CONTACT: Colby Turner
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colbyrturner@gmail.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nov. 10, 2020
Majoring in Japanese: The Highs and Lows
Story by Colby Turner
Cyrus Franck and Jayme Frazee, Middle Tennessee State University Japan Club president and vice president, knew early on in their academic careers that they wanted to find a way for people interested in Japan to feel less like outsiders.
Franck personally was met with a lot of backlash from friends and family in high school when he decided to major in foreign language, specifically Japanese. “Japanese gets a bad reputation because of some pretenses around it,” Cyrus said. “I often felt out of place just because of my interests.”
Franck and Frazee began college in 2018 with dreams of one day going to Japan or using their language skills to become translators. “All I knew coming in was that I wanted to learn Japanese. Anything that would come out of that would be amazing,” Franck said. He is a Japanese major with a photography minor, both hobbies of his own that he cherishes.
Frazee also faced similar emotions before she entered college. “I remember feeling embarrassed to tell people what I planned to do with my life,” she said. “No one should feel like that when it comes to your future plans.”
Frazee, a Japanese major, started her academics at Belmont University in Nashville before transferring to MTSU for the Japanese program. “People can be judgmental, and I will never understand why. We are just doing what we love,” she said. Frazee has taken advantage of the program, having already studied abroad to Japan since she began school in 2018.
Franck and Frazee became fast friends and knew they wanted to help other people interested in Japanese culture to not feel so alone in college. “We had the opportunity to make a change, so we did,” Frazee said.
The pair decided they wanted to be sure that people with these interests felt included overall. “We don’t want other students to feel what we felt, so we created this safe space for them to come and meet new people with the same interests,” Franck said. “As Japanese majors, we are learning one of the hardest languages in the world, so we should be proud of that.”
Since Japan Club began in 2019, the pair has seen amazing evidence that their club is actually helping these students. Membership numbers have risen from about 15 members to nearly 40 within one semester. “It makes us really happy to know that we are giving these people connections and an outlet to make friends,” Franck said. The pair is proud of their club so far and have many plans for the future.
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Middle Tennessee State University’s Japan Club was established by a group of friends in 2019 after rebranding from its old identity as Japanese Language Table, originally established in 2014. The club encourages students to share Japanese culture. It hosts information sessions regarding study abroad, educational movie nights and fun game nights. Japan Club grew very quickly, with numbers going from under 10 to over 30 within one semester. Visit the club on @mtsujapanclub.
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