Postcard 7 - Presentation 'Once when I was in...' - 'Japan'

Dear John,

I think you are surprised to receive a letter from me again. Till three weeks ago I only sent you a piece of writing when I was having holidays or when one of my cats had died. But since your (and my own) whim of travel writing I have been a consistent pen friend.

Last week I heard a travel story about Japan. Debbie told it to us during one of the evening classes and I must say that it was very interesting. Debbie grew up in Japan - I didn’t know before - and a few years ago she decided to go back to her roots. The time she lived in Japan when she was young, was a little bit strange. She looked different from all the other children around her and she couldn’t speak the Japanese language. Nevertheless, when she came to Holland, she felt like an outsider.

She had two reasons for going back for a year: indeed ‘back to the roots’, but she also wanted to teach English in Japan. And she has really taught English in this ‘land of the rising sun’. She taught it to students from five to seventy-five years old and unfortunately, her students didn’t learn a lot. Japanese don’t like it to make mistakes and therefore they say little in everyday conversation. Learning a language is a difficult task to do then, both for the student and the teacher.

But she did more in Japan than teaching English. She observed the community and came to striking conclusions. In Holland, the word ‘community’ is in fact a bit of a laugh. Individualism fits better. In Japan, the community is really what it is supposed to be: people live together and help each other where possible and needed. Besides that, Debbie discovered in Japan a ‘strive for perfection’ and as she entrusted us, she found in that phenomenon a declaration for her own perfectionism.

As a conclusion, in the year she lived in Japan, she got insight and understanding in the culture and she had a wonderful time. The only disappointing thing was that she couldn’t find the house where she used to live in. Her parents visited it years before, but when she arrived it had been removed…

It’s an interesting story, isn’t it? I can’t imagine how it would be to grow up in another country and go back after a couple of years - for the simple reason that I am born, grown up and live in still the same country - but I really enjoyed this story.

All the best,
Neline