Different ways to be lost in translation

An elderly Japanese man traces an oval-shape in the air with his finger, all the while making a buzzing sound. Bill Murray looks at him, dumbfounded. Both are attempting to make small talk in the hospital's waiting room. Murray's character mimics the stranger's gestures, but the meaning is lost.

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It’s a scene from “Lost in Translation,” a critically-acclaimed fictional movie following the lives of two people trying to weave their way within Tokyo’s hustle and bustle. I’ve watched it twice now, each time developing a deeper admiration for it. Sure, it’s filled with clichés. But I have faced a lot of the same cultural challenges living in the Japanese countryside. I mean, I am slowly picking up bits and pieces of the language. But it’s hard. When I call the taxi dispatcher, I use the fewest words possible. When I order food in the restaurant, I still point to the pictures in the menu and say: “Kore o hitotsu, onegaishimasu!” (“This one, please.”) When the phone rings in the staffroom,  I don't answer it.

The other day, one of my elementary school students was pulled out of class. K-kun was perched over his worksheets, mumbling something like “wakkanai” as he tried to work out his kanji homework. At first glance, he seems like your typical eight-year-old boy. He keeps his pencils in a red “Robot Monsters” pencil case. His loose leaf papers are tucked into a plastic file folder emblazoned with a cute Pikachu cartoon. He has typical Asian features – black hair and brown eyes.

But if you delve in deeper, you’ll see that he’s a foreigner, just like me, in Japan. He is Chinese. (JET Programme's groundbreaking keyword: internationalization. Expect the unexpected, Japan! Foreigners come in all shapes and sizes. That's the concept we're supposed to spread amongst our communities as international ambassadors).

Every morning, an assistant teacher comes to school and attends classes with him. She breaks down the lesson in Chinese, because he doesn’t have a complete grasp of the Japanese language. She even sits beside him during my English lessons, because he doesn’t understand a lick of English.

His family moved here in March. I spoke with his mother, because met them in Japanese class one Thursday night. (It took me a few weeks to realize he was one of my kids from work!)



I wonder what it’s like… to be in a country where you can at least recognize the characters, but you might not be able to communicate freely. (Both Chinese and Japanese use kanji, but the characters most likely have different meanings/readings). Can he make friends easily? Does he understand the lessons?

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As the school lunch hour quickly approached, K-kun hurriedly finished his kanji worksheet. I slid him a sticker as a reward, so he plucked it from me while saying “ARIGATOU!”

And you might be wondering what the Japanese grandfather asks Bill Murray's character. He wonders how long Murray's been in Japan, and tries to enhance his query by gesturing out an airplane travelling through the sky.

 For me, it has taken almost two years of living here to slowly grasp an understanding of all things Japanese - be it the people, the language and the customs.