Linus Recht grew up in Glencoe and graduated from the University of Chicago in 2015 with a double major in Philosophy and East Asian Languages and Civilization. He then studied in Yokohama, Japan, for approximately one year and may be going to Tokyo this summer.
Q: What was your favorite part of growing up in Glencoe?
A: I liked Central School and I had very good friends at New Trier High School.
Q: Why did you decide to go to Japan?
A: I studied Japanese at New Trier, but I went to Japan to learn the language and I gave some lectures in Japanese about political topics to some college students.
Q: What did you like about living in Yokohama?
A: Japan is a very nice place. But it is very alienating because you have to speak Japanese all the time. I really stood out. But they had really good public transportation.
Q: What did you miss about the United States when you were in Japan?
A: Even at a Starbucks, they talk to you in heavy honorifics. such as, “What would you like, sir?” There is an emphasis – they are making themselves lower and making you higher. In the United States, I think the general assumption when you talk to someone who is working someplace is, I could be at that side of the counter and you could be on this side of the counter. Things are very formal there, which has its nice aspects, but in American culture, everything feels much warmer and democratic, and I came to miss that very much.
Q: Is there a type of food that you tried there that you never would have in the United States?
A: I had whale. I shouldn’t have. I was tricked into it.
Shout Out is a weekly feature in which we get to know and introduce our readers to their fellow community members and local visitors throughout suburban Chicago.
Daniel I. Dorfman is a freelancer for Pioneer Press.
