hi/konnichiwa!

[seaweedhair]

Hi!

I'm new here and am hoping to meet other people that can help me learn Japanese. My husband is Japanese (I'm Italian-American) and I am interested in meeting others who are in similar situations. I'm especially curious about what it's like to be a non Japanese person living in Japan and how hard/easy it is to adapt once you are there. Right now we are living in America but we might live there sometime in the near future so it would be great to hear from others about this.

If any Japanese speakers would be interested in any email exchanges in English and Japanese please let me know.

:gohan:

 

[jeisan]

hiya seaweed hair and welcome, have fun.

 

[NANGI]

Konnichiwa Seaweedhair-san!

Welcome and Hajimemashite. Please enjoy the forum!

NANGI

 

[King of Tokyo]

Welcome.. Strange name.. lol.. Stay active and have fun

 

[Bounty Hunter]

welcome and have fun great pic

 

[Glenn]

Welcome to the fora, seaweedhair! Enjoy your stay!

 

[Hachiko]

Seaweedhaiur, welcome to the fora!

 

[kirei_na_me]

Hey seaweedhair! Nice to have you here. My husband is also Japanese!

 

[Grandpa Frank]

Hi Seaweedhair !!

In a PM the other day with " nzueda " she mentioned she found a forum for women in your exact situation that she really liked. You might try sending her a PM to get the website address? Lots of info for you here also, good luck!!

Frank

 

[seaweedhair]

hi/konnichiwa to frank, kirei and everyone else.

Hi again! I like this board so far.. seems like a lot of nice people here.
I'm definitely going to check in on a regular basis.

Frank,
Thanks for the info- maybe I'll send a message soon. I'm just really curious to hear other people's stories about living in Japan and I guess I'm even more curious to hear about anyone in a similar situation.

Kirei_na_me- :haihai:
That's great! I hope you two are really happy. We live in NYC and even here that is a rare combination. For whatever reason it just seems to not happen so often even in a city as diverse as NYC and unfortunately it seems to offend some people sometimes. But I guess wherever you go there are always going to be people with issues.

Well it's great to "meet" everyone!
BYE and JA MATA.

 

[kirei_na_me]

Kirei_na_me- :haihai:
That's great! I hope you two are really happy. We live in NYC and even here that is a rare combination. For whatever reason it just seems to not happen so often even in a city as diverse as NYC and unfortunately it seems to offend some people sometimes. But I guess wherever you go there are always going to be people with issues.

Wow, I would've never imagined there would be people with issues about that in NYC. How naive of me, I guess. We live in a very small town(pop. 1000) in Virginia and have never encountered any problems. Well, not yet, and not that I know of, anyway. Everyone seems to be very accepting.

So, how long have you been married? How did you two meet? Details! ;-)

 

[Lina Inverse]

Hi there seaweedhair!
How did you get the idea for that name?

 

[seaweedhair]

Hello again kirei

Wow, I would've never imagined there would be people with issues about that in NYC. How naive of me, I guess. We live in a very small town(pop. 1000) in Virginia and have never encountered any problems. Well, not yet, and not that I know of, anyway. Everyone seems to be very accepting.

Well , I guess most of the unkind remarks have been more towards him and not so much to us as a couple but since they have happened when I've been with him it of course bothers me as much as him. I think that there has only been two times where comments have been directed towards both of us. I don't want to dwell on it though because the people who have said things look like they aren't that bright anyway. Anyways, that's good that hasn't happened to you and I hope it never does.

We have been married for two years (next week is our anniversary) and we met five years ago. I moved into a building that he was already living in so I met him on the first day that I moved here. I couldn't really understand him at first because his accent was so thick and he hadn't been living here for that long but I didn't care and kept trying to talk to him. I even tried to teach myself Japanese but I think I was pretty bad at it!
I haven't gone to Japan yet but would like to go next year to have some kind of wedding ceremony with his family.
In the mean time I want to learn Japanese.
Sorry this is such a long post!
So how did you meet? Can you speak Japanese? How does the language part of this forum work?
Okay, bye. :haihai:

Hi there seaweedhair!
How did you get the idea for that name?

I have thick, curly, long hair that used to be dyed black and my husband thinks it looks like seaweed. Especially when it's wet. Also, I love to eat seaweed- it's one of my favorite foods and I just like the way it sounds.

 

[kirei_na_me]

I met my husband at work. He came over here from Nagoya in 1995 with his company. He was my boss...

We've been married almost 7 years and have 3 sons. We've known each other almost 9 years. I'm ashamed to say that my Japanese is elementary level. I know the basics and that's about it. ☝

 

[seaweedhair]

hi

I met my husband at work. He came over here from Nagoya in 1995 with his company. He was my boss...

We've been married almost 7 years and have 3 sons. We've known each other almost 9 years. I'm ashamed to say that my Japanese is elementary level. I know the basics and that's about it. ☝

Wow! Sweet story- I'm sure your kids are adorable. Are they bilingual?
My husband is also from Nagoya (well near there at least- pretty close).
My Japanese is pretty much at the beginner level too unfortunately. I've been trying to teach myself more this summer and am determined to be speaking more by the end of the year.
Hopefully this forum will inspire me a little bit. I want to practice my hiragana on here.
:haihai:

 

[kirei_na_me]

My husband isn't actually from Nagoya, he's from Konan. I just say Nagoya because that's the closest 'big' city. Your husband knows it, I'm sure?

Anyway, my sons can understand Japanese perfectly when it's spoken to them, but they can't really carry on a conversation. My husband and I speak English all the time, so they're not exposed to Japanese conversation much. Anytime Japanese people come around us, they always want to speak English...*sigh*

Oh, and good luck with the Japanese! I would spend more time on my Japanese, but I really don't have the amount of extra time that is needed to study, I don't believe. I've got too mcuh going on now. Way too distracted!