Japanese Language & Culture | Latin

JAPANESE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE MIA WILLIAMS

ADAM COIL Life Editor

Going into college, Mia Williams was not too interested in learning a new language after some struggles with German and French in high school and Spanish in middle school. She knew, however, that there was a language requirement to be fulfilled, so she decided to give the Japanese a try.

As a big fan of anime, taking Japanese seemed like a logical and exciting opportunity.

“My whole life, my older brother and sister watched a lot of anime,” Williams said. “It was never in English, always in Japanese — so I was like, okay, I like anime, maybe taking Japanese will be fun.”

This turned out to be a pretty great idea, as she quickly found herself immersed in the culture of the Japanese as well as picking up their language at a rate much faster than she’d experienced with other languages.

On the pre-medicine track from the beginning of her time at Wake Forest, Williams found the atmosphere and content of her Japanese classes to be relaxing and enjoyable in contrast to the rigorous workload of her biology and chemistry courses.

“Going to Japanese class was a fresh air moment, and I really enjoyed the classes,” Williams said.

Thus, once sophomore year rolled around, Williams — after some encouragement from her sensei — decided to pursue a double major in Japanese.

Williams quickly fell in love with the environment of her Japanese classes, as well as the rapid progress she was experiencing in her speaking and writing abilities. Her confidence grew. When she spoke to natives on Zoom calls, she was able to talk about more complex things that she cared about, like medical discrimination.

“It was really rewarding because, throughout this whole process, I was like, ‘can I do this?’” Williams said.

But, by the end, she proved to herself that she was more than capable and felt as if she had been making the right decisions all along.

Because the class sizes for Japanese tend to be relatively small, there were many opportunities for engagement and connection with professors. Over the years, Williams developed a strong bond with and appreciation for Professor Yasuko Takata Rallings.

“I loved having [Williams] in class, particularly during the COVID-19 year,” Rallings said. “Even on days when everyone was obviously experiencing Zoom fatigue, I could always count on her active engagement during online sessions.”

Following graduation, Williams plans to go to Japan for at least a year to work as an assistant language teacher in public schools through the JET program — something she was unable to do during her time at Wake Forest because of the pandemic. In combination with being able to see with her own eyes the country and culture that she has been studying for three years, Williams said that she was most looking forward to “being able to teach other people about Black culture, which is very uncommon in Japan.”

Williams said that she plans to bring and incorporate her own unique culture into her teaching because she has always been very interested in studying how various cultures have the ability to merge into and influence one another. Rallings expressed her excitement for Williams’s future abroad, as well as her confidence that she will excel, saying that she was sure that Williams would “spread her positive energy and love for learning to public school students” during her time overseas.

Upon her return from Japan, Williams still plans to go to medical school to fulfill her lifelong dream of becoming a doctor. However, nothing is entirely concrete. “Something else could pop up, and I may decide to stay in Japan for the rest of my life,” Williams said.

Katie Fox/Old Gold & Black

ADAM COIL Life Editor

Zoe Clay is someone who does it all. Being Raised in Crozet, VA, Clay was heavily involved in track and cross country in high school, but they also found time to get interested in Latin — despite the high turnover rate of their high school Latin teachers — and took the language all four years.

Despite their experience with the language, Clay was not anticipating majoring in Latin when they arrived at Wake Forest. They credited their teammate, Anna Campbell, as the person who inspired them to pursue Latin. Clay said that they are “so glad she did, because [their] favorite classes at Wake Forest have all easily been through the Classics Department and have provided a nice balance and contrast to HES lectures.”

Clay, who is also majoring in health and exercise science, noted that the two majors actually have some convenient overlap.

“I had a great time in anatomy with all the Latin roots,” said Clay, “Knowing that a lot of the names were in the genitive (a Latin case) really helped me out with spelling one time during a practical.”

They continued: “Learning Latin has also helped me with the other languages I’ve been studying as well, though the atmosphere of my classes at Wake Forest has definitely taught me to appreciate it on its own and I will continue reading Latin after I graduate.”

Clay mentioned T. H. M. Gellar-Goad as one instructor, in particular, who inspired them and helped them along the way.

“Zoe is a diligent, skilled, and resilient student of Latin and classics,” Gellar-Goad said. “They are confident and collaborative all at the same time.”

Gellar-Goad also noted how entertaining Clay is to have in class.

“They’ve got a great sense of humor, too, as I’ve been fortunate to get to experience both in a Latin course on ancient Roman comedy and in our Latin Advanced Grammar & Prose Composition course this semester,” Gellar-Goad said.

“Zoe’s group consistently came up with the funniest translations, in which they adopted the persona of ‘Chadullus’ to give a ‘brotacular’ presentation to answer the question ‘Why Latin?’”

Clay has managed to survive and even thrive during their time at Wake Forest, though they did make note of how challenging it could be at times.

“It’s hard to identify a specific best or worst day,” Clay said. “In general, my worst day was probably one of the days when I’d gotten overwhelmed with other work and hadn’t been able to adequately prepare for my Latin class.”

While the small Latin class sizes here at Wake Forest can be unforgiving when one does not have the time or energy to prepare for class because “there is really no way to hide,” it can also be extremely rewarding because of how much progress one can make in a short amount of time.

“There are so many good days,” Clay said, “like when the meter in a poem comes together in your brain and you can read a whole passage out loud and hear it at the same time, or when something you’ve read sparks simultaneous connections to multiple subjects or ideas.”

Clay also found it surprisingly easy to connect to people writing so long ago — the chronological distance was not as divisive as they expected. This can conjure mixed feelings because that recognition can be “sometimes comforting, sometimes illuminating and sometimes it’s really just disheartening.”

After college, Clay will be taking a gap year while working in Winston-Salem, and they are also planning on applying to PT schools. Right now, however, Clay is most excited about “experiencing Winston-Salem beyond Wake Forest” and exploring all of the hidden gems that the city has to offer.

LATIN ZOE CLAY