For a time, Jackie Shepherd couldn’t envision a world where she wanted to learn Japanese, even though it’s the language she said her mother almost exclusively speaks at home.
Let alone could she imagine a time when she’d want to study in the country where many of her family members still live.
But two weeks ago, 19-year-old Jackie packed her bags and left for Osaka, beginning a five-year study abroad tour funded by the Japanese government.
“I would never have expected it would lead to something as fantastic as it provided,” Jackie said.
Cherry tree celebration set for Thursday
Clark College's annual Sakura Festival is Thursday. The celebration recognizes when John Kageyama, president of America Kotobuki Electronics Inc., gifted Vancouver 100 Shirofugen cherry trees to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Washington's statehood. The trees were planted in 1990.
It also recognizes Vancouver's sister city relationship with Joyo, Japan.
In 2006, Clark College began hosting the Sakura Festival. Japanese students help organize and perform at the celebration.
Opening ceremonies begin at 1 p.m. at the Clark College Japanese Gardens with remarks by dignitaries and a performance by the Clark College Women's Choral Ensemble.
At 2:30 p.m., the festival will move inside the Gaiser Student Center with music, dance, activity tables, cultural displays and refreshments.
The event is free and open to the public.
Jackie recently finished studying at Clark College, where, with support from her Japanese teachers, she applied for Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology scholarship — the MEXT Scholarship for short. The program pays for Jackie’s housing, travel and tuition in Japan for five years. She’ll spend a year at Osaka University completing intensive language studies, then hopes to travel to an art school in Tokyo to study traditional painting.
But for many years, Jackie refused to study Japanese. She was home-schooled by her mother, Mary Shepherd, who is half-Japanese and raised her children on the stories she grew up hearing and the culture she grew up living.
“It wasn’t academic for me, so I never forced an academic plan on them,” Mary Shepherd said. “It was more fun learning or reading stories.”
But in her early teenage years, Jackie rejected her mom’s efforts to share her heritage with her.
“There was a lot of rebellion for that typical difficult time period,” Mary Shepherd said. “She was trying to develop her own sense of identity. ‘How does this whole thing help me in this society?’ ”
Jackie concedes her initial resistance came from a sense of rebellion, as well as to what she describes as an inauthentic interest in Japanese culture from people her age.
“I came to see it as something superficial,” she said.
But it was after a trip to Japan several years ago visiting her family that everything changed for Jackie.
“Stepping into it woke up this desire,” Shepherd said. “This is part of me.”
She also enrolled in kendo classes — a type of Japanese martial arts using swords — at King Tiger Martial Arts in Hazel Dell, further deepening her interest in the subject.
It also gave her a sense of confidence that she said came in handy when she was applying for the MEXT Scholarship. Part of the process involved interviews in Japanese at the Consulate-General of Japan in Seattle, and her years studying kendo made her more comfortable speaking to the interviewers.
“In terms of this journey, it was a maturing process where I gained the discipline to basically go through with things and take action,” she said.
While Clark College doesn’t offer a degree program in the language, Jackie was also a language tutor, studied Japanese dance and participated in a speaking competition.
“I kind of owe everything that happened to the instructors there,” she said.
Japanese professor Michiyo Okuhara has been at the college for 20 years. When she began, there were only four Japanese classes offered throughout the year. Now, that number is up to 20 and the college has since added a second Japanese instructor, Yoko Sato.
This is the first time a Clark College student has received the MEXT Scholarship, and Okuhara said it reflects Jackie’s dedication to the subject.
“She was just focused and motivated,” Okuhara said.
Jackie, meanwhile, credits her experience at the college’s growing Japanese program for making the scholarship possible.
“I really want to pay them back for this crazy, crazy opportunity, and hopefully influence the world’s image of Japan,” Jackie said.
