The simple things that can change your view of life

Nick Folse

It's amazing how much the experience of living abroad with a host family can change you. When I compare myself now with the way I was when I came to Japan I feel as if a whole other part of me has grown.

Before I came to Japan I was like everyone else. I had still only experienced American culture. I had lived my life, up until the point I came to Japan, not knowing how someone from Japan might think. All I could do was to guess and interpret things that I had learned in school to form a base knowledge of Japanese culture.

Living with a Japanese family who had a strong foundation in Japanese culture was fundamental in letting me break away from that base knowledge and change the way I look at the world. Living with my host family I quickly learned some basics of Japanese culture such as why politeness is so important in Japan. I also learned how people interact to form a community and network of friends with a strong sense of kindness that persists with a never ending cycle of giving and receiving.

This giving and receiving is not just of material things but of feelings, friendships, and the 2 most important words to remember, "Thank you". One thing that I have learned in Japan is that these 2 words carry a great deal of weight, if not the most weight, in social interactions. For instance, when I first arrived in Japan about 6 months ago I was extreamly polite to my host family. I always said "Thank you", even for small things that I would probably ignore back home. I did this for about a month until I got the feeling that I was fitting in pretty well into my host family. Then I stopped saying "Thank you" to the little things. That s when I first realized that the feeling of thanks carries a great deal of importance in Japan.

I finally wound up coming home one day to a pair of angry host parents. I was suprised at how small the problem actually was. I just wasn't expressing my feelings of thanks enough. Ever since that day the same feeling for the need of thanks has been growing inside me and I hope it always lasts.

Once I was able to understand this fundamental feeling I was able to let myself sink deeper and deeper into Japanese culture. Whenever I found myself talking about Japanese culture with my host family or friends I listened with an open mind and wouldn't end the conversation until I understood in my heart what I was being told. As my Japanese improved and my knowledge of Japanese culture expanded I began to be able to put different ideas together. I began to form a good foundation of Japanese ideas in my head which in return let me interpret other fundamental Japanese ideas. I can now also study Japanese history from less of and "outsiders" point of view and know more about why things happened the way they did and how they affect modern Japanese society so closely. I could have studied all of these things from books, but not all of the books in the world can't reshape how you think about the world or tell you about all of the little things in Japanese culture that have deep meaning in their daily life.

Considering all of the things I've learned about in Japan, I would be lying if I said the most difficult, interesting, and beneficial thing was anything else other than the study of Japanese culture. I still can't believe how lucky I am to have had the experience of a homestay in a country with such a rich and beautiful culture.