I managed to get some holidays to visit my Japanese family at the end of next week.
It is a moment that I look forward to with much pleasure. Seeing my Japanese mother again, her self-confidence, and her outspokenness makes me smile just thinking about it.
I enjoy the way she tells me about her life in her strong Osaka accent. I enjoy looking at her and her unusual persona. Every time I spend time with her, I tell myself that I was so lucky to have crossed paths with her.
Our families have grown since she gave me shelter in her Lilliputian apartment twenty years ago.
Héloïse and Raphaël have entered our lives, Sarah and the baby in theirs and so, it is a small kindergarten class that we will take to the sea.
I usually play the role of official translator during our holidays in Japan.
With that in mind, I have downloaded all the Japanese applications I could find on to my phone to brush up my language skills.
Things have radically changed for the students of Japanese. No need to pay excess baggage for kanji dictionaries that weigh tons. Today, everything can neatly fit into your phone.
The dusty world of foreign languages is now much more fun. No need to have the soul of a bookworm. Young women and men can learn what they like by listening to their phone on the way to school.
With these exercises in Japanese, my old kanji nightmares return again. These Chinese characters transform into monsters, hunting me through the sleeping hour.
I particularly hate the sophisticated kanji which can have up to 25 different strokes. When you learn the characters, you must remember both the shapes of the strokes as well as the exact order of their application. Between the two attributes, while I was at Keio University, the kanji always found a way to ensnare me, taking particular pleasure in causing bad grades.
I spent all the weekend studying. I wrote pages and pages of characters so much so that Héloïse took a sample to show her teacher.
Will I be up to the challenge simultaneously translating from English to Japanese and Japanese to English for several days in a row?
No matter what, spending time with this family that I consider mine already makes me feel great.
The Kanji can go to bed; I’m determined to enjoy these free-flowing holidays.