Having the second language is so much fun!

And useful. —for what? for being yourself.

When I speak in my second language, I feel I am a simple, straight, and strong person.

While in my first language, I feel I am soft, gentle, ambiguous, not straight person.

Why?

The biggest reason is that I have a huge gap between them.

When I speak in my language, I’m like driving a car. I can drive as fast as I want.

In my second language, I’m walking. It makes me frustrated sometimes since there’s no way I can catch up other cars.

But when I’m walking, I can think slowly, see and feel more things around me.

In other words, I feel I have machine guns in my both hands with my first language, but it doesn’t always mean I can communicate better with others.

Being simple is good. really good.

And also, it is because, there is a big difference between Japanese and English.

It sounds different, everyone around me sounds much nicer in Japanese than in English. No matter where they are from.

Many pronunciation are different. My voice gets much deeper and stronger when I speak in English.

Also… there’s no “no” in Japanese.

Well, there is “i i e (ii-eh)”, but people barely use that word in real conversation.

Instead, they have many, many different ways to denial. Unclearly.

So, for me, becoming an English speaker is really challenging and helpful.

(The most frequent question I got when I came to US was “Yuko! is that yes, or no?!”)

Living in New York is also good practice.

For being real me.

I am going to write about “real me” next!

photo: the very first friends I made in US. All speaks English as the second language. Love you all!