My name is Akane Kikuchi and I’m originally from Japan. I came to Philadelphia in 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, following my husband on a dependent visa. I worked as a customer support associate in a Japanese company for over ten years before moving to the US. I was quite excited about the new life in the US and happy to be away from my job, which I was almost fed up with. I had only optimistic ideas about what my life would be like in the US. However, it turned out to be completely different from what I had expected. As neither my husband nor I had any acquaintances in the US, I found it very hard to establish a new life from the beginning. After barely setting up our life and my husband began his work, I was lonely at home. I felt as if I had existed only by myself. Nobody knows me and cares about me. For the first time in my life, I experienced isolation and solitude.
It had been almost six months since I came to the US, and I was working as a volunteer in a nonprofit organization when I started to take part in the Let’s Talk Philly conversation circles. I started volunteering because I didn’t want to spoil my time without attempting to do something when there should be many opportunities I wouldn’t have met if I had been in Japan.
I’d say it was a brave decision to start volunteer work myself. However, I confess it was not fun at all at the beginning. I encountered the ‘barrier’ which most immigrants might face. Surrounded by all Americans, who were looking at me with curious eyes, “what on earth can this Asian lady do for us?” I lost my confidence in my English. I needed extra courage to utter even a single word in English. My brain went blank, and my mouth froze when I tried to say something. I started to have a headache before long. I felt miserable about my situation. It was such a trying moment when I met Let’s Talk Philly.
I was nervous and uncomfortable when I first attended the Let’s Talk Philly session. I wasn’t able to speak well in front of people. But as I met the same members online twice every week, I started to notice the people in the conversation circle shared the same feeling as a minority and had a mutual and true interest in each other. This atmosphere released my tension and helped me speak about myself very naturally. We listened to each other, asked questions, and exchanged opinions. I started to feel confident expressing myself in my words little by little.
This change also affected my mindset in my volunteer work. I didn’t feel so much fear when speaking English in front of people. I began to be able to say my opinion in the meeting, talk to my boss directly for a proposal and join the chat at lunchtime. I also got a paid position in the organization. This change might have been brought partly because I got used to life in the US, and people in the organization were indeed kind and generous, but I’d say it is Let’s Talk Philly that pushed me to get out of the “comfortable” area and tackle the new situations. Once I stepped out of my “Comfort zone”, I began to gain the confidence to take another step forward, and this positive move circulated within me.
I participated in the Let’s Talk Philly conversation circle four times. Each cycle was very different, and I learned and found myself improving. The reason that each cycle was very different is, I think, because of the participants. I was impressed when I heard the man from Iran telling us that cooking is a meditative activity. He said he feels calm and healed when he concentrates on preparing ingredients and cooking them with seasonings imagining how the taste would be. A lady from Malaysia inspired me by telling her dream of making her school in her country to provide her ideal education to children. I can never tell enough about each participant. In Let’s Talk Philly, all the participants including facilitators are equal regardless of age, gender and nationalities. There’s no teacher or coach. We form our conversation circle by ourselves. That’s the thing I love most about this conversation circle.
I am back in Japan now and teaching Japanese to immigrants as a volunteer, besides my job. There are not so many immigrants in Japan compared to the US, but the number is increasing. They come to Japan as refugees or for financial reasons like earning money for their families in their home countries. They usually don’t have enough support language-wise, and there is a huge demand to help them learn Japanese. I mainly teach adults who must speak Japanese at work and daily to “survive.” From my experience, I know how hard it is to learn another language when you are grown-up, while children naturally acquire the language.
Before I went to the US, I was too ignorant about the so-called minority people in my country. Having been a temporary immigrant in the US, I became aware of such people around me. When I teach them Japanese, I can imagine how they feel as immigrants. My experience in Let’s Talk Philly helps me understand people from different backgrounds.
I appreciate all the people I met in Let’s Talk Philly for what they gave me. They motivated me to cultivate new interests in life. The things I learned from them keep impacting me now. I learned language but also life itself behind the language from Let’s Talk Philly.
