We are so thankful for all the wonderful friends we’ve made through Life in Japan, and one of our biggest requests was for a video of our family speaking in only Japanese for a day. Could we do it or not?!
Well, we decided to give it a try, and what a day it was! There was more than one instance when I was wishing I knew how to express myself properly in Japanese. It was funny speaking and seeing the kids look expressionlessly back at me, obviously not understanding. Either I
- Spoke it wrong, or
- I spoke it right and they didn’t understand it, or
- They’re pretending not to understand
It was an excellent test of our ability in Japanese. Some things came easily. Other situations, like communicating with the kids, were a big stretch. Becca and Anna’s Japanese was great though, and I love hearing them speak in Japanese. Even Sarah’s understanding of Japanese is quite impressive. Joshua, on the other hand, is only beginning to understand Japanese, and often we had to talk to him in Japanese and quickly follow it with English.
The experiment was certainly worthwhile, and it’s something we want to do more times. It forces us outside of our comfortable “English” box to try to bridge the gap into Japanese. While Japanese is a complicated language to learn, the feeling of making strides in it and being able to express oneself in it is very rewarding. Here’s to more Japanese videos!!