Written by: Jodi
In 1992, I headed off for a two year teaching contract in Japan with only a suitcase and a pocket English-to-Japanese dictionary. I had never studied Japanese before and was pretty sure I wouldn’t need to because everyone in Japan, and I mean everyone from kindergarten students to grandmothers, was learning English.
My first week went quite well; I had the support of school staff and I floated along on the high that often comes when you first arrive in a foreign and unfamiliar place. But things got a little complicated when the weekend came and I was left to my own devices. I did well enough at the local market where I could simply point to what I wanted and rely on the honesty of the cashier when I handed over my handful of money. But things got a little complicated when I went searching for batteries at the local electronic store.
I looked up the word battery in my handy English-to-Japanese dictionary, tried out the pronunciation a few times and then walked up to the clerk and slowly said the word “chuutai”. The clerk gave me strange look so I tried it again, this time more slowly and loudly “CHUUTAI”. The clerk started to look a little panicky so I decided to add a visual aid and brought out my Discman to show him exactly what I needed. His panic quickly gave way to a big smile and he produced the batteries in question.
On Monday, I asked one of my Japanese colleagues if my pronunciation of the word “chuutai” was correct and she said that it was but she was curious as to why I wanted to use that word. I told her about my trip to the electronics’ store and she burst out laughing. Apparently, I had tried to purchase an army troop – right word, wrong meaning!
This was going to be a long two years unless I got some language skills under my belt so the very next day I enrolled in my first Japanese course. I lived in Japan for a total of 4 years and I’d like to say that I became completely fluent in that time but I didn’t. I learned enough language to avoid asking for odd or embarrassing things but, equally important, I gained a deeper understanding of the culture that can only come from complete immersion.