USA
American Green Card Lottery and Australian immigration policy
My Vietnamese Australian teacher said, “The Green Card Lottery is good and it keeps giving hope to people in poor countries.” I disagree with his opinion. Actually I have applied to the Green Card Lottery twice and I wished that I would win it, but now I think that the U.S. should choose immigrants like [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 4 so far )The first birthday of my Blog – multiculturalism and the U.S.
Today is the first birthday of my Blog. A year ago I was deeply sad due to the fact that I have not been able to return to San Francisco. After a while, I realized that my sadness would not help me return to San Francisco and the idea of writing a Blog on San [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )Strict Japanese immigration policy
Immigrants built the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and countries in South America. Both the majority and the minority are immigrants in these countries. Most people are immigrants there. I think that is why people in these countries are tolerant of different people and why they criticize discrimination toward foreigners in Japan and strict Japanese [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 4 so far )American Freedom and “Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood” on an old French coin
After I came back to Japan from Vancouver, Canada, I started thinking of this question. “What is freedom?” Vancouver is about 2 hours from Seattle by bus. Its downtown and suburban facades are almost the same as the U.S. The area has the same kind of grocery shops and the same style of shopping malls [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Why do Taiwanese people like Japan? Why do Japanese people like the U.S.?
When I said “the American army did not commit genocide after the U.S. occupied Japan, and instead turned Japan into a democratic country, so Japanese people do not hate the U.S.,” my French-Canadian teacher responded, “Because Douglas MacArthur was a good person and if he were a bad person, things would be different.”
I then remembered [...]
Japan is different from many other non-western countries.
After having talked to both a French Canadian as well as a Muslim Canadian, I found that my own attitudes towards society were somewhere in the middle, between the two of them. I have an understanding of both Western liberal society and Muslim conservative society because I can see some similarities not only between [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 5 so far )Japan is a comfortable place to live but it is difficult to be yourself.
I encountered a British man who was 29 years old and had lived in Japan for more than 5 years. He firmly believed that London is the most multicultural city in the world. When I heard that, I insisted that New York City is the most multicultural city in the world because I could not [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 4 so far )Religion in Japan Now
I found in the United States that many Christians talked to me. I didn’t know why at the time, but thinking about it now, I suppose it may have been because I wore a cross pendant.
Before my trip, my friend had sent me the pendant, and a couple of days before leaving [...]
The world does not live together as one in Los Angeles.
It looked to me like ethnic minorities rented land in Los Angeles in hopes of a richer life or a better political environment and an improved society. Seemingly, many of the minorities weren’t concerned with finding individual freedom since they retained their cultures, which often gave very little room for such autonomy.
An Indian girl [...]
America, proud of its multiculturalism, might even regard the Korean male-dominated culture as one of its own subcultures?
( The U.S. in 1998 )
While in the United States, I met two Korean women who had been forced to marry because they’d reached an age where Korean women were expected to marry. Due to their circumstances in Korea, they had fled to the United States. This made me think prejudicially, that Korea was a [...]
Can the dropping of the Atomic Bomb on Japan by the U.S. be considered an act of terrorism?
A Canadian female once said to me that the atomic bombing of Japan by the U.S. in 1945 was an act of terrorism, what’s your opinion on that?
There’s a famous story that goes like this: After WW II a young woman killed her father. The woman had had several children from the relationship with [...]
My African-Canadian teacher in Japan
A few months ago, one of my English tutors was a black Canadian male who had traveled to more than 20 countries and had worked in Holland just after finishing high school. His brother married a Dutch woman and had lived in Holland and recently moved to England. He was intelligent, knowledgeable and had a [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 3 so far )My Vietnamese teacher in California
The other day, I was thinking of my Vietnamese teacher who I met in California. I took note of everything she said during our TOEFL classes at the Adult school, which offered ESL and vocational classes to immigrants and residents for free. The teacher graduated from a college in Paris as well [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )ESL class at San Francisco City College
I remember one day at San Francisco City College, in an ESL class, the teacher started taking roll, calling out each student’s name and looking at each student’s face. The ESL class was free and you could attend classes after you registered. Everyday different people came, immigrants, temporary residents as well as international students attended [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )Multicultural, multiethnic and multiracial city
I enjoyed San Francisco the most out of all the cities I have visited in the world. When some people hear me say this, perhaps a European or Australian, they may think I have only been to San Francisco but I have actually been to over 30 cities outside Japan- I have traveled in [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )San Francisco
She really enjoyed the diversity and the eccentricities of people in San Francisco, where she felt she was really able to be herself. When she walked down the street, she saw so many different people. She saw Asians, Hispanics, African-Americans, and Japanese people who looked like aliens with their hair dyed many colors. [...]
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