Retaining Japanese customs (Spanish)

From the "middle" Nikkei (Spanish) Growing up with some Japanese families (Spanish) The various realities of Nikkei in Latin America (Spanish) The political effects on Nikkei during the war (Spanish) Retaining Japanese customs (Spanish) Advantages of being Nikkei (Spanish) To be more Japanese than you really are (Spanish) Nikkei vs. Nisei (Spanish)

Transcripts available in the following languages:

(Spanish) In my case, the truth is that I come from a family in which mother and father are Japanese, even though my mother left there at a young age – but her parents were very strict, and they would only speak Japanese at home. So my mother speaks Japanese, and my father, of course, being Japanese, also speaks. So, when I was little we started out speaking Japanese at home. Later on when – I’m the oldest of three – when I went to school, we began turning more towards Spanish. But my father always spoke Japanese in the house. And, in my case, later on I had the opportunity to go to Japan on a monbusho scholarship for a year and a half, and there of course I took six months of Japanese. And then since returning to Chile, I’ve spent the last forty years working for Japanese companies. Possibly, I’m an exception in that regard because I have many friends in my age range who don’t speak Japanese. It’s true, they’ve kept many customs, such as eating gohan or misoshiru, but they don’t speak [the language]. Maybe in my case the path was different.

Date: October 7, 2005
Location: California, US
Interviewer: Ann Kaneko
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

chile education family language

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