Brendan's blog

For today’s blog assignment, I watched a Japanese street interview YouTuber, named TAKASHii. In the video, TAKASHii asked various Japanese locals “What do you think about the United States?” Some things that interviewees said were that Americans are very friendly and that they enjoyed consuming American media, like Orange is the New Black and Red Dead Redemption. Others said that they believe that Americans have a lot of freedom of expression, especially in regard to style and individuality and joked that they were quite envious of that freedom. One interviewee used the expression that in Japan, “The nail that sticks out gets hammered.” In early adulthood, he decided to leave Japan for several years because he was very much his own individual and did not want to conform to traditional norms. I would agree that Americans enjoy a great degree of freedom of expression, but at times, I feel like this individuality can be too overemphasized; sometimes hyper-individualism privileges personal...

こんにちわ！My name is Brendan, and I am excited for this upcoming semester studying Japanese with you all! I have enjoyed various aspects of Japanese culture from a very young age, from video games to food and television. The first video game that I ever played was Pokémon HeartGold , and I have been a fan of Nintendo ever since. Over the years, my brother has introduced me to other Japanese media, as well. Recently, I have been watching the first season of One-Punch Man. I think it would be very cool to consume these media in their native language and understand what is being said. I am excited to learn more about Japanese culture and get to know all of you better. どうぞよろしく。