Welcome
My name is Matthew Gin and I earned a bachelors in World Languages and Cultures with a concentration in Japanese Culture and Language at California State University Monterey Bay in 2014.
Statement of Purpose
My grandmother is a first generation Japanese American. She was the daughter of two immigrant farmers from Hiroshima and up until she was 8 years old, she had spoken only Japanese with her parents and siblings. When World War II had come, her and her family were put into an internment camp. She was taught English in the camp schoolhouse, and even up until after she was allowed to leave, was scared to speak Japanese. As time went on, she spoke the language less, and by the time my Aunt was born, she had forgotten it completely.
Growing up I had always had an interest in my heritage, but never really had an urge to learn the language until after I took my first language class in University. From the first class, I knew that this was going to be something that I was going to love. After I completed the first semester, I started enrolling in the culture classes that major had to offer. From then on I decided that even if I didn't major in Japanese, I would still want to take as many language and culture classes as possible to learn as much as I could.
In my fourth year, I was finishing my music major. However, as time went on, I became increasingly more burnt out. There was something missing, and I couldn't figure out what. Around the time when this started happening, I received an email from Saito and Sekine sensei, two of the university's Japanese professors, about a study abroad interview. I attended and was encouraged by the professors that this was an excellent way to connect to the heritage that I never knew. I can easily say, that the study abroad experience was the single most influential period in my entire life. I made so many friends from all over the world, and got to fully immerse myself in the culture that I had never known as a child.
When I came back, I dropped my Music major and switched to Japanese. I had already completed many of the required courses for the major, and knew that I could graduate in a year. This last year has put to the test everything that I've learned in this major. I used every ounce of knowledge of language and culture that I have, and have had to use all my research skills that I learned from the major seminars to find academic research to base my own research on. My graduation with a Bachelors degree in Japanese Language and Culture will be a personal affirmation that I have the ability to do college graduate research and speak at an intermediate-high level of Japanese, but most importantly that I have managed to reconnect in some way to my Japanese roots.
Statement of Purpose
My grandmother is a first generation Japanese American. She was the daughter of two immigrant farmers from Hiroshima and up until she was 8 years old, she had spoken only Japanese with her parents and siblings. When World War II had come, her and her family were put into an internment camp. She was taught English in the camp schoolhouse, and even up until after she was allowed to leave, was scared to speak Japanese. As time went on, she spoke the language less, and by the time my Aunt was born, she had forgotten it completely.
Growing up I had always had an interest in my heritage, but never really had an urge to learn the language until after I took my first language class in University. From the first class, I knew that this was going to be something that I was going to love. After I completed the first semester, I started enrolling in the culture classes that major had to offer. From then on I decided that even if I didn't major in Japanese, I would still want to take as many language and culture classes as possible to learn as much as I could.
In my fourth year, I was finishing my music major. However, as time went on, I became increasingly more burnt out. There was something missing, and I couldn't figure out what. Around the time when this started happening, I received an email from Saito and Sekine sensei, two of the university's Japanese professors, about a study abroad interview. I attended and was encouraged by the professors that this was an excellent way to connect to the heritage that I never knew. I can easily say, that the study abroad experience was the single most influential period in my entire life. I made so many friends from all over the world, and got to fully immerse myself in the culture that I had never known as a child.
When I came back, I dropped my Music major and switched to Japanese. I had already completed many of the required courses for the major, and knew that I could graduate in a year. This last year has put to the test everything that I've learned in this major. I used every ounce of knowledge of language and culture that I have, and have had to use all my research skills that I learned from the major seminars to find academic research to base my own research on. My graduation with a Bachelors degree in Japanese Language and Culture will be a personal affirmation that I have the ability to do college graduate research and speak at an intermediate-high level of Japanese, but most importantly that I have managed to reconnect in some way to my Japanese roots.
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