Earlier today I was sitting in the food court at Gateway, studying Japanese with a friend (Studying. . . hahaha) when suddenly, a stampede of Japanese middle school kids burst through the doors and charged straight for McDonald's. It was as if that McDonald's was their entire reason for having come to Salt Lake, and they were willing to kill to obtain a double cheeseburger. It was both amazing and terrifying. There was at least 20 of them; all talking in a language that after five years of studying, I really should understand better by now.
Shortly after the arrival of what seemed like an entire middle school, my friend decided to leave. I had no real reason to hang around at the mall, so I decided to use the restroom and then head home. On my way out of the restroom, one of the Japanese boys shoved one of the Japanese girls into the men's room. She turned bright red and giggled like an insane school girl (the fact that she is a school girl likely has something to do with that). Her awkward embarrassment was adorable in a way that only the Japanese can pull off. I don't mean to sound racist, it just seems to me that the Japanese do awkwardness in a much different way than Americans do, and it I find it to be ridiculously cute. Once the doorway was cleared, I headed out and quite literally ran into one of the Japanese girls. This was a moment of awkward embarrassment that was not particularly cute.
This was a moment of total language breakdown for both of us. She turned bright red. I turned bright red. Her jaw dropped and her mouth moved as if she wanted to say something but had forgotten how to speak. I attempted to say something, anything, preferably some sort of apology, but it came out as some strange conglomeration of "sorry", "excuse me", "gomen nasai" and "sumimasen" that sounded nothing like anything in either English or Japanese. I bowed as politely as I could managed and quickly vacated the overly crowded food court.
All of this renewed my desire to be in Japan, and encouraged me to continue studying Japanese with increased focus and effort. It was awkward, embarrassing, funny, and exciting. I would love to throw my self into a world where I'm surrounded by people speaking a language that is not my own. Where every experience is something new, something potentially awkward, potentially scary, always exciting. It may take a while, but I will make it to Japan, hopefully with much better Japanese skills than I was able to manage today.
