Asian (including me) in my neighborhood.
There are people from all over the world in the city where I live. Not only Japanese (me), Korean, Chinese, Indian, Middle Eastern.. My images for living in here is, each of us have our own community and not mingle with each other.
There are not only one, but several Japanese supermarket and restaurants in the town, Japanese neighbors and friends around you, you don’t need to use any English if you wish, yes you need to use when you are going to supermarket and other services but you don’t have to talk at all.
Some people lived in here for more than 5 years and not understanding English at all.
I married to an American guy. I kept speaking Japanese in the house for my kids to learn Japanese. My ex husband and I had less conversations and our relationship got very colder.
He also didn’t like the fact about I’m not blending in to the American society. He started to giving me very cold attitude when I talk in English, since I had thick accents, eventually I shut out my door of my heart towards him.
I could speak better English after (very harsh) divorce, maybe I was relaxed because there’s nobody to criticize me, (well, openly) I also practiced by recording my voice, checked my accents and rhythm. I still have accents but got much better than before.
Doing so opened my door finally. I’m not scared when I talk with people (in English) and people are nicer than I thought.
One of my Japanese friend though, is very good at communicating with other culture people even with her thick Japanese accent. She is open and has welcoming vibes. If there are more people like her, this would would be more peaceful.
