What I Learned About Myself and My Neighborhood

This class is definitely my most challenging class so far. I took newswriting before and it’s nothing like this reporting class. The first assignment, which was to find 20+ names of contacts, freaked me out. I wondered for hours around Japantown just trying to find the “right person” and that person never appeared. So, I had to summon all the courage that I got, talking to strangers. The first step is definitely the scariest one!

As time went by, I learned not to freak out right before an interview (hint: do it secretly). Of course, there’s also a time when I was totally nervous but I tried to hide it. Journalism is definitely about learning to put a mask on. You can be super clueless in an interview or a meeting but you have to pretend that you understand only to gain a trust that you’re a professional (by the way, you still have to clarify and ask questions later… don’t just stay quiet). You may be bored to tears because the person you interview ramble on about things that are not really interesting or may not be your interest but you still have to put the professional mask and ask questions.

I’m learning to be persistent and not giving up easily. I experience failures and moments of feeling-like-I-want-to-give-up thing but it became less frequent. The crime story was definitely a lot of work. My God… I had a new respect for journalists who write criminal stories now.

As for my neighborhood, I learned to venture outside my comfort zone (read: the mall) and try to emerge myself to the neighborhood. P (Peter Yamamoto) said the best place to hang out with the locals is Benkyodo and that where I spent my time now when I’m in the neigborhood. I can sit there and hear people talking in Japanese. Bummer… I should learn some Japanese to be able to participate in their discussion. A plus for me is that I looked like a Japanese so people seemed to be comfortable to talk to me about their internment time, post- or pre-war story and Japanese culture.

I learned that Japantown was not as financially secured as I thought it was too. I definitely enjoyed talking to people and learning about new things. I hope this new knowledge will be of a use for me in the future.