Daniel Bernstein's Self-Introduction

Hi there! Thanks for visiting our website. I hope that by reading my self-introduction you'll learn a little bit about me and a little bit about English at the same time. Isn't multitasking great? If you ask Ruriko, one of the other founders of this website, she'll tell you that women are better at multitasking than men. I wonder. Anyways, here's my introduction. I was born in the state of Iowa, a flat state in the middle of the US that is famous for corn. Luckily, my parents moved to sunny California while I was still a baby though so I got to grow up with my two sisters in a warm paradise. Now that I am 28 years old, my elementary, junior high and high school are long past. Many of the details about my childhood have already faded but I do remember that school wasn't very difficult (no juku in the USA!), and that I really enjoyed my extracurricular activates: soccer, trumpet, and writing. When I graduated from high school, my older sister was finishing up her degree at UC Berkeley and my younger sister was just starting high school. I had a great time in college (www.pomona.edu). I majored in molecular biology but because I went to a liberal arts school instead of a technical school, I took art, history, Japanese, writing, music, philosophy and filmmaking classes as well. The diversity of classes helped me realize that I am happiest when I am involved in a number of different activities at the same time. Just to give you an example, during my senior year in college I was doing an independent research project on DNA, filming a documentary about race relations, teaching a freshman-level writing seminar and performing in a brass quintet. After I graduated, I moved to a small village in the mountains north of Hiroshima City. I was an English teacher on the JET program. Some of you reading this now probably had JET teachers at your elementary, junior high and high schools. I really enjoyed my time over there. However, I believe the experience was unbalanced: I got more than I gave. I became proficient at Japanese, I delved deeply into the Japanese culture, and I developed many good friendships. I did my best to teach English to my Japanese students but I believe that by being immersed in the Japanese culture, a learned more about Japan than my students did about English. Hopefully, through this website, I'll be able to give something back. My most memorable experience in Japan was when I directed a community wind ensemble, the Arrhythmics. "Arrhythmic" is a word that I coined that means "no rhythm." When we first started, we weren't very good so the name was an inside joke. After two years though, we had 16 musicians and we were playing decent music. Working hard to improve our group was tremendously satisfying. The group actually still exists. If you live in northern Hiroshima-ken and want to join, send me email. After I left Japan I traveled through Asia for a few months before starting a scientific research job in a California biotechnology company. I worked on a project to help reduce the incidence of strokes. Unfortunately, the company went bankrupt when the Internet bubble burst. Although we weren't an internet company, our source of funding dried up and so the company folded. After that experience, I did two things. First, I made a documentary about Japan using footage that I shot while I lived in Hiroshima-ken. It took me two years to complete the film but when I finished, I sent it off to film festivals. It actually premiered in a big film festival in New York this past September. That was a blast! The film is called "A Year in Japan" and it explores Japan from a seasonal perspective. The second thing I did after the biotechnology company went bankrupt was to start an environmental engineering software company (www.gaiageo.com). My experience living in rural Japan and traveling through the mountains of Asia made me want to do my fair share to protect the environment. With my science background, I was able to learn the technical aspects of the field and with my partner (an American I met while working in Japan), we developed software for geothermal engineers. The company is growing slowly and I'm learning all about running a business. Right now I'm back in California after having just completed my master's degree at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, DC. For two years I studied and researched global economic policies, environmental issues, and East Asian politics. The experience was a real eye-opener. I became much more aware of how the world actually functions. In some respects my studies made me a little more cynical. However, at the same time my classmates generated so much energy and have/had such strong desires to improve the world, that everything is balanced out inside of me still. In any case, now I'm back in California working full time on helping you improve your English! Well, that's about it. I look forward to meeting you someday and adding you to my story (and having you add me to your story as well)!