Administrative Assistant
In 2010 Anne Hill unexpectedly began a second sojourn in Japan after a two-decade gap. She was expecting a shock to the system. After all, moving abroad is one thing in your 20s but somewhat more daunting at a "certain age." Dictionaries were dusted off, old Japanese textbooks rescued from the charity pile in the nick of time…. Would she remember anything?
Well, language is a strange and special thing, the brain is an amazing machine, and kanji, once in, apparently stick around. And now there are marvelous online resources such as Joy o’ Kanji to help out, as well.
So she is happily living in Inuyama (犬山, いぬやま: literally "dog mountain," apparently the only Japanese place name with "dog" in it), immersing herself once more in the Japanese language, and embarking on career number three (after English teaching and journalism) as a translator.
Candidates for a favorite kanji abound, but perhaps the winner should be 英, as it signifies her home (英国, えいこく: England or the UK) and mother tongue (英語, えいご: English), is pleasing to draw, and appears in such inspirational words as 英雄 (えいゆう: hero), 英才 (えいさい: talented, gifted), and 英断 (えいだん: final decision, a resolute step).
