Hello r/Japanese,
I’m coming to you to see if I’m off the mark with having a baseball cap embroidered with the Kanji “頑張る ?”
However, I am concerned/aware that I don’t fully understand what exactly I may be saying to others with this hat. I appreciate that Japanese culture/language has a specific term for not only struggling but also simultaneously recognizing and appreciating it.
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Background:
I want to embody this spirit at certain times, I’m at a particularly difficult period of my life and am beginning to better myself once again through physical exercise. A specific exercise (gym, running, hiking) hat to obscure my face would help me feel more comfortable, I struggle with the idea of others seeing me as imperfect or insufficient. I also tend to identify with/embody what I am wearing. I believe having a hat like this to put on will help me to be present and enaged in doing hard things and appreciating the entirety of it.
I understand 頑張る or ganbaru to mean tenacity or willfull and appreciative perseverance through hard times. I recognize that I have a limited understanding of the language and culture of Japan, but I still appreciate and intend to respect it. Honestly, I aspire to learn the language and then some day travel to Japan, but that ambition is niether realistic nor relevant to where I am now.
I feel uncomfortable wearing a hat that just says “struggle on,” “do hard things,” “comfort kills,” or something similarly edgy//hyper-aggresive/overdone in American culture. What I am doing is nothing special, I am simply locked in a permanent struggle that’s not anyone’s fault. It just is the way it is. Everyone else has their own struggles to contend with, it’s just the human condition.
I am coming to you as r/Japan and r/learn Japanese don’t seem to be quite fitting as this is more a question of language AND culture.
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Please let me know if I’m off the mark or inherently disrespectful in doing this. I am open to recommendations and answering clarifying questions.
Thank you all for your time!
by [deleted]
