Name: "Do you feel more Japanese or American?" | Interview PART 2
Uploaded: 2025-07-21T18:09:49.000Z
Duration: 9 min 47 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

The comparative

Is there one culture that you feel like you relate to more, or are there certain parts of each culture that feel more natural for you?

To-infinitive

I was surprised to find that when I came back to Japan, that I was more Japanese than I thought.

Gerund

When I lived in the States, I never thought I'd live here, and I couldn't even imagine living here.

But after coming back, it was kind of like somewhere deep inside I had some Japanese in me or something.

I don't know what it is exactly, but I didn't feel as awkward or uncomfortable here as I thought I would.

I know a lot of people that live abroad for a long time and come back have a hard time adapting, and a lot of the times they'll go back.

But I actually like it here, and I think it's just like values are a little bit different, right?

It's like a big thing for Japanese people.

So when you're traveling, I found that when I was traveling with my friends from the States, they weren't as into the food part.

It wasn't as big of a priority for them, but I always really liked eating.

As you guys probably would know if you've ever seen my videos, I'm always eating in my travel vlogs.

Really shallow things like that, just daily things that I can relate to.

But when it comes to thought processes and how you think through things, I might relate better to the way Americans do.

Just being a little bit more logical about certain things.

I can't think of a specific example, but I think both.

I feel like in America, I could be a little bit more outgoing and outspoken.

Because in Japan, depending on the situation, I feel like if everyone says, Okay, answer A is the right answer, and if you say answer B, then you're kind of like the weird one, the odd one out sort of.

So when I was younger, since I was growing up in America, I kind of had the tendency to...

Well, I was more of a shy person, but I would have my own opinions, and I don't want to lie about that.

But at the same time, my mother would just be like, be careful.

My mom would be like, okay, when you're going to say something in Japanese, make sure you really think about the other people's feelings.

I mean, I guess that could apply to English as well.

But I feel like you kind of have to be a little bit more careful as to how you put it into words and how you express yourself.

Because sometimes saying something a little bit different than what everyone else would say could kind of take you out of the group or something like that.

So I feel like you kind of have to make sure you know how to fit in sort of, but also make sure you put your own feelings and thoughts out there as well.

You can disagree with your friends all the time.

I feel like people would be kind of proud to actually be able to say your own things and not be like...

I feel like in America, if you say something that's a little bit different, or you have your own opinions and you have really strong feelings for it, I feel like people would value that.

They would really look up and respect your opinions.

But I think you have to be a little bit more careful in Japanese as to how you put it into words.

I think the language itself is a little bit difficult in terms of communicating with people.

So how was it growing up learning two languages?

Did you ever feel like it was difficult having to focus on two languages?

And like it would have been easier if you could have just focused on just one?

I don't know, I'd like to hear Melody's because you grew up, you were born and raised there.

And if it felt like kind of like something that we had to do and we were forced to do, that could kind of make us dislike Japanese.

So I had to learn from mostly like TV, dramas, and then I did make a lot of mistakes.

And I talked about this in the video too, but I was made fun of my Japanese by people before.

And that's why I almost lost my Japanese because I felt very embarrassed to speak in Japanese.

Because, you know, it's something small, but it still hurts.

You know, when someone says something to you, when you're trying your really, your hardest to express your feelings and things like that.

And whenever I would have some sort of word or phrase, I didn't know I would ask anyone who could speak Japanese.

That's how I kind of learned little by little.

But it's like Shiko said, like there are a lot of words where I hear it on the news and I still have no idea what it's about.

Because it's not like, you know, we learned every single kanji or every single word in Japanese.

So there are things that maybe middle school children would know, but we don't know, you know.

So I was, I talked to my parents in Japanese.

And then I moved and started going to school.

And at first, obviously, Japanese was better for me.

And I didn't understand what anybody was saying in class.

But, you know, a child's mind is like a sponge.

And after about a year, I was speaking it.

And gradually it got harder to keep my Japanese.

But I went to Japanese school every, I was forced to go to Japanese school every Saturday.

Yeah, I went to Japanese school on Saturdays.

You had slumber parties on Friday nights.

And my parents would let me go, but I'd have to like leave at 6 in the morning.

I made good friends, but yeah, none of us really liked doing our homework.

Like why do we have to go to school one more day than everyone else?

So I had a problem of hating Japanese for a while.

And because I didn't see myself living here in the future, I was like, why do I need it?

Now I wish I would have studied a little harder.

But I've actually, you know, caught up a lot in the last 8 years.

So when I, well, I guess, went back to learning.

Yeah, I just kind of all, you know, English just came to me naturally after about a year.

And then my parents would obviously make me talk to them in Japanese.

So if they asked me a question in Japanese and I answered in English, they'd be like, we just talked to you in Japanese, you have to answer in Japanese.

And so they were pretty, I guess, strict about that for a while.

And yeah, but when I first moved back here, my Japanese level was very like kind of elementary school.

Because all I did was talk to my parents for the most part.

Just once a week with my friends from Japanese.

But we all talked in English because that was easier for us.

So I barely talked to anybody in Japanese.

So at first I couldn't keep up with like the conversations.

If I went to like a Nomikai or like a Gokon, I'd be like, oh my gosh, everything's happening so fast.

And I couldn't keep up with the trends because, you know, people talk about trends.

Because you don't really use or you probably never use keigo with your parents at home.

So it's something that you kind of have to learn and use outside in the real world, kind of.

Because you can't use keigo for yourself and things like that.

Because I've talked to both of you before.

I know that you pretty much plan on living in America for the foreseeable future.

And you plan on living in Japan for the foreseeable future.

So this is a really hypothetical question.

But in the future, if you had kids, do you think that you would still teach them Japanese and you would still teach them English?