Aziza Zakhidova, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Kazakhstan
Hello.
Walking on the Tsutenkyo bridge of the Tofukuji Temple in early March 2005, Roshi and I spoke about his fondness for bridges and the bridges he visited in the US. This long wooden passageway almost floating in nature’s beautiful landscape on both sides made a strong impression on me and after that visit, I often wondered about Roshi’s attraction to bridges.
I first met Zen Master Fukushima Keido, Head Abbot of the historic Tofukuji Monastery in Kyoto, during a several-minute zazen session over seven years ago at the University of Pennsylvania. Fukushima Roshi, Master of Zen, has been a lifelong ambassador of spiritual and cultural understanding between Japan and the U.S., visiting U.S. colleges for over 20 years to share Zen teachings and philosophy, illustrate calligraphy, and reach out to the young. That year, Fukushima Roshi had once again made a stop at UPenn. I remember I had only started taking Japanese classes. With eagerness, I approached him after the session and we exchanged a few words from my limited vocabulary. It was not until two years later, halfway through my study-abroad at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, that I dialed the number on the meishi he once gave me. A close friend of mine was leaving Japan, and when I found out she has not seen Kyoto, I insisted that we visit together, and on that occasion, we also visited Fukushima Roshi.
I was originally born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, at that point one of the republics of the Soviet Union, and currently a developing economy in Central Asia. As I was growing up, my father’s physics profession took our family around the world, and it was in the early 90s when we landed for about a year and a half in the historic city of Okazaki (in Aichiken), the birthplace of the Tokugawa. While my father was busy with his research at the Okazaki Institute, I began, within a few days of our arrival, attending first grade at Mishima shōgakkō Sho Gakko, the local elementary school. Although I knew not a word of Japanese initially, through friendly interactions inside and outside the classroom (serving lunch, learning Kanji, making origami cranes, taking care of rabbits), I became very close with my Japanese classmates. The positive experience of our stay in Japan left a special impression on me as a child, and over time this tranformed into a growing curiosity about the East Asian region and eventually became the motivation that pointed me in the direction of the educational path I chose to enter.
A few years later, my family moved to the US and I focused on learning English. As my high school did not offer Japanese, I started to study Japanese again only when I entered the university. In addition to intensive language courses during the year, with the support from a Freeman-Asia grant and my academic program, I participated in an 8-week intensive language program at the Yamasa Institute in Okazaki while staying with a Japanese family. My host-mom, Michiko-san, and her family have been truly special to me ever since I lived in Okazaki as a child. Michiko-san, a professor of kimono and a hostess of international cultural parties at her home, became good friends with our family and volunteered to take my brother and me under her care and teachings. We visited Michiko-san’s home each week: she would prepare traditional Japanese meals, help us with our homework assignments, teach us Kanji, and show us calligraphy, origami, and other cultural activities. So it was truly wonderful to return to Okazaki years later, as a college student, and stay with Michiko-san again. I remember, after my studies at the language school, in the evenings, Michiko-san and I would drink tea and discuss more in depth the topics I had studied. With Michiko-san’s energetic encouragement, I had a chance to practice public speaking in Japanese in front of many audiences: cultural clubs, PTA committees, and most dear to me, students from the elementary school where I once studied. I am grateful to Michiko-san and other families who brought me closer to an understanding of Japanese culture and introduced me to many aspects of Japan. I think these experiences were critical in strengthening my language skills and also helping me to understand Japanese values. I would highly recommend students to take part in home-stay experiences in Japan. Most importantly, of course, through the home-stays, I made special friendships that to this day are an important part of my life. I was very happy, when two years ago Michiko-san sent me a book she had written, “Jinsei Sanka,” a memoir of her life, the international families she had met over the years, and her efforts to plant over 80 early-blooming sakura trees by a riverbank in Okazaki.
