Greg Kirwin is mostly ignorant of Japanese culture and its relations to the rest of the world… for now. He has had relatively little exposure, outside of the often Americanized products that find their way to the states, like Pokemon, or any of the plethora of Japanese shows that aired on TV sometime in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s (which he doesn’t think count much anyways). The Last Samurai was one of Greg’s favorite movies as a child; looking back on the film’s depictions of the land and culture in the 1800’s, it is easy to see where some stereotypes need to be broken.
Greg’s interest in Japan has piqued recently after he learned some part-Japanese relatives were moving to Tokyo this year, and after he found himself helpless in trying to understand his bilingual cousins (taking care of a two-year-old bilingual in Japanese and English is difficult) or much of the Japanese culture they attempted to douse him in. At the moment, there are no plans to learn the Japanese language… but four years of college leaves a lot of time to consider whether he wishes to take up another language! He loks forward to understanding the culture this portion of his family will be embracing, as well as the history Japan has had with the West and their mutual influences on each other.
This fits nicely into Greg’s intentions to major in Economics (possibly with a double major in sociology), as the global economy is now more connected and interdependent than ever; with the US and Japan sitting in #1 and #4, respectively, for the world’s largest economies, it will be important to understand the myriad ways that we depend on each other for trade. William & Mary is a great school to learn about the economy; 319 years of experience have served it well.
Greg spends his time outside of the Japanophilia class running (lots and lots of running), playing his bass, and browsing The Economist and Adweek in order to stay up-to-date on both the global and domestic markets we are all a part of.
Me and my bass