Not that long ago, in language arts, we were doing a group project that involved a skit. We had to meet up outside of school to film it because there was no time in class given for doing so. We met up at the school and went to one of the girls' houses. We knew one of the members of the group would be showing up late, so we tried to call her to let her know that we were meeting at the house instead, but we weren't able to get into contact with her. We ended up going to the school again to try and find her. But we didn't see her anywhere.

We decided to go onto the school campus to look for her. It would've been okay, but there was something we didn't expect going on at the time: Japanese school.

We went onto the campus and walked around looking for our fellow group member, but we were stopped by a guy. He said, "What are you doing here?" We told him that we were from this school. He seemed confused. I don't think he understood that we were talking about the actual school that's in session during the weekdays...I think he thought we meant the Japanese school. He seemed very suspicious of us and kept staring at us and following us as we walked around.

It made me feel really unsettled. I didn't really have a reason to be uncomfortable since I didn't commit any crimes and I AM a student of the school, but still, I felt like I was being considered an outsider, a stranger, perhaps even dangerous. It was as if I didn't exist during the weekdays when I came to school as a student.

But I am a student there, and it is a familiar place to me, so it bothers me that I would feel this way when Japanese school is going on. Even more unsettling is the fact that Japanese school has been here for quite a while and I've never seen it going on until now. And it makes me realize how many things about this world I still don't know.

But I guess that's to be expected. It's like Mandarin - Even if you study all your life, you will never be able to learn every character in the language. And even if you lived your whole life trying to discover everything in the world, you wouldn't be able to. But you can always try. The quest for knowledge is neverending.

I kind of wish I had chosen to take Japanese in high school. I like French, and since I have already started it, it is best to continue with it, but at the same time I also wish to know Japanese. I think both of them are very beautiful languages. For now I can only learn Japanese through watching anime, but someday maybe I'll be able to focus on it. One time I thought that I would like to learn all the languages in the world and learn how to play all the instruments. Both are quite ambitious goals and I don't know if I can accomplish them. But I'd rather regret trying than regret not trying...

Labels: alien, anime, crime, danger, french, group, guard, japanese, knowledge, language, language arts, learning, outsider, project, quest, school, student, suspicious, weekdays, weekend

Top ↑