround themselves with ways to think in a different way. Some people travel to the country to only hear the language and that way they learn the fastest. So good luck with it, I'm sure you'll do well - keep persevering.
 
I'm reminded of the 1980 Vapors' song - "I'm turning Japanese, I think I'm turning Japanese, I really think so....." Maybe this explains the lyrics!
 
I wouldn't call myself a japanophile, but I am sitting here listening to my five hour playlist of LoveLive! songs and I do want to live in a fictional world and marry Koizumi Hanayo. Lmao. Its all fine.
I'm sure that I would have fun if I visited the real world Japan; but its the idealised fictional world that I really miss when the end credits roll.
 
Both of my 3rd generation of relatives came over on a boat, and l have strong connections to food, and find that l am more comfortable with European peole vs American. I don't identify it as wanting to be anything, it's just my comfort area. l easily had friends when l was Europe.
 
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