Taking Notice

I escape the cold, dark night by huddling myself in the warm, brightly lit room of my study. Now that the deadline draws closer to get my applications through to the colleges, I have no choice but to finish them today. I pull my legs up onto the chair and begin to scroll up and down the available majors in the colleges I decided to apply to. Japanese…J…J…Ja…nothing. No Japanese. I extend my arm to the wooden desk on my left and pick up the packet of information my mother printed out for me concerning the major that might interest me. It says, EAST ASIAN STUDIES, on the top. I turn back to the computer screen and start to scroll up to the list. Found it! I click on it and continue my application to St. John’s University.

D'Angelo Center, St. John's University, New York.

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Here I sit in D’Angelo Center, examining the homework on the Anzuldua reading. It has to do with the importance of preserving languages in a society where it is difficult to do so. I bring up Anzuldua’s argument in class when my classmate and I present our knowledge of this reading to the class. My feelings about the preservation of languages in America grow even stronger as I voice my analysis of Anzuldua’s work.

As I progress on my work on my Meander essay, an essay for English in which my thoughts flow freely, I enhance my argument for the preservation of languages, especially since I lost a language before. In America, a country that mainly uses English as the language for communication purposes and widely educates its populations in English, is a difficult environment to nurture the wide array of languages that is present within the people that walk across its lands. Where do these languages belong? How can they be preserved here?

I bring up a question to my freshman advisor, Ms. Blankmeyer, during our meeting: “Can I change my major so that I can teach Japanese in the future?” Ms. Blankmeyer tells me that I can switch to an education major and tries to look up one that specializes in Japanese on St. John’s website. There is none. The closest one there is to it is Spanish. Ms. Blankmeyer tells me that we can look at what courses I will need to take using the education major for Spanish and that I just need to replace any Spanish classes with Japanese. Ms. Blankmeyer has me speak with her advisor, who reassures me that I will get the proper education in Japanese since St. John’s will provide access to the Japanese classes I need, such as higher-level classes in an affiliated school, and then has me speak with the head of the Asian Branch of the university.

The head of the Asian Branch tells me many things, justifying her words by saying that she is merely showing me reality, not trying to discourage me in any way. She says things like how difficult it is to get a Japanese language teaching job, so it is pretty much impossible for me; teachers are always getting fired in the U.S. today, so lay-offs are really common; someone like me, who is an American with ancestral ties to Taiwan and Hong Kong, will not be able to get a teaching job even if I learn Japanese and Chinese because I do not have the correct background (I am not “Chinese” nor “Japanese”). Because I told her I did not want to go into business or politics with language skills, she tells me how I am being too close-minded and that I should widen my perspectives, and try something more productive, like health and nutrition.

Here I sit in front of the dimly lit screen of my laptop, thinking of what to pick for my research paper topic. My teacher tells us that we should pick something that is important to us in some way, something that may influence our future. My mind has already been in turmoil since the meeting with the head of the Asian Branch, and I decide to put my concerns about my future career path onto the table. I shall look into what I can do with my passion for language. I know there are others out there who have the same sentiments about foreign languages, which include the raw and unconditional love for them and the will to preserve them. Let me find a place for where I belong with my love for language.