In September of 2023, when I was going through immigration at the airport, I found myself standing among a long line of young international students. They seemed full of energy and hope for the future that lay ahead. Watching them, I couldn’t help but wonder if I had come to Japan in my twenties, I would have already mastered the language by now. As the immigration officer asked me questions about the visa, I wished there was a button to replay his words at half speed so that I could fully understand what he was saying.
As one of the oldest students at my Japanese language school, I studied hard to keep up with younger classmates. No matter how senior I was in my previous profession back in China, struggling to express myself in Japanese often made me feel like a child learning to speak for the first time. When local people had trouble understanding my Japanese, I wished for another way to communicate what I truly wanted to say.
Yet nearly every aspect of daily communication ultimately depends on language. Moreover, compared with English, Japanese often embraces a greater degree of ambiguity. A simple “yes” does not always indicate agreement; its meaning can change depending on the context and the relationship between the speakers.
A Japanese acquaintance once told me that this characteristic of the language encourages people to pay closer attention to what others are saying rather than asserting their own opinions directly during discussions. Looking back, I wish I had not simply translated my thoughts word for word into Japanese and expressed myself so directly that I might have offended locals without realizing it.
The more I learned the language, the more challenges I encountered in trying to understand people’s true thoughts through it. Although I have little difficulty managing everyday tasks such as grocery shopping and administrative procedures, my interactions have mostly revealed only the kindness and politeness of the people I have met. These qualities are undoubtedly genuine, yet they seem to represent only a small part of who they are.
If language is both a window into another person and an essential tool for understanding other human beings, I have come to feel that there are certain things it cannot fully reach. While learning Japanese, I became increasingly curious about the more complex dimensions of the people around me—their fears, contradictions, ambitions, and private struggles. Yet these aspects often seemed to remain beyond the reach of words alone. Perhaps language, despite its importance, is not enough.
