Throughout my life, there have been several events and people that influenced significantly who I am today. Among those things, Coming to Canada has become the most important influence in my life because it changed the way I look at interpersonal relationship, cultural differences and helped me to determine my identity. By moving to overseas by myself at age 22, I learned to adjust myself to new culture that is completely different from my Japanese background. I have adapted this new culture in some extent, but at the same time, I have discovered and strengthened my identity as Japanese by making myself understand others better.
             First, I had to learn how to communicate with people in English and went through hard time during the process. By now, I have acquired English ability that allows me not to have trouble handling things in the daily life. Acquiring new language ability is considered to be cognitive complexity, and this development affected me psychosocially as well.
             In the beginning of my stay in Canada, I had trouble making myself understood by Canadians. I first thought the problem is due to my poor English ability and my quiet personality. However, after I gained enough ability of English to communicate with others, I realized that the problems are also as a result of cultural differences. Through self-monitoring that is ¡§the process of paying close attention to one¡s behaviour and using these observations to shape the way one behaves,¡ I discovered differences between Canadians and myself as Japanese (Adler, Neil Towne and Rolls, 37). I learned that in Canadian culture, it is important to express one¡s feelings and opinions verbally to make one understood by others. However, in Japan, verbally expressing feelings and opinion, especially strong ones, is against the virtue. Therefore, Japanese uses nonverbal communication such as facial expressions and different tones of voice. For example, even if a person ve...