I will complete this section during Spring 2015.
Growing up I never thought I would be at where I’m at right now. By now I imagined I would be working as doctor, chemist, or any field related to science. This is what I was told I should be become when I was young. Instead of following the path the other’s wanted me to take I pursued a passion of mine, language. Japanese has always been fascinating, the culture, music, and the people are a few reasons why I decided to pursue this major. One day my father was watching Seven Samurai and got hooked to the Japanese culture. It has not been the easiest path but I am happy that is the one least travelled. During elementary school my friends introduced to me to Dragonball Z, Pokemon, and other anime that I became even more interested in the Japanese culture. During my free time I would study basic Japanese phrases online.
When I entered California State University Monterey Bay (CSUMB), I declared my major as biology thinking one day I could enter medical school one day. Biology in college is a lot more difficult that I thought which derailed my plans for a brief moment. Luckily CSUMB has a Japanese as a major and I finally took the opportunity to study a language that I was always been interested in. The Japanese department focuses developing all aspects of language, conversational, written, reading skills. Since I grew up speaking Spanish, I could have majored in Spanish at CSUMB but I wanted to challenge myself. part of studying a a language at CSUMB, we most take a Secondary Culture. I took Spanish 309, fulfilling MLO 3. Japanese was always a language so I sought out to make this my major.
Studying another language opens many doors. One of the benefits of studying Japanese at CSUMB is that the department gives each student the opportunity to study abroad at various universities throughout Japan. I was able to study abroad at Toyo University during 2013-2014 school year, fulfilling MLO 5. Studying a language in class in one thing, but being able to utilize it in life is another. Speaking the language is the only way to become fluent. At first I was shy to speak the language because I barely spoke the language. Gradually over time my friends started to ease me out of my comfort zone and this is the point I felt comfortable speaking the language, fulfilling MLO 1 and 2. . Even if I made mistakes, I embraced them. Having people around that are not afraid to correct your mistakes will make you better at the language.
Living abroad for a year I was able to compared America and Japan. For the first time in my life I was an outsider looking into the melting pot that is known as America. Doing this able to finally examine what are the strength and flaws of the the country I grew up in. A flaw that is shared both in Japan and America is that we still have a problem when it comes to respecting other races. During my year abroad I was stopped by the police on a number occasions to check if I had my resident's card. This for these stops is that Japan has growing population of Peruvian immigrant, a number of them come in illegally.
When I entered California State University Monterey Bay (CSUMB), I declared my major as biology thinking one day I could enter medical school one day. Biology in college is a lot more difficult that I thought which derailed my plans for a brief moment. Luckily CSUMB has a Japanese as a major and I finally took the opportunity to study a language that I was always been interested in. The Japanese department focuses developing all aspects of language, conversational, written, reading skills. Since I grew up speaking Spanish, I could have majored in Spanish at CSUMB but I wanted to challenge myself. part of studying a a language at CSUMB, we most take a Secondary Culture. I took Spanish 309, fulfilling MLO 3. Japanese was always a language so I sought out to make this my major.
Studying another language opens many doors. One of the benefits of studying Japanese at CSUMB is that the department gives each student the opportunity to study abroad at various universities throughout Japan. I was able to study abroad at Toyo University during 2013-2014 school year, fulfilling MLO 5. Studying a language in class in one thing, but being able to utilize it in life is another. Speaking the language is the only way to become fluent. At first I was shy to speak the language because I barely spoke the language. Gradually over time my friends started to ease me out of my comfort zone and this is the point I felt comfortable speaking the language, fulfilling MLO 1 and 2. . Even if I made mistakes, I embraced them. Having people around that are not afraid to correct your mistakes will make you better at the language.
Living abroad for a year I was able to compared America and Japan. For the first time in my life I was an outsider looking into the melting pot that is known as America. Doing this able to finally examine what are the strength and flaws of the the country I grew up in. A flaw that is shared both in Japan and America is that we still have a problem when it comes to respecting other races. During my year abroad I was stopped by the police on a number occasions to check if I had my resident's card. This for these stops is that Japan has growing population of Peruvian immigrant, a number of them come in illegally.