I don’t really know how far Europe is. I’ve traveled between Europe and Japan a few times. It takes about 14 hours by airplane. It is long enough for me and I always get bored during the journey, and it is way too long for my parents ‘partly because of me.’
Right. I got distracted. What I was trying to say is that Europe is really far from here, and America is a very close country.
‘Everybody thinks you are an American automatically if you look western e.g. have light skin and blond hair, and English language here is of course American if they speak any’ says Mum.
Actually she has been bitching about the naivety of the people here since we moved to Fukuoka. Dad on the other hand doesn’t seem to mind being asked if he is American. He answers ‘Watashi wa Doitsu-jin desu (I’m German)’ looking amused. He even teaches English as well as German.
‘Of course it’s not bad for us that you earn money from teaching whatever you can’ says Mum to Dad.
My mum learned English and speaks it better than he does, but she would earn far less if she teaches the language as non-native speaker. (And she’s non-western.)
‘The Japanese language education industry exploits qualified and experienced Japanese teachers. Our counter-strategy is to exploit their naivety and you can teach Italian and French too, darling.’ I love her – she can survive anywhere, you know.
