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JAPANESE PROGRAM FOR SPECIALISTS

MAY, 2017: BREEZE ISSUE #115
A FREE MONTHLY E-NEWSLETTER FOR FRIENDS OF JAPAN & TEACHERS OF
JAPANESEICHIGOICHIE: MY
EXPERIENCE IN THE JAPANFOUNDATION FOR
SPECIALISTS PROGRAM INKANSAIBY ELIZABETH MCDONALD
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA
Last October, I met with my tutor Yazawa-sensei in the libraryof the Japan Foundation center in Kansai. I needed help
reading a flyer in Japanese about a music performance by amusic duo from Sao Paulo that would take place in Tokyo.
Sensei taught me the kanjis necessary to read it. Many were words that I regularly heard suchas ensou suru (to play a musical instrument), minyo (folk song), shakuhachi (bamboo flute), andshamisen (a three-stringed banjo-like instrument). Yazawa-sensei tested me after teaching me
the characters. “You just learned this one. Remember? Now, please read it for me,” she said.
After reading the flyer together, I discussed traveling to Tokyo to see the performance, andYazawa-sensei supported me. She recommended low-cost airline tickets and arranged
accommodations at a Japan Foundation Language Center in North of Tokyo. My visit to see theconcert resulted in subsequent trips to Tokyo for interviews, as well as many audio-visualmaterials that supported my doctoral dissertation project on music by Nikkei Brazilians.
I am a graduate student in Ethnomusicology at the University of California, Riverside, and myresearch deals with music in the South American Japanese diaspora. I recently returned toCalifornia from participating in the Japan Foundation Japanese Language Program forPrivacy - Terms
Specialists in Cultural and Academic Fields, a six-month training program in Kansai. Thanks tothe program, my ability to do research in Brazil
has progressed. In earlier research trips, there
were many people who I could not speak tosince I could not speak Japanese. Now, I am
much more confident in my ability tocommunicate with Brazilian Nikkeis, especially
Isseis , or first-generation Japanese Brazilians
who often prefer to interact in the Japanese
language.

Ichigo ichie is a phrase that my Japanesedictionary translates as “once in a lifetime
encounter (and should be cherished as such).” This expression describes my six months inKansai; it is a rare privilege for an US-American graduate student to focus exclusively on
language training and research.
Daily life at the center was rigorous. Mornings were reserved for Japanese language lessons,such as kanji and grammar. Classes on a variety of topics such as giving oral presentations,academic writing, and individual tutoring took place in the afternoon, as did special lectures
explaining Japanese holidays and festivals, and workshops on topics such as “how to email
university professors for the first time” and “Kansai dialect”.
The Japan Specialists program arranged many
visits to institutions to facilitate our researchsuch the Wakayama University and National
Diet libraries. We met Japanese scholars whowere working on similar topics to our own.
Thanks to an organized outing to theNichibunken Institute for Japanese Studies, I
met with Shuhei Hosokawa, one of my favorite
writers and researchers in musicology. Time toconduct research was also a component of ourroutine. With support from the program’s tutorsand administrators, I travelled to cities withhigh-Brazilian populations, attended concerts, and conducted interviews with Brazilian
musicians living and studying in Japan. I learned about the wide range of experiences of NikkeiBrazilians living in the country of their ancestors. I spoke to scholarship student researchers,
young people training to become Japanese language teachers, Dekassegis , or Brazilian guest
workers, and children of Dekassegis who chose to remain in Japan after their parents returned
to Brazil.
There were also many opportunities to connect with the local community, such as aconversation-partner program. I met regularly with a woman around my age for coffee andconversation. Her mother-in-law taught me the basics of koto when I visited their home! MyPrivacy - Termstutor also introduced me to a local shodo
teacher, Setsuko Nagayama, who held semiprivate classes in her home every other week.
These classes were full of conversation andlaughter. They also helped me to improve myJapanese!
My colleagues, who were researchers andlibrarians from Korea, Europe, Vietnam, China,and Taiwan, were an amazing source offriendship and inspiration. Two otherparticipants in the Japan Specialists program
researched on Japanese migration to the Americas, and I thoroughly enjoyed hearing about
their research throughout the course. My talented classmates shared study materials related togrammar and kanji lessons, organized study sessions, and encouraged me to read materials
related to my research when I did not feel ready or capable.
Many groups from various courses at theKansai Center wandered in and out of thecenter. A group of diplomats from Asian,African, and Caribbean countries, who werelearning Japanese to be posted in Japan,
accompanied our group throughout our stay. I
learned from these talented young people
about English as it is spoken in Jamaica andLiberia, and about the nomadic history ofKazakhstan, among many other topics. Other
groups were at the center for only two to fourweeks, and I wished they could have stayed
longer in the center. Time always felt too short.
When I left the Kansai Center for the final time in early April, the cherry blossom trees aroundthe center were in full bloom. Cherry blossoms, I was told, are a symbol of the beauty andephemerality of life itself, and they remind us savor every moment. I deeply treasure my time at
the Japan Foundation Center in Kansai. While six months passed quickly, the materials I
collected and created, and the skills that I acquired through my six-month training will help me
throughout my career. Thanks to my second tutor Hayashi-sensei, I was able to create atrilingual portfolio of research materials, including photos, video clips of interviews, and shorttexts, which will assist me in explaining my research long into the future. Most importantly, mytime in Kansai gave me a basis to conduct my research in Japanese, an important skill for mycareer.

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I am deeply grateful to the tutors, teachers, librarians, staff, and students at the JapanFoundation, who received me with kindness and listened to me with patience, and for myprofessors at the University of California,
Riverside, who supported me in applying for
the Japan Cultural Specialists program. I hopethat the program can continue to support otherresearchers for years to come.

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