How Individuals Perceive and Utilize “Cultures”: In the Case of Japanese-English Bilinguals

Shohei Nakamura

Department of Sociology, Doshisha University

ABSTRACT

The notion of “culture” has been fundamental to Anthropology. Now it is widely shared among people and used in everyday life. The question is “How do people live with the notion of culture?” In this thesis, I will first look at the changes in the notion of “culture” within the academic discourses, to give the theoretical basement to the thesis. Then I will analyse the discursive expressions and self-representations of Japanese-English bilinguals living in Japan, to show that a person with multiple languages accordingly has multiple “selves” deriving from different cultural lexicons, hence belonging to multiple “cultures”. On the basis of these two arguments, I will consider a question that is now fundamental to human beings: Can humans only live in the strict regulations of culture, or can they live more freely? To answer that question, I will display how I realized that the Japanese-English bilinguals continuously utilized the perception of the “cultures” that they belong to, in order for themselves to lead a more comfortable life. I choose bilinguals not because they are peculiar and different, but because I believe they should be the most obvious example of how one belongs to multiple “cultures” that they utilize.

Keywords: Bilingual, Culture, Self-Representation

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APPENDIX (PDF)