An Introduction

Hi. My name is Carmelia. I will be returning this month to Inari juku to teach English conversation, so let me introduce myself with this blog post. Here are three things about me:

    • I am Japanese
      But only 6.25%…or maybe even less…so maybe I’m not really Japanese but I do have a little bit of Japanese blood. My uncle who researched and told us about it said that we have an ancestor who was Japanese, and our family name, “Odsey”, is actually an Americanized version of that ancestor’s name.

 

    • I have two first names: Laarni and Carmelia
      Some Filipinos have two names. Others even have three. I was the first of my siblings to get two names because my parents thought I would be their last child. “Laarni” was dad’s idea and “Carmelia” is a combination of the names of my grandmothers.

I didn’t like Carmelia for a long time but when I moved to Japan in 2014 I knew it might be difficult for some Japanese to pronounce “Laarni” because it has two As, an L and an R, so I thought Carmelia would be a better name to use.

  • I speak 3 languages…and 2 quarters
    The Philippines has around 150 languages and dialects. Filipino is the official language and some Filipinos learn it as their first language but for other people like me who live in a region with its own language we learn it when we go to school or even later. English was my first or second language and I think I started learning Filipino when I was in first grade.I started to learn my mother’s regional language when I was a university student. I learned words so I could make simple sentences and I sometimes used (I still do) the language with my siblings at home to practice. Finally, I had to learn Japanese when I moved here. I learn on my own by listening and speaking to locals, and I have a long
    way to go but I do want to learn it so I hope that will help me get better little by little.

That’s it for my introduction. It’s a little bit unusual but I hope it gives you an idea of who I am as a person.

Thanks for reading!
Salamat ta binasaman daytoy! (Ilocano – my regional language)
Salamat sa pagbasa! (Filipino)
Ja ke un inyaman hi nan byasa yu! (Lubuagan – my mother’s regional language)