This article is also available in: 日本語
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| Do you know which one is Jeff? |
It’s Jeff.
I have been thinking about having kids and raising them after getting married with Mizuki.
To be honest, I am actually quite worried about raising a kid in a foreign country.
Language
Apparently, I won’t share the same mother tongue with my kids.
No matter how hard I try to teach my kids Chinese they won’t be as good as those who grow up in Taiwan.
It’s like not matter how hard I try to learn Japanese, people will notice my accent is different.
Identity crisis
If they grow up in Japan, they may be confused and not sure who they are. They are raised in Japan but their names are not Japanese names.
They probably will be the only kids in their class with foreign names.
They will be confused if they should consider themselves as a Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese or Chinese people.
I have been thinking how should I help them to go through these confusions.
I probably will tell them:
1. Try to see beyond what is presented to you and find the bright spot.
My Japanese is not as good as yours. Thank god I am not your Japanese teacher.
I know Chinese and English. Would you like to learn those languages?
Keep on your good work on Japanese because I would need you to order the dishes that I never know how to pronounce at restaurants.
2. No one is sure about who they are.
I know you are confused about who you are.
Your classmates might call you a Taiwanese or Chinese and they probably won’t consider you as a Japanese even though you grow up with them.
And that is ok.
No one in the world is 100% sure who they are and what they want in life.
People are always confused about something and people are always changing.
It’s just your worry is a little explicit.
Taiwanese, Chinese, Japanese and Korean are labels, which are used to categorize people so that they can pretend they know who you are.
Don’t argue with them because it is close to impossible to change a person’s mindset.
But do remember, the only person who can put label on you is yourself.
Those meaningless labels can be torn apart easily as long as you want them to.