TL;DR: Im Filipino, but I speak Japanese to some immeasurable extent because I decided to learn it when I was 7. Its nice to be thought that I look Japanese because it makes me sure that I will have less of a chance of being treated like a foreigner, which is advantageous more often than not IMO when visiting other countries. No, I do not want to be Japanese because I appreciate myself as I am, thanks. For the longest time, Im still getting questions about me and being Japanese. I am Filipino. But culturally I probably appreciate Philippines, Singapore, America, and Japan overall. Japan the least though because Id frankly say it can be pretty tense sometimes. You dont look Filipino. Im mixed. As far as I know :I My mom is British-Spanish-Filipino, and my dad is Portuguese-Chinese-Filipino, and they were both born and raised in the Philippines. If you think I dress Japanese, Im busy, trying to be professional, on a student budget, and UNIQLO USA works just great for that. If you think I do look Japanese, then by an awesome stroke of luck, I just do. Maybe go out and see more of the world and then youll realize that I dont look Japanese if you pay attention to details. My features just dont line up, and so, when in doubt about WHAT ASIAN ARE YOU?, Filipino!? Mixed!? Yup, you got it. Why do you speak Japanese then? I made the decision to learn Japanese after my best friend moved back to Japan after 3rd grade. I seriously thought (granted I was 8 years old) I had to know Japanese in order to go see her in Japan. Straight up told my dad I had to go to Japan to learn Japanese. He took me to Japan on his business trip and got me my first 元気 textbook. Lol. I thought thats how it had to be done. Thanks to my dad for supporting my wild plans and getting me that textbook. So, again at the naive age of 8, I banded with two of my elementary school friends and my sister to make the Japanese learning club and all I did was learn katakana and basic greetings. Cutting the story short, I took every opportunity I could to learn Japanese because it was fun for me and I had friends to use the language with. It sounds nice to me and general pronunciations are straightforward and do-able. But you act so Japanese. Okay maybe I picked up some cultural habits. But definitely no. If I really were, Id probably have more tact or something. Some aspects of Japanese lifestyle are so awesome and I respect it, so I try to follow suit on the parts that I like because it seems sensible to me. I regret not paying enough attention to Mandarin, Spanish, and Tagalog classes. WOULD HAVE BEEN USEFUL AS A DENTIST. The end. Brownie points if you made it this far, extra brownie points if you now actually know that Im Filipino and wont forget it. But why explain myself to the haters anyway. My friends understand or dont question it.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 18:56:16 +0000
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