Community Project
The community project was done to fulfill MLO 5 as a second option for the requirement of study abroad. For the project I interviewed four Japanese community members about their family and their lives in the U.S. and Japan. I interviewed two Japanese women from an older generation and two Japanese women from a younger generation. I began these interviews with a list of preprepared questions in order to have a general set of responses from each interviewee. These interviews were conducted in Japanese as a way to meet the language immersion requirement. I also transcribed these interviews in Japanese and English. With the interviews along with two books, one on Japanese psychology and the other a work of Japanese fiction dealing with a family and their bonds, most specifically the concept of amae, I was able to critically examine the interviews for values. I wrote a paper compiling the ideas and themes that I saw repeated in the interviews and the books, all of which focused on the unique relationship between children and their mothers and how this relationship ultimately impacts their values and decisions. I learned a great deal about Japanese family structures and the importance of caring for family in Japanese culture and how both of these are different in different generations. Being able to transcribe the interviews allowed for me to practice my listening skills in Japanese as well as my ability to comprehend what I was hearing in a manner that allowed for me to critically asses its content. The interviews also gave me exposure to informal Japanese as not all of the interviewees responded in formal Japanese, which I am more familiar with. The Japanese psychology book that I read also gave me a chance to better understand the differences in Japanese physiological studies and psychological studies in the U.S. I am appreciative of this project as it was an experience that opened my eyes to an aspect of Japanese culture that is not discussed in classes and allowed for me to directly ask people why they believe that their family is structured the way that it is.