Meet Heidi White
Heidi White keeps her Japanese reading skills fluent by reading the Harry Potter series in the language. Japanese books are read backwards according to American standards ¿ you are looking at the cover in the photo above. The text is also printed from top to bottom and read from right to left.
The heroine of our story is much like that of any modern-day novel.
From all outer appearances, Heidi White looks like the everyday college student - light brown hair, well spoken and studious demeanor. What you learn as you read between the lines is that she is well versed in world travel, has a curiosity for foreign cultures and cares deeply for people.
The 22-year-old nursing student's upbringing also taught her the skill of going with the flow. This skill allowed her to adjust to the different cultures her father's military-connected career exposed her to. He was a fire chief for the U.S. Navy and recently retired.
His adventurous job required the White family to live in Spain for five years and Japan for four, which led our heroine to flamenco dancing and a flare for languages.
"I learned Japanese by reading comic books," she says. "All the kids I went to school with spoke English so I didn't have to learn Japanese, but I wanted to. Since the Japanese language is one that builds on itself, you learn the more complex symbols as your vocabulary expands."
These days, our heroine's life appears normal, although quite busy, as the next nursing student's. She spends countless hours in clinicals, planning nursing care plans and studying. When not on campus, White enjoys sharing her quite apartment north of town with BB, her shy but spunky gray-striped tabby. It's in this quiet space she's finally put pen to the paper for the first book in her trilogy.
"I started developing the books when I was 13," says White. "So I started writing the first book when I lived in Japan; and now, when I reread those early drafts, I am embarrassed by how childish it sounded."
Although her character's basics haven't changed much throughout the years, they have matured and grown just as she has. Several close friends and family members have given her book the thumbs up, but she's taking her time in finding a literary agent. The characters have continued their lives in a second and third book, which are have taken form in White's creative space although she still needs to get them down on paper.
Back in the States, she's kept her Japanese semi-fluent by reading the Harry Potter series both in Japanese and English. Through a Web site that caters to Japanese individuals living outside the country, White is able to obtain the novels efficiently and cost effectively.
Unlike books written in English, Japanese books are read from the right to left. To Americans it would seem White was holding the book backwards - starting at the back cover. The language is not only read from the right to left, but from top to bottom.
"Some of the more complex symbols in the Japanese language are actually Chinese," White points out. "Centuries back in Japan's history these Chinese symbols were incorporated into the language and they've remained. But it does make learning the language harder."
In Japanese children's books there are side notes explaining the meaning of the more complex symbols, which is the main reason why White used children's books in her learning process.
"Although the books have these explanations, you have to remember them from the point they are introduced because they only give the explanation once," White laughs.
She reads the books out loud to BB - never in public, she says smiling - to keep her speaking skills somewhat fluent. In addition to staying fluent in Japanese and graduating in December, White is also working toward her long-term goal becoming a nurse practitioner and running a fertility clinic.