<p>I wrote about my experience learning Japanese over the past four years and the adversity I faced as a nonnative speaker. My guidance counselor refused to sign me up for the class ("it's a class meant for Japanese people, not you."), how my teacher encouraged me to drop the class before the course had even started, how my Japanese "friends" told me white people can't learn their language, etc. Eventually I became a top student in the course, am now taking courses at a local university at the advanced level, and won a college-level Japanese speech contest. </p>
<p>I was told that this was a terrible topic? I already finished the essay, so I hope I don't have to scratch it. I am planning on majoring in linguistics and Japanese (or maybe minoring in it), so it seemed fitting. </p>
<p>What do you guys think?</p>
<p>I was really proud of my essay until I was told the topic was bad…is it really that terrible? Should I write it on something else?</p>
<p>It seems to be an okay topic. If it’s well-written, then it could work, but it has inherent dangers. </p>
<p>First, it doesn’t tell colleges much extra about you. Sure, you overcame adversity, but it seems to focus on being successful at learning japanese, which colleges will see on your application and expect because you’re majoring in linguistics and japanese.</p>
<p>Second, it’s not even true adversity. I don’t mean to insult you or discount your experiences, but from an objective point of view, admission officers receive essays on suffering from severe depression or even worse mental disorders, losing parents or close friends/family, and many more painful/traumatic experiences. Yes, you encountered resistance when trying to learn japanese, but that may appear a bit pretentious (or in Holden Caufield’s words, phony) in comparison with encountering resistance because of racial/gender-based/socioeconomic-based discrimination. Again, I’m not trying to discount your experiences as easy or say you are just pretending to face adversity, but in comparison with what other people may put on essays, it seems like a bit of a stretch.</p>
<p>Last, ask yourself this. Why did you want to take Japanese in the first place? How did learning Japanese change your view? There are many parts of your experience you may be able to turn into an amazing essay, and can even draw from your first essay, but maybe having to convince your counselor to let you take Japanese (many people have to fight their counselor’s for a class, for various reasons) and “friends” giving you crap (the joys of high school) aren’t the best things to tie into what seems to be something very important to you. Definitely go with the Japanese thing, but tie in something else with it (your white and really wanted to learn japanese, and not to stereotype or anything, but you probably have a great story or could reveal something very interesting about yourself by talking about why you wanted to learn Japanese). Hope this helps, and don’t give up!</p>