hen I close my eyes I can still see bright-red angular Chinese characters on manila-coloured cardboard. As a kid, the boxes of Chinese apples were my guests from the unfathomable world of Asia. Although I lived in what technically is Northern Asia, the only Asian people I saw were two Yakut families in our all-white industrial professional-middle-class town, a reinforced concrete and corrugated aluminum oddity amidst the never-ending snow-fields of the Arctic tundra.

My choice of Japanese as a university major was a complete jolt out of the blue that no one expected, least of all myself. As I progressed with my studies, I discovered a whole parallel universe of human ambition and creativity with its own history, trends and values that defied every notion of our school curriculum induced Eurocentricity.

Starting from my second year, Asian fever had completely took me over. I found a private native Japanese tutor on top of my regular classes and used my every vacation day to work as Japanese translator, interpreter and tour guide. Our small Asian Studies world was a highly competitive environment and it took all my focus, energy and time to vie for staying the best. By my fourth year, I dreamt in Japanese, learn the a few regional dialects and obtained my JLPT Level 1.

Taking up Chinese, the language of Japan's biggest cultural donor, was the next logical step. By that time, the writings on Chinese appple boxes were no longer a mysterious riddle but something you understand without remembering that. I moved on to a diifferent level and learnt to appreciate China's role as the Greece and Rome of the vast region from Sapporo to Ho Chi Minh City.

Those were also the days of my culinary awakening to the wonders of world cuisines. I learnt to eat with chopsticks and discovered unknown flavours and fascinating food combinations in what my Chinese, Japanese and Arab friends cooked for me.

After the Japanese Minsitry of Education awarded me with a full scholarship to go study in Japan, nothing has ever been the same.

My Japanese and Chinese knowledge helped me land my first job in Bangkok, Thailand. Here I discovered yet another Asia and felt in love with the region, its rich cultural and linguistic diversity. I learnt Thai and Laotian as well a smattering of Khmer and Southern Chinese dialects. Curious about the history of the languages I intuitively "discovered" the South East Asian sprachbund before I actually read about it.

The years I spent living and working in Asia brought me to the realisation that discovering and analysing the fascinating cultural tapestry of the area is my true passion. I am currently advancing my academic degrees to teach Oriental Studies in higher education. My research focus lies in the field of intercultural awareness and relations as I feel this has a huge practical value in bringing peoples and nations to true peaceful cooperation.

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About the word Oriental.

There is a sickening tendency to give perfectly normal words pejorative connotations and make them so offensive that a new word is called for. So have the words Black or Oriental become un-PC, as if it were shameful to have darker skin or be from Asia. I wholeheartedly despise the trend to hide racist beliefs behind artificially neutral language. That is why I use Black and Oriental in their original and proud sense.