00:00
welcome to Kevin's English Room podcast hello hello all right can you still see
me I can still see you you're right behind the Sun yeah sorry you're right
in front of the Sun so yeah if you move like that I just have to move with you
okay so that's your name Annie Sun Annie yeah yeah I need some
Annie right?
Hello Kevin and Yamachan. My brother is a member of the Yami No Soshiki program and is currently in Australia.
Oh, a Hippo member.
My brother has hated studying for 18 years.
He told his mom that he doesn't want to go to college because he hates studying and doesn't have a job he wants to do.
Okay. So he went to Australia to study abroad.
Wow.
Four months after my brother left, he sent me an email saying, "I can't help it. I want to go to college."
Wow. What? Wow. What happened?
My family is surprised to see what happened in Australia. I also hated Japanese high school and decided to study abroad in Canada.
Now I want to go to law school.
Wow. Wow.
It's quite similar. Similar family. Sisters.
Have you ever changed since you came to Japan? Have you ever changed since you went to France? I want to know your experience of being pushed by the motivation switch. I always enjoy listening to my mom.
Thank you. Thank you.
Wow. Surprising.
What happened there, right? What happened in Australia?
I know that there are so many, you know, shigekis.
Especially when you go abroad, study abroad, you feel so many things, especially if you are like high school student.
You feel so many things and everything changes your mind.
So many drastic changes happen.
It's true.
But yeah. I want to study. That's great.
Do you think he's talking about just English or do you think he's just in general like science, math, physics?
I think general.
In general?
Yeah. Or like he might have found specific category that he want to go into like agriculture.
True. It's possible. It's possible. Wow.
Have you had that like a similar experience if you went abroad? Something changed in you?
Yeah.
Changed your mindset or like your interest?
03:02
Yeah. I went to France and felt like Japan is such a small country.
And actually in France, nobody kind of knows Japan.
Of course they know Japan.
Right. The existence of it.
Yeah. They've heard Japan. It's kind of Asian country.
Southeast or far east.
Right, right, right.
Wherever. But they know.
And anime, manga, Dragon Balls or like football player Honda Kagawa.
Okay.
But most of them haven't, you know, never been to Japan or even, you know.
So I felt like, oh, Japan is such a small country and not like kind of, I was sad kind of.
I love Japan and I love, you know, the Japanese cultures and everything. So, oh, nobody knows Japan.
The, you know, good things of Japan, beauty of Japan. So, oh, I was kind of sad.
And that was the biggest hit when I went to France.
Okay.
And that, you know, made me motivated to do several things.
Yeah.
Motivated in a way that would allow other foreigners to understand more about Japan?
Yes.
Uh huh.
Yes, basically.
Wow.
And I have to learn things for, you know, make Japan a little more bigger than right now so that people would know Japan. Yeah.
That's big.
Yeah.
A big one.
Yeah, that's big.
Yeah.
So that's why, yeah, I wanted to start studying about agriculture, about the food problems.
Yeah.
Um, because France is really good at those agricultural things.
Japan was really weak about, you know, "Shokuryo jikyuri" to things.
That's kind of really weak as a country. That's what I thought when I was a high school student.
Yeah.
Yeah, and also one thing that I thought was entertainment. Okay. Yeah. And sports.
So they kind of know Japanese football player name, even though they don't know about Japan itself.
So if I can be like huge soccer football player, star player, then I can represent Japan and...
But it wasn't possible for me. So I quit that in a way. Yeah.
But yeah, kind of music, if I could be the huge star in the world.
That's true.
Obviously I can represent and kind of introduce Japanese culture to the world.
That's true.
So that's what I actually try to do.
Oh.
Yeah.
Is that mindset still in you?
06:00
Yeah.
Oh, that's pretty cool.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm still on the way. I'm still really, really small, tiny, but I'm kind of on the way.
Yeah.
That's a new side of you that I'm seeing right now.
I didn't know that you had that desire to express your Japanese-ness and the Japanese culture to the world out there.
Yeah.
Nice.
Oh, thank you.
But I'm still kind of really on the way, the beginning steps.
So it's quite far from the goal.
But see, I sing some songs and put out on the YouTube channel and I wear Japanese kimono kind of outfit so that I can introduce at least some kind of cultures, some Japanese okimono in mind.
And that's what I try to, you know, as in first steps.
I see.
Nice.
I see those out there like BTS, Blackpink.
Yeah.
Maybe Blackpink set too old?
No, Blackpink's still top tier.
You know that they represent Korea.
Yeah, they do.
And they make Korea, you know.
Such a popular country, right?
I'm kind of jealous of that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The thing about K-pop is that, you know, the government is supporting them, right?
Budget-wise.
But that's really clever as like strategy of country.
It's a great game plan.
Yeah, yeah.
Entertainment, sports.
See, those two have really, really strong power.
Right.
It's true.
It's penetrating globally.
Yeah, yeah.
It's true.
It's true.
Yeah, so that's what I felt when I was in France.
And that changes my kind of life.
Still that in my mind.
Yeah, it's kind of actually first time that I...
Yeah, first time hearing it too.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
What about you?
I actually don't recall having a moment where like experiencing a different culture,
like somehow penetrated me to think differently or maybe it's because I've always had this
biculture experience of like Japan and the US, right?
Ever since I was born, parents are in US, me being in...
Sorry, my parents are Japanese, me being in the US, right?
That's a biculture kind of environment.
So like it never really had an impact.
It's just always there, right?
The only other countries that I've been to was I went there, like the European countries
just for vacation, right?
So I didn't really like fully experience the trenches.
09:02
So maybe if I go there, like actually live there, like thrive there, maybe I'll change.
But like so far I actually don't recall any.
Even the moment, the first several years of me being in Japan, I didn't really like...
I kind of knew things, a lot of things.
Like I kind of knew how they think.
I kind of knew their basic cultures and everything.
So yeah, it didn't really have that much of a huge impact on me, I feel like.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, true.
That's a kind of big differences between you and me.
We both kind of over the, you know, some countries, but you have born with those two cultures.
Exactly.
But me, I'm Japanese, basically.
Obviously.
Right.
You looked at US through like a Japanese lens.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's interesting.
Yeah.
Thanks for listening guys.
Bye bye.
