Recollection, Japan, language: fragments

[larryhammer]

I have very few memories from before Japan. My memories of Japan are fragmentary, but frequent. One of the earliest clear sequences is my fourth birthday -- celebrated while staying at a traditional inn in Kyoto. I had to ask what a birthday is, and how old I was, and what a birthday suit is. The dark room, lit only by the small cake, was scary; the hot bath was fun to swim in; and I fell in love with the koi at the Imperial Gardens, with the pure obsessive love of a four-year-old.

That was on a sightseeing trip -- we lived in Sendai, where my father was a visiting professor. I attended a Japanese preschool as the only gaijin, traveling to it on a school bus by myself. I had to get off early then cross a bridge -- I missed my stop once, and while I must have been returned somehow, the last thing I remember is breaking out in tears when we reached the elementary school. My memories of school are otherwise spotty,** though I do remember a festival/holiday with flying koi banners.* A few years ago, I still had the farewell book my classmates put together, but I've lost track of it.

I had other loves, in addition to koi. The piping hot sweet potatoes sold by street vendors. Hot chestnuts, also from streetcarts. Dried squid -- chewing on one could occupy me for an hour. I watched a lot sumo wrestling on TV. And giant robot/monster movies. I remember just one anime, a single scene that made its way into my nightmares for years; in retrospect, I think the scary giant holding the dog-or-fox-or-monkey boy in his hand was supposed to be a statue of Buddha.*** I remember my first rainbow, while walking in our neighborhood with my mother, and it just baffled me.

I went a lot of places with my mother, which caused its own problems. At the end of our year, I was as fluent in Japanese as English. I was also blond. Outgoing tow-haired moppets who spoke Japanese attracted crowds. Mom claims she learned to budget extra time for running errands when I was along. I only dimly recall this, however.

Nor do I remember what now is most striking about my language skills: I couldn't translate. If you talked with me in one language, then switched, I didn't "remember" what we'd just talked about -- but switch back, and I could. The information was accessible in only one tongue. This says something interesting about language acquisition, and how memories are encoded.

Back in the States, I quickly lost my Japanese -- two years later, I could count to four, but that was it. I also lost my taste for sumo wrestling -- though not robot/monster movies. Once as I watched one, when I was eight or so, I started getting agitated. The movie was wrong -- I couldn't tell what made it so, just that it was very wrong. It disturbed me enough to freak me, until I finally figured out the wrongness: it was in English. I'd seen it before, in Japanese. Once I knew what the problem was, I was calm and dealt just fine -- even enjoyed it. Again. This also says something about language and memory, but I'm less certain what.

* Does anyone know what this might have been?

** ETA: My preschool memories are actually more jumbled than spotty -- a large pile of unsortable and uninterpretable fragments. Only just now I realized why: most of them would have been in Japanese. Without translation.

*** ETA2: Since writing this, I've read Journey to the West and realized this must have been Monkey being caught in the hand of Buddha himself, not a statue.

---L.

Comments

[casacorona.livejournal.com]

Thank you -- that's fascinating.

[larryhammer]

It's fascinating from the inside, too.

---L.

[ogre-san.livejournal.com]

The koi banners (koi no-bori) are for the Boy's Festival (May 5th). They're traditionally flown by families who have boys, and the number of koi=number of boys in the family. The girl's festival is called Doll Day, though I don't think they put dolls on the flag poles. :)

[larryhammer]

I don't remember us flying them at home -- they were above the jungle-gym at the preschool. May 5th would be close to when we left, which would explain the clarity of the memory -- possibly right before, as we took three months to get home in August.* I remember being surprised by the banners, and having them explained to me (though not what the explanation was), and climbing the bars to get as close as possible, fluttering over my head.

Thanks!

* We took the long route over Asia and Europe -- but that's for another post.

---L.

[larryhammer]

though not what the explanation was

Come to think of it, the explanation would have been in Japanese -- no wonder I can't recall it.

---L.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

They would have flown them at the preschool too--they did that at my kids' daycare--gorgeous huge ones.

[larryhammer]

They were huge as far as I was concerned -- almost as long as I was!

And just out of reach!

---L.

[kateelliott.livejournal.com]

have you ever tried to relearn japanese? Or gone back?

WHen I was five, my family spent a year in Denmark (my father was a visiting Fulbright fellow), and I think I may have had some of the same language experiences as you. However, since my mother is a danish immigrant and my father the grandchild of Danish immigrants, I retained more Danish. Less than I might have otherwise as my older brother had trouble adjusting to English in the schools when we returned, so my parents deliberately stopped speaking danish at home on a daily basis; otherwise I have always supposed I would have retained my Danish more comprehensively.

If you're going to be at WFC, we should compare notes.

[larryhammer]

No, and no. Though I've thought about both.

Yes, to WFC and comparing notes. I'd be fascinated.

