ビクトリア・クラウスは、DiscoverNikkei.org の元ウェブ編集者です。彼女は日本人と白人のハーフで、現在はロサンゼルスのボイルハイツというヒスパニック系が大多数を占める地区に住んでいます。彼女はアメリカ創価大学を卒業し、教養学士号を取得しました。
2008年10月更新
この執筆者によるストーリー
Japanese school memories, Part II: My Japanese names
2007年3月10日 • ビクトリア・クラウス
My full legal name is Victoria Emily Mariko Kraus. Growing up, I responded to Bikki, the Japanese pronunciation of Vicki, my English nickname. My mother, friends and relatives in Japan, and Japanese family friends in the U.S. all called me Bikki’chan. (The “chan” being the Japanese version of the Spanish informal, affectionate and kiddish suffix, “ito” or “ita”, as in the names Juanito and Juanita.) Before starting Japanese school, I was accustomed to the two versions of my nickname, Vicki …
Japanese school memories, Part I
2007年3月2日 • ビクトリア・クラウス
I recently had a conversation with an old high school friend reminiscing what we did on the weekends growing up. She went to Catholic school on Saturdays to prepare for her first communion and confirmation while I went to Japanese school. Since one of the aims of this website is to preserve and share the experiences of Nikkei from all over the world, I thought I would take the month of March to talk about my “Nikkei” experience attending Japanese …
Hopeless romantic semi-feminism: A follow-up on Valentine’s Day
2007年2月23日 • ビクトリア・クラウス
I must reaffirm that being a hopeless romantic does not take away from me being anti-chauvinist. The fact that I demand to be treated like a lady when I’m on a date or in a relationship should not compromise how I am to be treated at all other times. Some friends emailed me in response to the “Cross-culturing Valentine’s” piece I wrote last week. One friend said that I contradict myself as a semi-feminist anti-chauvinist because I believe that men …
Cross-culturing Valentine’s
2007年2月16日 • ビクトリア・クラウス
I don’t consider myself a feminist. Mainly because I am, painful as it is to admit, a hopeless romantic. When it comes to Saint Valentine’s Day, however, my cynical nature of male chauvinism and excessively commercialized holidays comes out full force. I’m the type of female who is generally independent, enjoys the single life, and can’t stand male chauvinists nor the females who allow such males to be chauvinists. I define chauvinists as males who treat and expect females to …
Bad SAT/GRE genes?
2007年2月10日 • ビクトリア・クラウス
I’m preparing to take the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) to apply for graduate school. Studying for this exam takes me back to high school when taking the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT)—the required exam for any high school student or graduate applying to an undergraduate four-year college— was the biggest thing. I was college-bound but didn’t take the SAT seriously. I didn’t study for the exam and, I think, as a result didn’t do well. Although I took the exam three …
Following my sign
2007年2月3日 • ビクトリア・クラウス
My birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks. I tend to get spiritual around the month of my birthday, trying to deepen the “meaning” or significance on the one day during the one month of the year that celebrates another year toward retirement. I attribute my getting spiritual on my birthday to my fascination with the fact that while no one 24-hour day will ever repeat itself, someone’s birthday is revisited every 365 days. My birthday falls under …
Japanese cars are better
2007年1月27日 • ビクトリア・クラウス
In last Sunday’s Los Angeles Times (January 21, 2007), columnist Steve Lopez wrote about Hummers and the people who drive them, specifically Los Angeles’ transportation chief. This upset Steve. I also find it ironic and upsetting that the city of Los Angeles’ transportation chief would drive a Hummer. It would seem that people in public office positions, at least those who are in charge of things environmental, would drive more environment-friendly energy-efficient cars. The Hummer breaks every rule. Steve’s column, …
Spiritual journeys, done from home
2007年1月20日 • ビクトリア・クラウス
I woke up at 6:07 a.m. last Friday morning to an NPR “Morning Edition” interview with Gillian Siple, a World Religions major and senior at Davidson College in North Carolina. She talked about her travels throughout Asia and Europe as she learned about various religions practiced in Thailand, China, India and France, and the deep spiritual awakening she experienced that challenged the Christian beliefs she was raised with at home in the United States. Gillian grew up in a town …
Remedies for the common cold
2007年1月13日 • ビクトリア・クラウス
I recently caught a winter cold. Although it’s never really winter in Southern California, there are occasionally rare days when the temperature can drop down to the low 40s. It could’ve been due to the drastic up-and-down weather patterns lately with daytime highs in the 80s and lows in the 40s. I must’ve let my guard down when I wasn’t looking. It’s been six months since I was last afflicted with the inescapable common cold virus so I tend to …
Boars and fortune cookies
2007年1月6日 • ビクトリア・クラウス
2007 marks another year of the boar since its last turn of the animal wheel twelve years ago. I am a proud 1983 boar. Friends and family say it’s no coincidence since I am generally stubborn. And since it’s that time of year in Western society, I thought I’d share some of my new year’s goals inspired by some fortunes in my cookies and my boar-ish personality. My first fortune of the new year said, “Keep your feet on the …
