I just got home from the holiday party for my Japanese class at the city hall. The teachers there are incredibly nice, they all volunteer to teach, and we had a great time. When I arrived they had set up the tables so that there was one huge long table we all sat around and there was lots of delicious Japanese food. Sushi, tempura, soba, pocky...yum.
Each week I go to lessons, I meet with the same teacher, Wada Seinsei. We go through a text and every so often she will try to just have a conversation with me, but she does best with the text. She's a very nice lady. There is also another teacher, Fukashima Sensei, who has been Ashley and Drew's teacher for a while. I've had her teach me a couple times and her method is basically talking to you with lots of charades and repetition until you know what she's saying and can answer her question. The two teachers are good friends and a lot of fun. Fukashima Sensei has a lot of energy and doesn't hesitate to give Drew a good shove if he's being ornery or continuing to use bad grammar. She's also been know to jump over or climb under the table to get to the other side.
Now that you have a little picture of our teachers, let me tell you that I did the Macarena with Fukashima Sensei tonight. She is always trying to break me out of my shyness in Japanese language and will enthusiastically try to converse with me. Tonight she was asking me questions about singing and some other things because she saw me with the church at the city festival and I sang with them. I also danced, and I think seeing me do these things let her know that I'm not so shy overall, just with Japanese and new people. Anyway, she wanted me to sing for the group, which I kindly refused. Then someone turned on music. It happened to be the Macarena and Fukashima Sensei started doing the dance in her chair. Then she looked to me and said something, and then looked to Ashley to help me understand what she was saying. Ashley informed me that she really wanted me to get up and dance with her. And so I did. We danced the whole song in front of the class. It is LONG. She enjoyed every minute of it and really got into it, and I enjoyed it as well, mostly because I was dancing the Macarena with my super cool Sensei. A few others joined in and we had quite the fun time.
The night was completed with some BINGO and prizes for all. Oh and I forgot to mention introductions. Haha. I have a new appreciation for when teachers make the new kids stand up and introduce themselves when they don't really know English. I felt like an idiot. All I really said was, "My name is Sara." I didn't know how to say anything interesting and was too flustered to say the phrase for nice to meet you. And so I stood there mortified having said my name and not having a clue what else to say. They are all so kind though and they asked me my hobbies and where I was from. Fukashima Sensei helped me and so did Ashley, so it turned out ok.
It was a fun night. I ended up speaking Spanish more than Japanese, sitting by a Peruvian man who attends our church. Sometimes I talk to his son in Spanish...well I try, and so he knows I know a little and we small talked in Spanish. It's very odd to feel relieved when the Peruvian comes and sits by you and you think, "oh phew, someone I can kind of talk to."
This coming week I'm headed to Hamamatsu. The thought behind this is to have a cultural Christmas and New Years, and to be around people that can't speak English so I can listen and learn more Japanese. I'll be there for about 2 1/2 weeks so hopefully I can pick up on a few things and have some time to study my Japanese.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
coffee shop culture, department store conspiracy, the gift of education, and other news
Coffee Shop Culture
So for the four months or so I've lived here, I can't say I've ever really felt homesick. I've certainly missed people in the states, but I haven't really missed the place. So today for the first time I wished I could just transport myself to the US for a couple hours. The root of this desire? Starbucks. I don't even like Starbucks all that much, but Ashley and I were doing a bit of shopping today and took a little break in Starbucks. Aside from all the Asian people surrounding me and the menu in Japanese, I felt like I was in the States. English Christmas music playing, warm aroma of coffee, familiar red Starbucks holiday cups, it even looked like the states outside the doors of Starbucks looking onto the cosmetic counters of a department store. For just a short moment I wished I were sitting in one of my favorite coffee shops in the States...I'm now back at my house and quite content to be here, but I will report that my first feeling of homesickness was the result of a visit to a coffee shop. haha.
Department Store Conspiracy
Shops in Japan tend to close at 8:00pm which seems a bit early. This depratment store Starbucks looked onto, Ashley and I ventured into it. Turns out there wasn't a thing there that was anywhere near what we could afford. I've never been in a department store so trendy they have Prada and Tiffany's. Anyway we continued to meander through the expensive goods until about 8:10 when Ashley mentioned how it seemed we weren't really supposed to be there. Looking around and realizing that indeed we were the only customers among a number of business suited workers I agreed that it seemed it was time to go. It felt a bit like we were in some sort of conspiracy where at any moment the dark suited people would move in us and take us captive. Thankfully that is not what happened but we did quickly make our way down to the ground floor where we were directed toward the exit.