---L.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_twilight_/]

Were you five when you moved back to the states? It's interesting to hear about the way that minds work with languages. I tend to be more of a concepttual/symbolic thinker, so sometimes regular English words can be tough and I have to picture the written word or a word that's somehow affiliated with the word I'm seeking. I recall dreams in a similar way. Remembering that Prince was singing can help me remember the battles with The Mole People and being on the north side of town.

[larryhammer]

I was four when we got back to the States -- turned five that fall, during Kindergarden. That my parents travelled across Asia and Europe with a four-year-old astonishes me.

---L.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_twilight_/]

It astonishes you and everyone who has ever met a four-year-old. ;) That's so awesome though that you got to have that experience.

[larryhammer]

Oh yeah. I even remember the Taj Mahal.

---L.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_twilight_/]

:D

[larryhammer]

ps. I don't think I'd want a dream with both Prince and Mole People....

[http://users.livejournal.com/_twilight_/]

It made sense in a weird way when considering that the northern part of the city was the setting.

Gah, I meant conceptual

[http://users.livejournal.com/_twilight_/]

Did you move around a lot as a kid? Koi are so cool. Have you been to any of the Matsuri festivals in downtown Phoenix? Mmmm... bean ice cream.

Re: Gah, I meant conceptual

[larryhammer]

Aside from sabbatical years, we didn't move -- minus the year each in Sendai and Berkeley, I grew up in one house.

Haven't made it to much in Phoenix. There's enough in Tucson I'm already not catching.

---L.

Re: Gah, I meant conceptual

[http://users.livejournal.com/_twilight_/]

Where? I grew up mainly in Glendale and Peoria, AZ. I'm just trying to lure you to town with bean ice cream (and there are koi and Akita puppies and tea). ^_^

Re: Gah, I meant conceptual

[larryhammer]

I grew up in Washington, DC. Which was a lot better for growing up than its rep suggests.

---L.

Re: Gah, I meant conceptual

[http://users.livejournal.com/_twilight_/]

Did you hang out at The Smithsonion Museums?

Re: Gah, I meant conceptual

[larryhammer]

Yup. Loved that. Especially those summers I was old enough to head out on my own but not yet old enough to work. I'd go down to the Mall and haunt museums and watch tourists.

---L.

[galeni.livejournal.com]

Wow. Makes me wonder what would happen if various spots in your brain were stimulated: would the neurons spout Japanese in some spots, even if you don't consciously recall it?

(I've just been reading HelixSF stories, and my brain is still warped. Issue 2 just got the preview notice sent to us subscribers and it's better than the first issue.)

[larryhammer]

I'd think that would depend on how, exactly, memories are laid down, chemically.

---L.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

No idea on memory, but this was fascinating. Thanks for posting it.

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

Your language comment has got me thinking. I am not good at translation either and have had to learn it as a separate skill. When I read French I read it in French, not translated into English, for instance. This was spotted at uni when I did badly on my Old French language stuff but could understand nuances of texts and explain them. I didn't have a second language very young and I learned how to translate when other people learned how to think in the language - it was a sort of reverse skills acquisition.

Every now and again I wonder if some people *do* acquire langauges differently to others. What you described sounds *so* like the early childhood version of my teen experience. You weren't forced to translate between the two tongues by teachers who insisted on proof of homework, so you didn't learn that skill for Japanese.

[larryhammer]

Only for one other laguage, Spanish, have I ever learned how to think in it, and it was haltingly. Otherwise, I translate in and out of the language. Talking with others who've learned many languages, there's a point in learning a new language when they stop translating and start thinking in it.

---L.

[kchew.livejournal.com]

Heh. My blond three-year-old attracts attention for that reason too. I've been told that he has no accent, which must mean that he speaks with a good Tokyo accent. His grandmother wouldn't have it any other way. My younger son looks as much Japanese as his older brother doesn't, so he won't get the stares that his brother will if/when we finally make it to Japan.

My husband's sisters were in more or less the same position as you around the same age, except that they dropped English entirely when in Japan, and dropped Japanese entirely when they returned to the United States.

I remember what a page of text looks like if you can't read. I can't figure out the text in retrospect; it's a cool, fun memory, so I trot it out every once and a while to keep it fresh.

Anyway; that's all so very cool. What a great experience. What subject did you father teach?

[larryhammer]

I'm amused to see in manga half-Japanese/half-American students admitting they've little or no English, and even do badly in English class. It shows up enough to call a trope.

I've no idea what accent I had in Japanese. Interesting question. Presumably Sendai, but I've no idea if that's north enough to be different from Tokyo, and my parents wouldn't have been able to tell.

My father was an chemistry professor -- an organic analytic chemist.

---L.

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

This is fascinating. What adventures you had. It's wonderful that you've been able to retain these memories, fragmentary as they are.

[larryhammer]

And that was only the start of the adventure.

Though to be fair, everything is an adventure to a four-year-old. This is more or less the entire point of Yotsuba&!. That and to make you laugh your ass off.

---L.