Categories
Life Decisions

Ten years since learning Japanese

My first visit to Japan was in 2004.

This month is a nostalgic month for me, especially this year: July 2012 marks ten years since I first embarked on my journey of learning Japanese.

It’s a milestone, certainly; I will even go as far as to say July 2002 changed my life through this point in time.

During the earlier part of 2002, I was a junior. As we all knew in our little high school, all the accelerated learners of the junior class was “supposed to” apply to the Virginia Governors’ Schools (summer programs). There were sciences, arts, agriculture, and languages. I didn’t want to feel the high pressure to audition for the summer music program, so I decided instead, “I like languages. I will choose one of the language schools.”

There was Spanish, French, Russian, and Japanese. Spanish and French were more competitive, and I just felt at that point I was fine with my Spanish proficiency. So I instead chose to learn a new language: Japanese.

The process was slightly rigorous, but after a few months of waiting for results, I received mail saying I was going to the Japanese Language Academy (JLA as we all later affectionately called it) for the summer of 2002. There was only one problem, though…

My eldest sister’s wedding was set for July 6, 2002. And in order for me to qualify for the full JLA program, I had to stay for the duration of the three weeks in July, i.e., not be able to attend my sister’s wedding. I remember crying about this with my sister, saying that I wanted so badly to be in both places at once.

I will never forget what she told me in response to my dilemma:

“Go to the Japanese Language Academy. You won’t ever get this chance again.”

(My thought at that point: “I won’t get to attend your wedding ever again either….” but I kept my mouth shut.)

And so I went to JLA, missing my eldest sister’s wedding….but, even today, forever grateful she gave me that nudge. For I met so many people at JLA who have touched my life so profoundly. After the program, I began to obsess over learning more about the Japanese language, diving into the Japanese music scene & staying in touch with my JLA friends. I’d get excited meeting Japanese natives and other Japanese speakers (my roommates in my sophomore year of undergrad days were Japanese). I even studied in Tokyo, Japan for one semester in the summer of 2006, where I was able to utilize my language skills & really enjoy life overseas. There are still people from my semester abroad who I continue to stay close with, reminiscing about our summer together and realizing how much time has passed since then.

All because of a 3-week summer program in central Virginia the summer of 2002. In recent years, I’ve made excuses as to why I’ve not used my Japanese skills much; in the past five days, though, I had a lightbulb go off in my mind that–hell, I don’t need to be surrounded by Japanese in order to be proficient in it. I’ve made a point that I will type/write/talk/read in Japanese at whatever chance I get. I may be annoying my followers on Facebook and Twitter with my sudden outbursts in Japanese. But I also realize that I must maintain my language skills, no matter where I am in the world. And with all the people I’ve met in the past ten years–I can achieve this and stay fluent in my adopted language.

Here’s to many more years of Japanese~

Categories
Denver Life life

Big Life Decisions = Opportunities Galore

Greek traditional dancing.

Ever since making my big decision to go forward with TAOpivot, life has been quite eventful. I’ve totally converted over from my paperback planner to Google Calendar to get all my appointments/meetings organized & synced across my devices.

In the past month alone I have gone to these events:

From viewing my July so far, already looks hopping as well with some recurring events (New Tech) & more. At the end of July, I will have my anniversary party for being in Denver for one year. It is exciting–really, I feel like I have lived here before (maybe in a past life?). Looking forward to spending time with all of the wonderful people I’ve met in the 5280.

Categories
Asian-American

The Mind’s Projections.

Last Thursday I participated in a conversation group with three international students. The other volunteers were Caucasian; I was the only Asian-American (as usual). Immediately when I met my group, I felt like they thought they got the “most un-American” American out of the volunteers. So immediately I felt down on myself.

Yet, with this kind of thinking, I know it is only self-destructive and self-prophetic: If I project to the students that I am inferior to the other Americans, then they will also think that way.

I find this has been one big defining insecurity of mine: despite enjoying helping international students out, I’ve always felt that they don’t think I’m as good of an English partner to have as someone who “looks” American. I know that other Asian-Americans have experienced the same feeling: standing in the middle of the road, not accepted when we give our help freely to our brothers and sisters from overseas….yet, getting treated like foreigners ourselves by other Americans.

This was the spark I presented at Ignite Denver, and only a few weeks after the presentation am I able to etch out all these thoughts into a blog post. There is much more I can say, and I’ve thought about writing a book about this experience. Perhaps others have already. Still, everyone has a unique experience.

Categories
death family Who I Am

A Beautiful Life.

Last night, received news that a long-time family friend passed away from pancreatic cancer. She survived longer than expected, but it still shocks the system to realize that she’s now gone.

Life is so incredibly short. I found myself feeling terrible about how I get caught up in petty drama. Why not just let that go & live life to the fullest?

We take others for granted so much. One moment they are there to greet us; the next moment, they are gone. Why do we continue to act as if we will live forever? That our loved ones will always be there for us?

I remember last year, when I was about to leave my hometown and move to Denver. We had a birthday party for her & she gave my sister and me going-away gifts: the necklace shown below.

She said to us,

“Never forget where you came from.”

And, I won’t. Her family has helped our family out so much. Now, to make her spirit proud…I won’t give up.

20120629-174011.jpg

Categories
politics

The Elections Process: Counting Ballots

Last night was an interesting one.

Official Election Reporting Fax

I got to be an Associated Press stringer for the first time and had to cover the election in Adams County. Part of the night, I sat there and watched the news about the terrible fires blazing around Colorado. Then, we got to see how the whole ballot process worked: quite intricate and still many aspects of the process are done manually.

I had a discussion with one of the other media-people there about why nobody has come up with a more automated process yet. I talked about how a startup could do lots of good for elections with a streamlined process; however, there are issues to tackle in this whole process. The main issue is security: if people vote online, is there a way to verify their signature? Is there a way to keep the whole process secure?

I feel that elections & counting ballots can become a lot more efficient, but perhaps not in this point in time. There are still those who do not own computer access; still so many who want to stay with mail-in ballots. Perhaps 40-50 years from now, we can see the digitized voting process come into effect successfully. Then again, we don’t know what will happen between now and then!

I stayed at the Elections Center in Adams County up until midnight; results were slowly posted, but we got them done. I’m glad I got the opportunity to see the whole process & contribute to the Associated Press. I’m sure the process for the General Election in November will be much more complicated (and stressful!). Will be interesting to see if I can be a Stringer for November.