Self-Introduction
Hello,my name is Brian Baker, and I come from Columbus, Ohio, USA. This is my third time coming to Japan. The first time I came to Japan was as an exchange student at the University of Tsukuba in Ibaraki prefecture from 2004 to 2005, and my second time was a short vacation to visit friends I had made there. This time I will be working at Toyohashi City Hall in the International Relations Divison as Coordinator for International Relations, a position I got through the famous JET Program.
As a CIR, I will be responsible for translating and interpreting between Japanese and English, and making speeches, lectures, and visits to schools to promote cross-cultural understanding. In particular, I would like to get involved in assisting international exchanges. My year as an exchange student is one of the most important experiences I have, and I want to help others have similar experiences.
I first became interested in Japan when I was in 8th grade. I found Tales of Old Japan by A. B. Mitford on my grandmother's bookshelf, and I asked my grandmother if I could borrow it. The first story in the book is "The Forty Seven Ronins," and when I first started reading the story, I thought it was fictional from the description of hara-kiri. I couldn't believe that such a practice was in use in a country as advanced as Japan is today as recently as the 18th century. But, as I kept reading, I reached the end of the tale where Mitford writes about the graves of the 47 ronin in Edo, and I realized that it was an actual historical event. At that point, I felt that I must visit Japan one day to see what kind of place the country Mitford described had become.
Upon entering college, I decided to take Japanese to fulfill my foreign language requirement. I had always thought it would be cool to actually be able to speak a second language, and they were the first classes I had in college that I actually found fun so I ended up making it my major. My current goal is to become truly fluent in Japanese, as close as possible to a native speaker, something my Japanese professor told me would take 10 years. This summer brings me to year 6, and I look forward to making my Japanese solid while I'm here.
My plan for the future is to get a doctorate in Japanese historical linguistics and become a professor. I have no doubt that the connections that I make and the lessons I learn here will be of great use to me in the future. Maybe I'll even pick up some Portuguese while in Toyohashi, and I'll be able to read the Vocabvlario da Lingoa de Iapam ("Japanese-Portuguese Dictionary," written in 1603) when I'm doing research for that Ph.D.