Nihongo ga Wakurimasu

"Nihongo ga wakurimasu."

I understand Japanese.

Over the years, many people have told me I should learn another language. Overflowing with inertia and struggling just to scrape together enough drive to manage my personal projects, I would laugh and tell them that it will take me my whole life just to learn how each person I know understands the English language. If I could get that down, I could learn to avoid miscommunication with those dearest to me. That, I figured, was challenge enough.

"Korewa Nihongo de nandesuka?"

What is this in Japanese?

Two high-school years of Spanish, plus a quarter of it in college. A smattering of Hebrew words learned from camp, plus any songs and prayers from Passover and Hannukah. Barely enough Yiddish to fill a teaspoon. I asked my mother-in-law to teach me how to say "I love you," in Russian, but declined to learn more.

"Mo ichido itte kudasai."

Please say that again.

Sergey floated the idea of learning Japanese by me several times. He said he hoped to live there for a year or two someday. I told him I'd be willing to try learning the language once he was seriously moving toward that goal, but I didn't want to invest time and energy into something that wasn't likely to happen.

"Yukkuri itte kudasai."

Please say that slowly.

I really had no idea how serious he was. Even as we started talking about "moving soon" it took me several hours-long conversations with him to grasp that by "soon" he meant "next year" and that he was hoping for a year-long language-learning/scouting trip with the hoped-for result of a permanent move to Japan. He has, he discovered, several highly desirable qualifications that are likely to let him pass their rather restrictive immigration process and become a permanent resident. Potentially a full citizen. Being fluent in the language by the time we apply would be icing on that particular cake.

I've been to Japan once before. In 2018, Sergey and I went to Asakusa, a district of Tokyo. I never spoke about it on social media. Part of me wanted to share--with all the excitement of a little kid, as someone who has never been out of the country for anything other than a missions or ministry trip--that I went to another country just for the sake of going to that country. However, I have a mortal terror of--as I will phrase it in the unhealthiest way possible--making people envious of me. I don't want to shove my good fortune in peoples' faces, I just want to share fun things and experiences. Afraid that I would somehow hurt people by sharing, I opted to keep it to myself.

It was a fun time, especially because we did not rush through a checklist of places to be and sights to see. We went out as we felt like it, stayed in whenever we needed to, and generally remained in orbit of good food and peaceful gardens.

That was Sergey's second time. He has always been impressed with Japan and the more he researches it, the more impressed he is. He has always wanted to spend some serious amount of time there, but the more I listen to him, the more I see a concrete future in this country coming together.

It's exhilarating.

It's terrifying.

"Tokyo no tenki wa doo deska?"

How is the weather in Tokyo?

So far we have had two lessons over Skype with a native Japanese speaker. Sergey, our housemate Kevin, and myself have all been praised for our innate grasp of pronunciation. We are suddenly grateful that we all watch anime with subtitles while listening to the Japanese voice actors, as that is undoubtedly a strong contributing factor to our ear for pronunciation. Sergey has expressed jealousy over how fast I am memorizing the vocab, but this has taken me off guard as well. Japanese is, after all, one of the single hardest languages to learn if you're starting from English.

"Muzukashi."

Difficult.

There's a lot to process. I'm staring at my bookshelf full of books I've hauled from Los Angeles to Seattle to Los Angeles to Houston and realizing that this will be one move too far and that it's time to get a Kindle. I'm looking at my knick-knacks, each with a history and bit of sentimental value attached, and realizing most will have to go. I will have to regift heirloom art, dishes, and knick-knacks back into the family. I'm beginning to research companies that digitize scrapbooks. I'm chucking all my goals for this year except for a general focus on writing and replacing the others with "Learn Japanese."

"Ogenki deska?"

How are you/Are you well?

There's a lot of sadness and fear and excitement and wonder to process. In the last month, however, there have been several hints that God is with us through this, and we have each noticed His fingerprints on this situation in different ways. Not the least of which is that I'm having an easier time in learning this language (so far) than anyone expected.

"Geijin."

Outsider/foreigner/alien.

The first step will be planning for the (approximately) year-long trip, which we have rough plans to undertake next year. Applying to a Japanese language school over there ensures student visas that will allow for our extended stay.

From there, we will see what happens. Perhaps there is a dark cultural underbelly we can't see from the outside. Perhaps the differences will be too much for us to handle. There's really only one way to know, and that is full immersion.

We come in humility to learn your language and your culture. We come to see how your country works. We come with respect and curiosity.

"Nihongo ga wakurimasu."