Presentation and Discussion Report: Half children

For May 21,

My topic was about “Half children”, and about their dilemma that they always face. I could distinguish my presentation in four parts.

At the start of the presentation, I have told about the ideas of Halfs briefly that there are issues about“the gap between the society and Halfs themselves” and“the loss of their identities”, and the background of the Half children as rapid increase of the international marriages since1990-2000. That means that their children are becoming the school-age children these years.

In second part, I have explained details about two issues. Each is linked together but separated them to understand more deeply and clearly about the Half children. I have explained them with using the figure I made. There are the contradiction about the identification of the Halfs between the society and themselves, and they tend to lose their identities because of this contradiction with the society. Especially, about the second issue, they tend to lose their identities because they have two home countries but both countries recognize them as foreigner and outsider.

After that, I have asked to my partners about “What is your image of Half?” and showed them that many Japanese have positive idea or image about Halfs. Then I have showed the interviews which Halfs answered their individuals’ experiences. There are three kinds of the ideas which Half themselves have. In first group, people have the positive ideas to be Half. They said it is because “the image of Half is good in Japan, so it is favourable” and “to be outsider in everything means, can be anywhere or be in part of anything”. In opposite, people who have negative ideas to be Half said that they feel annoyed or sad when they were treated as foreigner. And the interesting one for me was the neutral idea that one guy said. He said that he does not have any idea like he is Japanese or Swedish (which is another nationality for him), he just feels like he is being the part of his family. I thought this was very good idea especially for the Halfs who have been struggling with their identities, places to be.

In conclusion, I think there are five important points to consider about the Halfs. One is about age. It is important because I think many Halfs struggled with the society’s idea when they started to be in new place such as the school or work place. Second is about our understanding. People, especially Japanese, have very positive image for Halfs like feeling envious but it does not always fit with the idea or demand of Halfs. So we have to notice that there are Halfs who want to be recognized as everyone has been treated. And the third point linked a little with second point. People have to know that Halfs’ identities often brought up in the society and with the culture that they grew up, not only reflection of where their parents came from. Then fourth point is about that we cannot classify people only by nationalities or ○○-ness. People can be in any part. And it is not only the idea of how classify people. For the last, people need to have the idea that to be internationally or outsider is great thing.

550 words 60 minutes

For May 28,

I have changed my presentation's order and changed the conclusion part a bit to make clearer and easier to explain. And this time we could discussed about my topic. I got a question from my partner: "If you got marriage with foreign man and got Half children, what do you say to your children?". Then we talked about this question with each other's idea for a little. And I was really impressed by the idea which I got from one guy who is Half and answered the interview I showed and had a neutral idea. He said that he does not mind he is even Swedish or Japanese, he feels like he is just a part of his family, he is belonging in his family. I think it was very nice idea especially for the Half people who have negative idea or struggling with being Half. So I would like to say "You are just my children" to my children if he or she got struggled by being Half.

169 words 15 minutes