The Gift of Education
The last couple of days I have been thoroughly enjoying being a teacher. I have a Language Arts class of four high schoolers. None of them are native English speakers so Language Arts is a bit of a challenge for them. I realized not too long ago that I had a lot of background work to do to enable them to write decent persuasive essays. They turned in the final copy yesterday and I was so proud of them. They worked hard and did quite well! Now we are going to tackle oral presentations of their papers. For being such a small class, and considering they are all friends, they are very shy. So I decided we would work on breaking them out of their shells. I know about the shell of shyness because I was rather shy when I was in school as well, and hated giving presentations. I have since realized that the fear of that type of public speaking is really quite silly and unneccessary, no one is going to judge you based on your class presentation, and I was trying to share this with my students. I'm not a huge fan of public speaking for large groups, but I don't mind it, and in smaller groups of people I know, I find it to be rather fun. So I was trying to convey these ideas to my students and told them that we are going to work on overcoming their fears. This means I am coming up with ridiculous little exercises to loosen em up. Today I had them have an imaginary sword fight with a partner in front of the other two in the class for thirty seconds. Yesterday I had them each say a phrase with various tones to show meanings like fear, amusement, or surprise. I hope to get them comfortable with each other and really more with themselves. It's a fun challenge.
My two sixth graders are also a lot of fun. They always have interesting things to share with me, and they catch on pretty quickly to the work we do in class.
Other News
Last week was thanksgiving. I ate a thanksgiving meal three times which is more than I do in the States, and I'm in Japan. The first round was at my friend and vice principal's house and began with tea and Sumo Wrestling, followed by Thanksgiving dinner and the movie Narnia. It was quite fun. The second round was a family's house from church. Also enjoyable, but I had to leave early to go teach English. The third round followed an outreach at church. They invited people to come enjoy an American holiday and we served them dinner and entertained them with music and such. It turned out very well. Lots of people showed up and got to experience Thanksgiving and hear a bit about Jesus. I served food and was part of the musical entertainment...I wanted to throw some interpretive dance into the mix, but I didn't think the guy in charge of the program would have appreciated it :). After the guests left all the helpers got to eat. So Thanksgiving in Japan really was very nice. Aside from all the food, I really have a lot to be thankful for. To name a few in no particular order: my family, God's grace, a nice place to live, God's financial and relational provisions, my job, my friends back in the states, my friends in Japan, long underwear to keep me warm, a cool bike, coffee, living in Japan.......etc. etc.
Went in to Tokyo last weekend to hang out and go to a Bible study. Had a good time in Tokyo seeing a few sights and spending time with my friends, and the Bible study was good. It's really for Japanese people that are unfamiliar with but interested in Jesus. My friend leads it and it's a really cool relaxed place for people to hear a bit about the Bible. Jelly beans were involved after the study and it turns out they aren't very common here and were quite fascinating to the Japanese people there which I found a bit funny. They didn't really seem to like them.
Pray With Me
People keep asking me what I'm doing next year, and I don't have a clue. Pray that God would give me guidance. I want to be where God wants me, I just don't yet know where that is.
Me and my friend Josh by some famous dog statue. Apparently there was a dog who always waited for his master at the train station, even after his master died. So it was such a touching story the dog was made a memorial.
I made Aunt Onnie's pie filling with an oatmeal topping so I could eat a yummy gluten free dessert. Turned out pretty I though.
Ashley in Starbucks.
If it weren't for the menu in Japanese, you'd never know it was Japan.
So for the four months or so I've lived here, I can't say I've ever really felt homesick. I've certainly missed people in the states, but I haven't really missed the place. So today for the first time I wished I could just transport myself to the US for a couple hours. The root of this desire? Starbucks. I don't even like Starbucks all that much, but Ashley and I were doing a bit of shopping today and took a little break in Starbucks. Aside from all the Asian people surrounding me and the menu in Japanese, I felt like I was in the States. English Christmas music playing, warm aroma of coffee, familiar red Starbucks holiday cups, it even looked like the states outside the doors of Starbucks looking onto the cosmetic counters of a department store. For just a short moment I wished I were sitting in one of my favorite coffee shops in the States...I'm now back at my house and quite content to be here, but I will report that my first feeling of homesickness was the result of a visit to a coffee shop. haha.
