My eternal challenge in Japan: the language!

First spring flowers at Yoyogi Kouen

On the way to work (NHK International Service in Portuguese) yesterday, I saw the first flowers of this spring at Yoyogi Park. I am not sure if they were "ume" (plum) or "sakura" (cherry) flowers, as I'm not able to distinguish some species of them. But I remember someone told me the ume blooms first so it must be it.

The coming of a new spring , of this explosion of life, made me remember that I'll soon be reaching my second year of Japan and, coincidently, my 27th spring. I think it's pretty "sage" to measure life  according to the number of springs. Living in a country where each season shows its best, it's possible to notice how life changes in the begining of spring. It seems we take a new breath and start a new journey. I guess it's not for other reason that everything starts in April in Japan, when the sakura make their show!

When I think of the anniversary of my arrival and about  getting closer to the 30's, I get those mixed feelings, specially the love/hate relationship with Japan. In the end there is not objective answer for anything and I vote for a positive sum/balance. But one thing still makes me concerned and: I'm not able to comunicate with the majority of people who surround me; I'm not able to do many things by myself because I can't read or write. I don't speak Japanese.

I'm not going to say I did my best. I didn't. I know of other people who started with me and now are at least trying to present their seminar in Japanese. I got fed up with the methodology on the way, I was bored having to go there everyday and later 3 times a week (including saturdays) for 3h with no show of progress in the things I was supposed to be learning, and, I shall be honest with myself: I never wanted to learn Japanese for the language itself! I love the thing about the kanji and sometimes I enjoy learning some here and there even for fun. But the language itself I think it's weird, doesn't sound well and doesn't go well with a lot of things I like. Hey, look, it's not a matter of prejudice or hate, it's a matter of personal taste. I prefer languages that stem from latin.

But, I like to communicate, I love Japanese people, and I like to eat and try to cook good food. So my trips around Japan and my continuous challenge to keep trying to read menus and food packages were the biggest responsible for my current level of Japanese. I think I still sound stupid and I can't understand almost anything. And, well, my shame has be growing, because, if before I could say "Oh, I just arrived", now I got 2 years on my back. But still... I can o the basics.

So I decided to face the language from a different perspective: I don't have to like it, I just have to learn it because of a much more ambitious aim: to understand life around me, talk more to people (and not hide or run from them - in case you're asking, yes I do it for real) and to cook! Of course for a person like me it's dificult to learn things I don't like. But I have done it so well in the past, so why not to do it now?

Here is my next challenge: bake bread with Japanese ingredients!

Have a great spring!