That year, I also attended the Japan-America Student Conference (JASC) in Japan, a month-long forum of academic and cultural conference, with peers from the US and Japan. An incident at the 56th JASC made me realize that sensitivity to cultural differences is necessary for bridge building. Even though my Japanese was elementary, I understood the deep frustration among Japanese delegates with their inability to express themselves in English-only discussions. As one of the solutions, I proposed that our conference hold some roundtables in Japanese, with translation to English, and I think this discussion among the conference participants brought us one step closer to JASC’s goal of mutual understanding between two countries. Seeing the need to further strengthen this bridge, I dedicated my sophomore year to the planning of the 57th JASC, this time also co-heading an economics roundtable to address links between business and international institutions in East Asia.
With the assistance of the Bridging Scholarship and the Morgan Stanley Dean Witter award, I studied abroad for one academic year at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo. The experience was phenomenal in many ways— academically, language-wise, and culturally. This experience further opened opportunities for research with a professor at Hitotsubashi and an internship in a leading investment bank in Tokyo. Most importantly, the exposure to economics and development courses while at Hitotsubashi sparked a desire for further study of these topics, which I pursued through graduate degrees in the UK on a Marshall Scholarship. The study abroad in Japan was thus a unique and enriching step for my personal development: I came out of it with a better understanding of self, of my academic interests, and most importantly, with an appreciation for the subtleties of Japanese culture in everyday life.
One of the reasons I chose to study Japanese in college was because I was keen to be a part of institutions that promoted Central Asia’s economic development. As Japan has historically been one of the major contributors of developmental aid to the region, I knew that knowing Japanese could be valuable if I wanted to work as a liaison on investment projects between Japanese governmental agencies or companies and counterparts in Central Asia. Today, working for a Japanese bank’s representative office in Almaty, Kazakhstan, I have a chance to facilitate this process and also practice my Japanese.
Over the years, I understood what Fukushima Roshi perhaps sees in bridges—a powerful intuitive connection between two things which are otherwise apart but strive to understand each other. To me, Roshi has been an example of a bridge, the human bridge, connecting and encouraging individuals and institutions in Japanese and U.S. communities through his teachings of Zen. My host-mom, Michiko-san, is another human bridge that I hold in high esteem. These individuals and their teachings positively contributed to my personal development and inspired me in my academic and professional pursuits. I think it is mainly because I knew Japanese, even if at a basic level initially, that I was able to make closer connections with the people I met.
Japan is a fascinating place and a society that juxtaposes the traditional and the modern, humility and leadership, an ethic of hard-work and a culture of relaxation in cultural and social events, and pioneering innovation in the sciences and the preservation of ancient craftsmanship. Whether you are interested in working in a lab to develop a more efficient solar cell, or keen to learn about traditional silk-dying in Kyoto, I think you will be positively surprised at the opportunities Japanese academic, business, and cultural circles have to offer. At the same time, I think those who speak at least a little bit of Japanese and are open to learning it will be able to benefit more from their experience in Japan. It is a challenge. Although I think if one is enthusiastic about some aspect of Japan, he or she may have an easier time in building up their language skills. In general, while Japanese speaking skills are easier to pick-up, reading and writing skills are an ongoing process. How many kanji you master and your efforts in this will probably be linked to how and in what capacity you plan to use the language. Thanks to computer programs and electronic dictionaries, today it is much easier to type and navigate Japanese text with recognition skills, without necessarily being able to write kanji from memory. One thing I have always found encouraging is Japanese people’s enthusiastic reception of a foreigner’s attempt to speak even a few basic phrases in Japanese.
Outside of the classroom, take the initiative to visit Japan. There are a number of great sources of funding: at the high school level, organizations like Rotary International and Japan societies, at the university level, your university’s East Asian languages department, ATJ’s Bridging Scholarship, Freeman-Asia, corporate sponsors, and at a postgraduate level, grants such as the Fulbright. I would also highly recommend participating in the Japan-America Student Conference, an annual conference which brings together close to 80 people, half from each country, held in the summer either in the US or in Japan. Practice your language with different audiences, from your peers to your mentors, and you will develop an intuitive understanding of how to use the language in different situations. Most importantly, take time to get to know Japanese people and communities. I hope that it is through this process that you will experience truly memorable moments.
Gambatte-ne in your studies and discovery of Japan and Japanese culture.
(February 2010)
