K: So, lately I’ve been thinking about what it means to be an immigrant and moving (coughs) sorry. And moving to Japan. And I also want to say I’m in the middle of going through dental… reconstructive surgery on my mouth, and I’m in a lupus flare. So, if my voice sounds a little bit weird – because it sounds weird to me – it’s because my sinuses are being affected, and the airflow in my mouth is being affected. And the way I can move my mouth is being affected, so sorry if that’s distracting to anyone, and after I’m on the other side of the process, we’ll talk about it on the podcast, but that’s not the topic for today. The topic for today is being an immigrant. 

C: Okay.

K: (laughs)

C: Well, I’m going to keep being an immigrant whether or not that’s the topic, so it’s a good topic. 

K: Yeah. So, we talked about, before, the difference… the difference in my views on immigration since becoming an immigrant and before being an immigrant on things like language learning and how to eke out… a living and all of that. And I think that… there are privileged immigrants and underprivileged immigrants, and I am absolutely a privileged immigrant because I have… a degree. And an education. And you have a degree and education. Your degree let us come over here and work. And, before your degree, I was able to come over here as a language learner. 

So, everyone knows, famously now, that my Japanese is busted. But it’s busted at the intermediate level, so I have enough to function through everything, and my Japanese is good enough that if I needed to go somewhere and do something, that I could speak Japanese through it and understand what they were saying back to me. Like, I could handle immigration, I could handle the ward office, and I could handle the pension office and all of those types of things. I don’t. I let our son do it because his Japanese is much better than mine, and it takes him way less effort.

C: There’s a big difference between “can” and “do”.

K: Yeah. And, so, I – what I find interesting are my views on immigration that have stayed with me even though I’m an immigrant. And those that I have let go of. 

C: Okay.

K: So, do you have any pre- and post-, do you find that your position on immigration’s the same?

C: I find that, with most things, I’m not able to remember what my position was before I changed my mind unless I have external markers of, “I did this” or “I voted this way” to say, “okay, my views must have been different.”

K: Mhm.

C: So, I can tell you what my views are now, but I’m not confident that I could accurately tell you what my views were before. I do know that my whole life, I’ve known my grandparents on my mother’s side were immigrants.

K: Yeah.

C: So, I don’t think that I’ve ever been anti-immigration in general. I don’t think that I’ve ever been anti-immigrant in specific, but… maybe I was and I just, now that I’ve changed my mind, I don’t remember that.

K: I don’t remember you ever being anti-immigration, and I’ve never been anti-immigration. I’ve just had a lot of str- a lot of strong language views.

C: Mmm.

K: In terms of, if you’re going to live in a country, you should speak that language.

C: Mhm.

K: And I find that, now, I’m much more sympathetic to how difficult it is, as an adult, to learn a second language. And, especially, for me, what’s especially daunting is my ego. My ego gets in the way.

C: Yeah.

K: Because I can express myself as a college-educated – and I’m an expert in my field in English – and, in Japanese, I’m still, as a reader, I’m still in elementary school. And, as someone who can express themselves, I’m in jr. high. 

C: Mhm.

K: So, I’m not even in high school yet, and that really kills the motivation when I’m like, “dammit. I’m