my family

2006-11-10T04:01:00.000+09:00

I guess its quite(or really) late to submit this essay, but this is my essay about family relationship.

I live in a 5 member family, my father, mother, big sister, little sister and I. We get along with each other rather well, and I am proud of every family member, most of the times. After reading chapter 2 in The Material Child, and discussing about the differences of family interaction in Japan and America, I would first want to talk about my family relationship, and my opinions towards what was written in the book.
My family and I have a close relationship. We talk, hang out, and spend time together a lot. We, including my mother, talk about the major things that happened in our day during dinner time, and frequently go shopping with each other on weekends or after school. I guess I have a really intimate relationship with my family, and I am glad I was born in this family, where I could relax and feel home.
In the book, The Material Child, many elements that were thought as the Japanese unique family relationship were mentioned. Although my family is close, and we do not have a disciplined family relationship as many foreigners may regard as Japanese family stereotype, I realized some parts where it applied to my family too.
For example, as it was mentioned in the book, my mother has the most influence among the family, and my father has the slightest say. It may be because all the children are girls, but we do not exactly interact with our father as we do with our mother. Our father is only at home on weekends, when most of us go out with our friends. SO as we grew up, the amount of time to interact and communicate with out father decreased. Today, it is getting better as we our all growing up, but it is still obvious how our father has less influence compared to our mother. The strong influence of the mother exists in Japan, and it seems as many of my friends have the same family structure too.
Secondly, as it was mentioned in the last part of the chapter, I think it is true how Japanese people lack in space and time in the family. My family and I interact a lot, and talk about the things of our lives, but we need some privacy and space where we can be alone. Since I am the middle child, I always shared a room with either my elder or my younger sister during my elementary school years. We had 2 desks, 2 book shelves in our room, and shared the same space to relax. Although we were fairly close, we occasionally had fights concerning the volume of our music we were listening, and how messy our space was getting. I always wished I had a room of my own, where I could play and keep my things without other peoples concerns. I wished I had a place where I could just stay and think about the things that came up to my mind. The small scale space of the Japanese houses may keep the family close and interactive in some way, but it is also undeniable how children need more space of their own to remain peaceful.
Other than these 2 examples, there were many elements about the Japanese family that I agreed to, and most of them could be actually applied to my family too. I sometimes envy the large amount of space, and the larger amount of freedom I imagine most American children get. However, in the end, I come to the conclusion that I really like my family, and that I will never exchange my family to any other family after all.

hellooooooooo

2006-10-13T11:02:00.000+09:00

hi my name is Chihiro.
I am the first year student in Waseda, SILS, and I am looking forward to this class and the interpretion with students from Colorado.
I hope I can have fun through this blog activity!

日本語勉強することは大変だと思いますが、アメリカの人に日本語話してもらえるのはすごくうれしいので、がんばって勉強してください！
私も英語の勉強がんばります！！
ちなみに、今年の１０月からスペイン語も勉強しています。hola! hasta manana!

chihiros page for sils

my family

hellooooooooo