Interviews
Difficulties understanding different Japanese dialects
I am familiar with Hiroshima because everybody talked like that and I grew up with that so I learned, I thought it was part of a standard Japanese until go to school, went to school and then there was local dialects and the book, my nephew just made it; it's all this Japanese slang and especially local slang. I don't think anybody other than Hiroshima people understand that and not the standard Japanese, with mixed Japanese and that's somewhat familiar to me. Some of 'em I just learned, new things and that's what older people talk about. So, go different places, there different people talk but I didn't pay much attention to. But most of 'em here it was like a Kyushu dialect such as Fukushi-, I mean as Fukuoka, Saga and some Nagasaki and some Kumamoto and I have experience with Kuma-, I mean, Kagoshima, Mr. Yamaguchi was a Kagoshima and they talk I don't completely understand so I don't even care to write it down because they strictly different even though same island, Kyushu. But when they spoke in standard Japanese, very nice and I appreciated.
Date: December 17 & 18, 2003
Location: Washington, US
Interviewer: Alice Ito, Tom Ikeda
Contributed by: Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.
Explore More Videos
Immersed in Japanese culture and language
(b. 1936) Japanese Peruvian incarcerated in Crystal City
Performing the koto and taiko drum together, in Japan
(b. 1949) Musician and arts educator and adminstrator.
Acculturation
(b.1964) California-born business woman in Japan. A successor of her late grandmother, who started a beauty business in Japan.
Japanese are more accustomed to foreigners
(b.1964) California-born business woman in Japan. A successor of her late grandmother, who started a beauty business in Japan.
Teaching at the military language school during World War II
(b. 1924) Political scientist, educator, and administrator from Hawai`i
Learning English upon discovering that family could not return to Peru
(1930-2018) Nisei born in Peru. Taken to the United States during WWII.
Witnessing the atomic bombing of Hiroshima
(b. 1927) Japanese American Nisei. Family voluntarily returned to Japan during WWII.
Her early life in Canada
(b.1912) Japanese Canadian Issei. Immigrated with husband to Canada in 1931
Japanese school
(b.1924) Japanese Canadian Nisei. Interpreter for British Army in Japan after WWII. Active in Japanese Canadian community
Learning Japanese at school and at home with family
(b.1951) Co-founder and managing director of San Jose Taiko.
Going to Japanese school
(1923-2011) Lawyer, MIS veteran, founder of Francis and Sarah Sogi Foundation
Feeling closer to Japan as a Japanese American
(1923-2011) Lawyer, MIS veteran, founder of Francis and Sarah Sogi Foundation
Decision between becoming a minister or musician
(b. 1949) Musician and arts educator and adminstrator.
Performing in the first Asian American play, "The Monkey Play"
(b. 1949) Musician and arts educator and adminstrator.
To think in one language and live in another (Spanish)
Sansei Argentinean