I have an interview coming up in a few days for a position with the JET program. I have taken the entire week off from work in order to study Japanese intensively so I can impress the interviewers. Every day, I find new articles on websites like the Asahi or yomiuri shinbun digital editions and study their content to learn more about Japan’s culture and language.

After Spanish and French, Japanese is the third foreign language I’ve studied. Of the three languages, I think Japanese is the most beautiful and has the most interesting culture. Both the Japanese language and culture are very different from my own, so I constantly discover new and interesting things when I study them.The history of Japan is particularly interesting. The Japanese lived much differently and under much different circumstances from westerners. They had a feudal system in which the caste of Samurai were highly respected not only as warriors but also administrators of the government. These days, the Japanese people have changed, but they’re still different from westerners on a fundamental level. For example, their entire society is structured around groups of people and they attach great importance to respecting the wishes of the group. I’ve learned a little about the existence of different types of groups such as the “nakama” and also “douryou” and I’d like to learn more about how it all works.