'Nihonjin no yoo to omoimashita' (I think I'm like a Japanese): Additional Language Learning and the Development of Multiple Selves

Abstract

This paper addresses the questions of how and what kinds of multiple self-presentations may inhabit the same narrative space. I draw on two types of data, both of which highlight changes that have occurred to individuals who have learned another language. By foregrounding the topical life histories of two Anglo-Celt Australians who have learned Japanese as an additional language after the age of 11 years, it was possible to investigate: (i) the extent to which multiple self-presentations are 'scaffolded' by the ability to make meaning in Japanese as an additional language; and (ii) the process of 'identity slippage' as part of the social semiotic construction of a bilingual self. In this paper, I challenge how 'Asian', and more specifically, 'Japanese' identities have been traditionally described.