<Begin Segment 2>

AI: What language did your parents speak with each other and with you?

DT: Oh, they spoke Japanese, Nihongo.

AI: So you grew up speaking strictly...

DT: Pardon?

AI: You grew up hearing and speaking strictly Japanese?

DT: More or less, yes.

AI: How --

DT: Isseis, they spoke to each other in Nihongo, Japanese, you see, and the Niseis, they picked up Japanese words, but when they first got to grammar school, they had a difficult time adapting because they couldn't speak the English language. I still remember getting to that first class at Henry Duran School, where I couldn't speak English, you see.

AI: How did you feel when you went to --

DT: I felt terrible. Felt terrible to think that you're, you got to school, and you can't speak the language. That's because your parents spoke nothing but Japanese.

AI: And when you were in school, how did you get some help with the language?

DT: Well, naturally, you adapt, and you start talking with your classmates, and we gradually learned to speak English, but it was difficult.

AI: So it was strictly Japanese at home, and then you go to school and it's almost exclusively --

DT: Yeah, it's all English. There's no Japanese at school.

AI: So you've become bilingual.

DT: Right.

AI: Okay.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2004 Densho and The Japanese American Museum of San Jose. All Rights Reserved.