It shames me that my Japanese skills aren’t better. I’ve been here for nearly six years and I can barely hold a conversation. Oh sure, I can order food and talk to shop keepers, but that’s about it. Stupider people than me have mastered this language, so why can’t I?
Every year that I thought I was leaving, I’d quit yet another Japanese class. But by the time I got to year 4, I figured that I couldn’t leave unless my Japanese was really good. Surely, when I got back to the U.S., people would expect me to be fluent. “You lived there for X years? So your Japanese must be really good, eh?” “Yes,” I would tell them without lying.
At some point I’m just going to have to accept that that will never happen. The answer will have to be “no.”
