J-Select
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October 2008
Living In AGaikokujin World
Marika Shimomura interviews gaikokujin(foreigner) children in Japan.
With more foreigners comingand going, the culture around the world isstarting to be looked at through the eyesof foreigners. What about Japan? What dothe gaikokujin children think about Japan?What is it like being a child being called“gaikokujin”? The thought that manyJapanese citizens think after they see aforeigner from another country.The first thing most people wouldwant to know is, what are the pros and consof being a gaikokujin. I decided tointerview children going to an internationalschool in Yokohama, Japan, 7
th
grade.There was a girl that I interviewed whosaid very interesting things from her pointof view. Her name was Sally Caurns whohas lived in Japan for 2 years. This is howour meeting went. Most Japanese peoplefind foreigners “cool” but what does itreally feel like? When I asked Sally aboutwhat it is like to be a foreigner, she said,“The good things about being a gaikokujinis when they treat you differently, in agood way and you can learn a lot about thecountry and the culture. You can get moreexperience. The language is quite hard tolearn though.” Like most of the peoplethat I interviewed, Sally Caurns also saidthat it was hard to learn the language andthe way that Japanese people act. Evennative Japanese find the language hard, soI had to agree with that comment. Shesaid that those were the reasons shecouldn’t blend in at first. “But now,” shesaid, “I have an idea about how to act inJapan as a foreigner.”Sally Crauns also said a few thingsabout her school and the difference ofbeing an international school studentcompared to going to a British School. “Ina British school you would call the winterbreak Christmas break, whereas in aninternational school not everybodycelebrates Christmas so they would justcall it winter break.” Sally said to me thatYIS had enough variations of culturesbecause she has learned a lot aboutdifferent cultures, including her own. “It’salso good because YIS doesn’t just focuson one culture, but focuses on manycultures.” I knew this because so manythings were around the school fromdifferent cultures.I interviewed another student inYIS that had different opinions fromSally. His name was Jeffery Ku. Jeffery’sfather works for the school and he hasbeen in Japan for 12 years and has been inYIS for 1 year and a half.
Photo by : Christopher KaihoFrom Flicker International Students from YIS. Both Japanesestudents and foreigner students together Photo by : F. Cowan From www.yis.ac.jp Yokohama International School (YIS)
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