Blog post 4_obstacle in my life

Have you ever questioned yourself, who you are, what your identity is and where you belong? I have. Indeed, I almost do every day. There is nothing more humiliating than losing a mother tongue and foreign language that was acquired by unrelenting efforts. This significantly swayed and affected the understanding of my identity.

I was born and raised in Japan until my fourth grade of elementary school, which I was only 10. It was the first day of school in fifth grade when I first started getting the education in English in a foreign country surrounded by people who only knew their mother tongue. In consequence, from knowing nothing but to smile, I slowly learned to speak, write, and communicate in the second language. Throughout learning to speak the second language, learned to appreciate the language and literature more.

Time flew by so fast; I decided to return home back in Japan. Started high school there. To keep up with decent English that I acquired, I decided to challenge myself by joining International Baccalaureate programmed, which became three years of worst nightmare. The more I was exposed to English, the more I lost my mother tongue, which at the same time questioned myself about my identity. “What my real Identity?” There would be a simple answer to this if I were to answer. “I am Japanese who speaks English. Neither English nor Japanese was a native one”.
Under stressful circumstances in IB, my minds were packed and so all I could do was to handle what was in front of me. I could not afford a time to encounter and encourage problems that I originally had. In the end, I survived through International Baccalaureate program and because it gave me nourished mind, I finally found a way to overcome my problem which was to attend university oversea to relearn lost English and polish my mother tongue, Japanese. Now that I am at the University of Hawaii, I truly think attending University overseas became my turning point.