Romanticising Japan: The Icon Of Escapism And Freedom

Japanese, or French:

Choose.

At our school: all students must learn a language.

Well... that's if you were in the Global Leaders Academy.

Restrictive to the apathetic student; coincidence for the lover of language.

Before making the hard decision, we were exposed to the two languages for half of the year.

I had my sights already: it was Japanese.

(Much to the disappointment of my French teacher who saw promising academic potential in me)

Thinking about it, I don't remember why I chose Japanese.

We leant bits of it in primary school, but never enough to have a full grasp of what it had to offer.

I'm here more to discuss a common experience with language learners.

How, we romanticise foreign places, like Japan, through its unfamiliar culture and language, characterising it as a place to exercise freedom and reinvent ourselves.

(Or any place for that matter. But, I will mainly use Japan. Like Hayao Miyazaki did with Europe, I with Japan.)

Adopt A Language, Recreate Yourself

In our year 12 Japanese class, we once discussed how we sound different from when we spoke English.

A feeling of being a different person through the lens of another language.

How we perceive reality (a way of creating it) can either be done with objective observation without judgement, or the adoption of words.

Language then becomes a reflection for value, meaning and culture.

The best example is the Japanese language.

Your position in the social hierarchy affects the language you use in terms of showing respect.

The language you use (in the sense of 'how', not 'what'), is a reflection of the ideas of how you perceive yourself.

The English persona I have adopted is of the articulated and strong within his words.

My Japanese, not so much.

The language humbles me by the lack of fluency I have. To be humble, the language can be kind to me through my learning journey.

It teaches me more than I teach it.

With this stance, I am more curious and less judgemental when studying it. This cumulatively creates a playful relationship.

There's no real point learning a language if you're not having fun with it.

That's why I probably felt the most relaxed during my Japanese class.

I had to put myself in an environment where my brain was more likely to grow, still with the element of difficulty due to ambiguity.

But also, it's to let go of the stern academic personality when it came to my other classes.

Because, what other class gives you the chance to sound like a Japanese school girl?

Repulsed By Familiar Culture

I cannot speak for most Japanese speakers, but as the son of an Indonesian mother and Australian father, I identify more with the Asian culture than the Western.

My proclivity to study the Japanese language is a form of rejecting some aspects of the West.

I'm not saying that the Japanese culture is the beacon of hope for humanity, I still believe it's a hybrid between the better aspects of the Eastern and Western cultures.

However, I'll get this proclivity to reject aspects of the Western world when, for example, growing up in its school system.

(I will still happily take studying in Australia than Japan. Social pressure, bullying, and crowd-think do not excite me at the least.)

Asian children tend to want to go to school.

They have respect for their teachers.

The Western child (not all of course) speak while their teacher is delivering content, use their phones in class, disobedient, disrespectful.

It tends to trickle down from the parents.

The child will adopt the values the parents deems acceptable, and that bar differs from family to family

Then, those values tend to climb up the hierarchy: family to community, community to city, city to country.

So, does it mean I learn the Japanese language as my retort for Western culture?

No.

Simply, because it wouldn't be a strong enough reason to continue learning the language.

If you do something out of hate, it'll be effective short term, but not long term.

Simply, because you need the reward of doing it, which comes out of love of doing something.

Perhaps the curse of learning about other cultures is not having ignorance of your own culture.

You see this a lot with the Americans, how they won't leave outside their little bubble and won't know a lot about the world.

Which is fine, if it serves its purpose for them.

A Distant Land, Playing With The Unknown

There's something about travelling to somewhere foreign, and unbound by the social familiarity of your hometown.

A freedom of, no one will remember you.

You are a just a face in sea of the crowd.

That whatever you do, it won't matter.

For why this feeling only arises in travelling, I'll attempt to point at why.

(For any of my points, they can most likely be rebutted. But, this is my own interpretation)

I don't have the science to back it, but assume you're in a tribe. And let that tribe encompass the town you live in.

The likelihood of someone recognising you is raised by multiple trials.

Now, place yourself in a foreign place, speaking a language they do not speak, wearing clothes you do not wear.

The likelihood people will recognise you is low.

You, thus, become insignificant.

You are of no importance to the vast places of the world and the people who inhabit it.

Now, with this unconscious understanding, you have the freedom to do what you want without the fear of judgement or being remembered.

The unknown of people, food, place, culture (all of that), provides an opportunity to play with the unknowns.

It's what makes travelling fun, or terrifying.

It's the borderline between thrill and anxiety.

You do not have the security of familiarity, but freedom with unknowns through the humbling of your importantness.

Romanticism

I call it that because every place has their caveats.

Japan for example, has an extreme working culture, that starts from middle school.

There's a loneliness epidemic amongst the population, in turn, is causing population collapse if the country does not consider other solutions: like immigration.

A certain racism when it comes to foreigners due to their homogeny.

Someone compared Japan as a stage act.

It's better that you're in crowd visiting and observing the fun.

Rather, than one of the actors participating in it.

I still think at a point, I used the language as a form of escapism.

Not satisfied with the Australian life, thinking if I was born Japanese it would be any different.

However, I think otherwise now.

I acknowledging the negatives of the culture, I am still appreciative of the journey I am embarking with learning the language.

Creating a different persona that I can view the world through the lenses of.

Providing awareness about my own culture and paying down the ignorance debt that comes with staying in your own bubble.

Also, always looking forward to travelling, and the feeling of not being important.

Be careful that Japan, a popular culture for it, isn't used for escaping one's own reality and resenting it.

Merely an opportunity to go on an adventure.