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Stephanie Nguyen
Life History Interview
1 March 2015

The person I chose to interview is a 17 year old Japanese male who was born and grew up in
Japan for most of his life. Not until he was about 16 did he come to Utah. Previous to Utah, he also
stayed in Boston, Massachussetts for a while along side is older sister. The reason I chose him to
inteview is because he is fairly new to the United States and Utah, and I could only imagine what it
would feel like. We are both Asian but I am Vietnamese and he is Japanese, so I wondered how our
cultures could possibly compare or differentiate. I also have always been interested in the Japanese
culture. I think they are very artistic and beautiful. How I met this person is through my boyfriend.
They both breakdance and when my interviewee came to Utah he was introduced to the breakdancing
community, which is where my boyfriend and him met. Overall, the interview went great. My
boyfriend and I picked him up from his host families house and we went out to eat. After eating we
stayed at the restaurant and did our interview. The only hard part about interviewing him was the
language barrier. Sometimes it was hard for him to understand what I was asking him and it was hard
for me to understand what his answers were. But I was glad at the end of the interview because I felt
like I learned a lot about him as an individual and also the Japanese culture itself.
When it comes to family he immediately gravitates toward the immediate people, like his mom
dad, sister and grandparents. Growing up he says his family life was not normal. His father and mother
were divorced which then he ended up living with his father. After awhile he got fed up living with his
father, for he was abusive. How he described it was that his father would punch him, but that in Japan
abusing your children was okay and just a way to teach ones kids discipline. Eventually he ended up

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living with his grandparents. His sister lived with his mom, and he didn't have the best relationship with
his mom either. When he was telling me about being abused or in his terms, disciplined, I was not
shocked or surprised at all. In most asian cultures it is fairly normal to be disciplined through spanking
or being whipped. I've gone through it and so has everyone in my family. I myself also lived with my
grandparents growing up, they practically raised me. While his grandparents were getting older and
could not take care of him any longer, his father offered to pay for him to come to America and go to
school. Of course, he took the opportunity and this is where he is today. There are things he loves about
America, which is why he chooses to stay, but there are certain things that bother him. I will talk about
those things later on.
The language spoken in his country is obviously Japanese, but there are different dialects
depending on where in Japan you reside. For example, he lived in Osaka, Japan and when he traveled
to Okinawa, Japan he was not able to understand their strong accent despite the fact that they were
speaking the same language. This is also the same in my families country. The accent in North
Vietnam is different than in South Vietnam. Another concept that is ideal in most asian countries is that
we have to treat our elders with the highest respect. The way we speak and our actions toward them are
very strict. In Japan, engaging in eye contact during conversation is not preferred. My intervewee said
that Japanese people are very shy and tend to look down or away somewhere in order to avoid eye
contact unless you are talking with someone very close. Although the people o Japan are shy, things are
slowly changing and people are starting to become more open about showing affection toward the
opposite sex in public. Japan is slowly becoming more Americanized. Japan's views about being gay
are pretty much the same as here in the states. There are inevitably people who are for it or people who
oppose it, but it is still an everchanging concept. He says that in Japan there are actually a lot of TV
stars who are transgender and get surgery in order to look like their desired sex. There are even
transgender clubs, which is something new altogether. Something I did not expect was when he told me

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that in Japan they have sex houses where men and women can go to pay for sex, considering that it is
illegal here in the US.
When it comes to food in Japan they are known to eat very healthy. They typically always eat at
home and rarely ever go out for fast food even though there are fast food restaurants around. A typical
Japanese home will eat rice, fish, vegetables. Some popular foods in Japan are ramen, sushi, udon, and
soba. For new years they premake special bento boxes which will be the only food they eat for next few
days following new year. This is because they believe in no cooking on new years. For this specific
holiday they also eat mochi-a sweet rice cake with different kinds of fillings. Dinner table ettiquette is
pretty standard; no elbows on the table, no wearing hats at the table, no eating with your mouth full, but
it is okay to slurp your soup or noodles. A typical person will hold a small bowl up close to their mouth
with one hand and eat with the other. Eat slow with a straight posture and don't make clinking noises
with your silverware.
I was expecting the style and fashion sense in Japan would be a lot different and more edgier
than ours but my interviewee said that they wear all the same brands as we do in America. For special
occassions boys and girls both wear kimonos. To distinguish between boy and girl, girls wear more
vibrant, celebratory colors while boys wear darker, plain colors.
In Japan, they do celebrate Christmas, mothers and fathers day, but no Thanksgiving or
Independence day. A special holiday unique to Japan is called Mntsuri which is a day to celebrate the
Japanese God. It is basically a Japanese festival that goes on in several different cities during the
summer. At these festivals is where one would see traditional Japanese dancing. This dance is a very
old dance and is described as having slow and beautiful movements. At schools in Japan they don't
have dances like prom or homecoming. What they do have in Japan are dance clubs, which is an
entirely new culture that is evolving in Japans night life. For special/traditional performances they wear
the kimono or what they call the yukata.

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Being in the United States, and in Utah in general has been quite a different experience for my
interviewee. The biggest adaptation he has had to make is being in a place filled with Mormons. He
says that his previous host family would pressure him a lot to become mormon and study the mormon
ways. He strongly disliked this and ended up moving in with a different family. Something that is really
bothersome to him is when people approach him and immediately identify him as just being asian.
They don't even bother to figure out where he is from and only focus on his foreign appearance. When
they do bother to figure out where he is from they automatically assume that he is Chinese. This is very
relatable to me and is something that I have dealt with my whole life even though I was born here. I
have always felt like the odd one out because I am not white, I am the minority. I used to feel
embarassed about where I came from, the way I looked, and how I didn't have an American last name. I
hated how nobody could pronounce my last name right. My interviewee goes to Juan Diego Catholic
School and he feels completely alienated there. This is where he experiences a lot of racism. There
aren't many Japanese people there and most of the other asians are Chinese. He says that not a lot of
people try to be his friend or talk to him because they know that he doesn't speak english very well. He
does not try to make friends either because of how different he feels. The kids at his school will make
jokes about asians in front of him talking about the shape of our eyes. He said that one time during
history class there was a kid talking down on Japanese people and implying that they are violent people
because they used the atomic bomb during war. The teachers at his school don't really stick up for the
minorities in the school either. He says that his teachers always group the asians together during group
projects. Another thing he hates is how people see the asians at the school like they are all the same
person because they have similar physical characteristics. The only times any white people would
approach him or want to be his friend is when they find out that he can breakdance. Breakdancing is a
big part of his life and it is becoming very popular in Japan. Bboy federation is a non-profit
organization for people of all ages who want to breakdance. They usually practice at Utah Arts Alliance

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in downtown SLC. This is where he goes to dance and meet new friends. He says that when he goes
here and dances with them he is welcomed with open arms and doesn't feel judged. He enjoys that he
can learn, grow, and share a common passion with other people, despite where they come from.
Overall, having this interview was both fun and interesting. I've always wanted to sit down and
ask someone who was foreign to this country all these questions without feeling like I was being too
nosy or disrespectful. I think it's interesting to know what their lives are like and how different they can
be from my own. I'm glad that I was able to take a glimpse into the life of someone different than
myself. I was able to relate, sympathize and empathize with my interviewee. I learned about his
struggles and what it's like for him to be in a place completely different than what he is used to. Sitting
down and talking to him over food, I could see how kind and polite he was also. He is a good kid in all,
and I am glad that I was able to listen to his story.