Japanese Portrait

These Japanese portraits are simple, yet they show a complex person. My Japanese friend is a Kansai Gaidai student; however, he is misleading person when he is hanging out with me and other foreign students because other Japanese students think he is foreigner sometimes because of speaking skills and looks (I will explain in more details in final paragraph). He speaks English as well as other Kansai students who have studied abroad because he enjoys watching political news shows in English and reading English websites. He watches The Daily Show, which is quite odd because it is satire news show with real news, a mixed combination. He is able to understand 90% percent of everything except some jokes that only native speaker of English will understand. Along with The Daily Show, he enjoys watching South Park. He can understand most of the jokes, which are usually related to making fun of America. I think his English comprehension is outstanding for a student who interacts with foreign students most of the time.

His English is very coherent for someone who has never gone abroad; however, he is planning on going too Los Angeles soon for vacation. I think that he will have no problems while overseas in America because of his proficient English speaking and reading skills.  I hope that he is able to have a nice time when in America. 

He does and doesn’t look Japanese. I am not sure how to explain this, but he is sometimes questioned by Japanese people when he and I meet up with others to go somewhere. Maybe, Japanese people think that he is foreign because he enjoys hanging out with study abroad students and speaking English or maybe because of his looks. He says sometimes he does not look like typical Japanese. I am not sure how to define the “typical” Japanese person. It is usual girls that ask “nihonjin desuka?,” meaning “are you Japanese?” I think he really represents true Japanese man because he does not try and look or act like “host” or “pretty boy.”

These portrait pictures only show his face and nothing else. He is pretending to sleep or to look off in distance; however, he has a lot of potential to become great English speaker and teacher someday because he is always interacting with study abroad students. I think old phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover,” works well in explaining him because I had no idea when I first met him that his English communication skills would be so great and political knowledge about US and Japan.