Why Japanese?
Being from Hawai’i it is easy to see that there is a lot of Japanese influence on the “local” culture. I myself am of Japanese descent, my earliest Japanese ancestors immigrated to Hawai’i in the mid to late 1800s. And over time, the language has disappeared in the family. Which is one of the reasons why I want to learn Japanese, to better understand who I am. Also, as I said before the Japanese culture has found a place within these islands. You can see it through many unique customs, foods, cultural events, and even the local language which is a mix of many languages including Hawaiian, Filipino, English, and Portuguese. This is called pidgin English. One of my favorite examples of such cultural mixing is Tako Pokè which is a food of both Japanese and Hawaiian descent. Tako is octopus in Japanese, and Pokè is a Hawaiian staple food.
Where are you from in Hawai'i? My Dad grew up outside Honolulu and my grandparents are from the Big Island. Anyway, the Japanese language has phased out of my family as well, and while my dad and grandmother are proficient neither are comfortably fluent, and I also want to keep in touch with that side of my heritage.
ReplyDeleteこにちは Wakakuwa(きん) Sorry for the late response but that's so cool! I am from the island of Kaua'i and my mom's side of the family first came to the island in the late 1800s and I believe some made it to Oahu too, but I don't really stay in touch with them all that often. But yeah over the years the language has been used less and less, but my mom knows some of the basics.
Delete