Integrative Narrative
For me, I have always had an interest in Japanese culture but never anticipated taking it up as a major in college. Before I came to CSUMB, I was taking Spanish classes at my local community college, but transferring to this school and seeing the available opportunities through the Japanese program, I decided to take a chance a with it and see where it led me.
There are many different things that I learned through this major. Perhaps the biggest one and something that I've struggled with for a long time is how to gain confidence in my abilities. I'm aware that I'm not fluent in any way, but during presentations I tend to choke up and fumble over my words. Constantly carrying the fear of saying something incorrectly has haunted me for a long time, but the only way to get over that is to speak more. During my time abroad, my goal was to speak mostly in Japanese. This backfired somewhat when I took up a job as an English Conversation Teacher, but after class I would make the effort to talk to my students in Japanese and get to know them better. I made a lot of friends this way, but seeing as our main method of contacting each other was through SNS, my writing ability improved at a greater rate than my speaking ability. In my Japanese classes, of course there are opportunities to speak and have conversations, but that's only for a very specific period of time. We received a lot more writing assignments than presentations, so of course my academic writing also slightly improved. My goals for the future are to be just as confident in my speaking as I am with writing.
After my year abroad, I started my service learning course. I spent the majority of the semester with 3 of my classmates dedicating time to teaching Japanese phrases and culture to elementary school students. I practiced academic writing in Japanese in this class, as well as presenting in Japanese. I've learned that I'd rather not teach older children, but maybe I have a future with teaching pre-k or first graders.
In my final semester for capstone, my research topic was Perception of Mobile Gaming among college students in Japan and America. I'm not entirely sure in which direction I was heading with this topic; the process was a struggle beyond my imagination, but the outcome was well worth it.
Looking back on my time at CSUMB, I would try to not let other people's actions affect my class performance and state of well-being. All I can do from here is to look towards the brighter future, and do my best with each new and challenging thing that comes my way.
There are many different things that I learned through this major. Perhaps the biggest one and something that I've struggled with for a long time is how to gain confidence in my abilities. I'm aware that I'm not fluent in any way, but during presentations I tend to choke up and fumble over my words. Constantly carrying the fear of saying something incorrectly has haunted me for a long time, but the only way to get over that is to speak more. During my time abroad, my goal was to speak mostly in Japanese. This backfired somewhat when I took up a job as an English Conversation Teacher, but after class I would make the effort to talk to my students in Japanese and get to know them better. I made a lot of friends this way, but seeing as our main method of contacting each other was through SNS, my writing ability improved at a greater rate than my speaking ability. In my Japanese classes, of course there are opportunities to speak and have conversations, but that's only for a very specific period of time. We received a lot more writing assignments than presentations, so of course my academic writing also slightly improved. My goals for the future are to be just as confident in my speaking as I am with writing.
After my year abroad, I started my service learning course. I spent the majority of the semester with 3 of my classmates dedicating time to teaching Japanese phrases and culture to elementary school students. I practiced academic writing in Japanese in this class, as well as presenting in Japanese. I've learned that I'd rather not teach older children, but maybe I have a future with teaching pre-k or first graders.
In my final semester for capstone, my research topic was Perception of Mobile Gaming among college students in Japan and America. I'm not entirely sure in which direction I was heading with this topic; the process was a struggle beyond my imagination, but the outcome was well worth it.
Looking back on my time at CSUMB, I would try to not let other people's actions affect my class performance and state of well-being. All I can do from here is to look towards the brighter future, and do my best with each new and challenging thing that comes my way.