Kiah

JET Program Coordinator
’12 Earlham College
Japanese Studies
Favorite Word: 光陰矢のごとし​

I became interested in Japanese the same way many younger kids do – through anime and manga! I still remember my very first manga: Inuyasha, Vol. 5. I was hooked from the first couple pages, wondering “What are these interesting symbols on the sides of the pages?” I
was lucky to have a high school that offered Japanese language classes, and as I learned more about the language, my interest in the culture, people, and policies of the country grew. Knowing that living and studying in Japan was my #1 dream, I applied to colleges that would allow me to not only get a major in Japanese, but also study abroad for as long as possible. I spent my junior year abroad in Tokyo, loving every second of it (except, of course, the rush hour train commute, which really was as intense as you see on TV), and slowly but surely gaining fluency in Japanese as I spoke with my host family and university friends.

After college, I returned to work in Japan as an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) of English. My students and the teachers I worked with were beyond welcoming, my city in Iwate Prefecture was surrounded by the most beautiful mountains, and every day I look back at those two years I spent living and working in Japanese schools, and wonder how I got so lucky as to be able to have an experience such as that. It still astounds me. Today, I work at the Embassy of Japan as a JET Program Coordinator, helping others get the chance to teach and live in Japan as I did. Learning the Japanese language has propelled me into amazing opportunities that I would never have had otherwise. I feel fortunate to have been able to meet the people I did, see the beauty of Japan, and experience the reality of living abroad as a foreigner. And to think it all stemmed from picking up that single Inuyasha book!