Department Store Conspiracy
Shops in Japan tend to close at 8:00pm which seems a bit early. This depratment store Starbucks looked onto, Ashley and I ventured into it. Turns out there wasn't a thing there that was anywhere near what we could afford. I've never been in a department store so trendy they have Prada and Tiffany's. Anyway we continued to meander through the expensive goods until about 8:10 when Ashley mentioned how it seemed we weren't really supposed to be there. Looking around and realizing that indeed we were the only customers among a number of business suited workers I agreed that it seemed it was time to go. It felt a bit like we were in some sort of conspiracy where at any moment the dark suited people would move in us and take us captive. Thankfully that is not what happened but we did quickly make our way down to the ground floor where we were directed toward the exit.
The Gift of Education
The last couple of days I have been thoroughly enjoying being a teacher. I have a Language Arts class of four high schoolers. None of them are native English speakers so Language Arts is a bit of a challenge for them. I realized not too long ago that I had a lot of background work to do to enable them to write decent persuasive essays. They turned in the final copy yesterday and I was so proud of them. They worked hard and did quite well! Now we are going to tackle oral presentations of their papers. For being such a small class, and considering they are all friends, they are very shy. So I decided we would work on breaking them out of their shells. I know about the shell of shyness because I was rather shy when I was in school as well, and hated giving presentations. I have since realized that the fear of that type of public speaking is really quite silly and unneccessary, no one is going to judge you based on your class presentation, and I was trying to share this with my students. I'm not a huge fan of public speaking for large groups, but I don't mind it, and in smaller groups of people I know, I find it to be rather fun. So I was trying to convey these ideas to my students and told them that we are going to work on overcoming their fears. This means I am coming up with ridiculous little exercises to loosen em up. Today I had them have an imaginary sword fight with a partner in front of the other two in the class for thirty seconds. Yesterday I had them each say a phrase with various tones to show meanings like fear, amusement, or surprise. I hope to get them comfortable with each other and really more with themselves. It's a fun challenge.
My two sixth graders are also a lot of fun. They always have interesting things to share with me, and they catch on pretty quickly to the work we do in class.
Other News
Last week was thanksgiving. I ate a thanksgiving meal three times which is more than I do in the States, and I'm in Japan. The first round was at my friend and vice principal's house and began with tea and Sumo Wrestling, followed by Thanksgiving dinner and the movie Narnia. It was quite fun. The second round was a family's house from church. Also enjoyable, but I had to leave early to go teach English. The third round followed an outreach at church. They invited people to come enjoy an American holiday and we served them dinner and entertained them with music and such. It turned out very well. Lots of people showed up and got to experience Thanksgiving and hear a bit about Jesus. I served food and was part of the musical entertainment...I wanted to throw some interpretive dance into the mix, but I didn't think the guy in charge of the program would have appreciated it :). After the guests left all the helpers got to eat. So Thanksgiving in Japan really was very nice. Aside from all the food, I really have a lot to be thankful for. To name a few in no particular order: my family, God's grace, a nice place to live, God's financial and relational provisions, my job, my friends back in the states, my friends in Japan, long underwear to keep me warm, a cool bike, coffee, living in Japan.......etc. etc.
Went in to Tokyo last weekend to hang out and go to a Bible study. Had a good time in Tokyo seeing a few sights and spending time with my friends, and the Bible study was good. It's really for Japanese people that are unfamiliar with but interested in Jesus. My friend leads it and it's a really cool relaxed place for people to hear a bit about the Bible. Jelly beans were involved after the study and it turns out they aren't very common here and were quite fascinating to the Japanese people there which I found a bit funny. They didn't really seem to like them.
Pray With Me
People keep asking me what I'm doing next year, and I don't have a clue. Pray that God would give me guidance. I want to be where God wants me, I just don't yet know where that is.
Me and my friend Josh by some famous dog statue. Apparently there was a dog who always waited for his master at the train station, even after his master died. So it was such a touching story the dog was made a memorial.
I made Aunt Onnie's pie filling with an oatmeal topping so I could eat a yummy gluten free dessert. Turned out pretty I though.
Ashley in Starbucks.
If it weren't for the menu in Japanese, you'd never know it was Japan.
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