Settling down
It took until this week that it made me fully realize that I am really in Japan. It took me a while for it to sink in. I cannot believe that its already been 1.5 months since I came from Canada. This morning Ana and I went to McDonald's (Ma-ku-do-n-na-ro-du) for breakfast on our way to pick up our "Certificate of Alien Registration Card". Not only are the prices higher, but the proportions are smaller. She then tells me that with that price we could have had an amazing meal at home and she meant Tottori (not Canada). We know we have settled in when we refer to Tottori as 'home'. Since we got our bicycles the week before golden week, travelling around Tottori has been super easy. Going grocery shopping, mailing stuff, going to bank, going to and from school etc... has been much faster. I can accomplish more things in one day.
Anyways this past week was a real eye opener. After that 'golden week' of fun, the school work is starting to pile. Schools goin okay... not too bad at all... just tons of independent work.
Anyhoo... In other news... I decided to quit the Kendoo club. All three times that I did go, they made me sit in the corner to watch. And occasionally someone would come and chat with me and allowed me to do some steps... But thats about it. I could make better use of my time by either teaching or joining a club where I'm actually doing stuff.
Teaching english has been going super. Firstly, I got my part-time job permit, so now I'm gonna get paid approx 600 yen/hour.. which is about $6 US/hour to teach. The students know my name and I know their names so the environment is becoming more personal and they seem to be more willing to participate in discussions.
And one of the most AMAZING things happened. One of my students, name Mokkey, is a Peace and Development studies major and is very much interested in international development. He met Michele (Systems Design student who came to Tottori in 2004) last year so he knows about Engineers Without Borders back in Canada. So he invited me to help lead a team to organize a campus 'Hunger Banquet' where everyone raises where people get placed in various "classes of wealth" and will be fed food that matches that level of wealth. For example those who are placed in the developed world will get food like pasta and wine, whereas those in the developing world will be fed with stuff like small proportions of water and bread (I'll think of better examples later). And then they proceed to interact with each other in interesting ways. O remember telling the EWB crowd back in Canada that I will try my best to continue my EWB/Development activities in Japan and now I am. So I'm super excited and pumped up to help organize this HUGE event in an area I am really interested in. Theres a meeting tomorrow at Professor Keat's house (a professor from UBC who has been living in Japan for 20 years). Matt and Rebecca, both english teachers here at Tottori U, are also on the organization committee. So I'm super excited.
Matt and Rebecca also invited me to judge a speeh competition tomorrow put on by the Tottori University English Speaking Association. Supposedly last year there were approx 20 competitors and they made them memorize 'Heidi' and 'Hansel and Gretle'... I could feel the pain the judges had to go through after listening to 'Heidi' 20 times in Japanese style English. So this year, instead, they decided to allow the contestants to write their own story. Then I find out that one of my students I teach in English class, named Yuske, won the competition last year. I asked him what it was like to memorize 'Heidi'... he said he didnt memorize it but instead made up a bunch of stuff along the way and turned up the charm (winning smile) for the judges. Very slick... lol... he's an agriculture major here in Tottori U and he asked me what Canadian universities are good for agriculture and he had a 'Japanese guide to Canadian Universities'. It took me a while to think of some, but I ended up telling him 'Univeristy of Saskatchewan', 'University of PEI', and 'University of Guelph'. I never knew Guelph had an agriculture program until another sudent mentioned it. Anyways... tomorrow should be a fun filled day... judging and 'hunger banquet' organizing.
Today Otachi sensei (one of my Japanese language professors) paired me up with a Japanese student in the 'partnership' program. So at 1 pm, I met him at the library. He was ALSO named Yuske (this is another Yuske not the one with the english speaking competition), a first year undergrad medicine student (they have an undergrad medicine program here in Tottori U). We has a full Japanese conversation. It was tough at times for me and I had no choice but to throw in some English words here and there. And... he was nice enough to bike with me to the bookstore to buy a dictionary. It took us forever to find a good one. I wanted one that went both ways: Japanese to English AND English to Japanese. Furthermore, the Japanese needed to be in a form that I could understand. For most of the dictionaries on sale, the Japanese characters in the English-Japanese translation were in Kanji (chinese characters) and not hiragana/katakana (phonetic japanese characters). So, after 1.5 hours or so at the boookstore, Yuske and I finally found a Romaji (roman character representation of japanese words). It was tough... but we eventually found one.
Anyways this past week was a real eye opener. After that 'golden week' of fun, the school work is starting to pile. Schools goin okay... not too bad at all... just tons of independent work.
Anyhoo... In other news... I decided to quit the Kendoo club. All three times that I did go, they made me sit in the corner to watch. And occasionally someone would come and chat with me and allowed me to do some steps... But thats about it. I could make better use of my time by either teaching or joining a club where I'm actually doing stuff.
Teaching english has been going super. Firstly, I got my part-time job permit, so now I'm gonna get paid approx 600 yen/hour.. which is about $6 US/hour to teach. The students know my name and I know their names so the environment is becoming more personal and they seem to be more willing to participate in discussions.
And one of the most AMAZING things happened. One of my students, name Mokkey, is a Peace and Development studies major and is very much interested in international development. He met Michele (Systems Design student who came to Tottori in 2004) last year so he knows about Engineers Without Borders back in Canada. So he invited me to help lead a team to organize a campus 'Hunger Banquet' where everyone raises where people get placed in various "classes of wealth" and will be fed food that matches that level of wealth. For example those who are placed in the developed world will get food like pasta and wine, whereas those in the developing world will be fed with stuff like small proportions of water and bread (I'll think of better examples later). And then they proceed to interact with each other in interesting ways. O remember telling the EWB crowd back in Canada that I will try my best to continue my EWB/Development activities in Japan and now I am. So I'm super excited and pumped up to help organize this HUGE event in an area I am really interested in. Theres a meeting tomorrow at Professor Keat's house (a professor from UBC who has been living in Japan for 20 years). Matt and Rebecca, both english teachers here at Tottori U, are also on the organization committee. So I'm super excited.
Matt and Rebecca also invited me to judge a speeh competition tomorrow put on by the Tottori University English Speaking Association. Supposedly last year there were approx 20 competitors and they made them memorize 'Heidi' and 'Hansel and Gretle'... I could feel the pain the judges had to go through after listening to 'Heidi' 20 times in Japanese style English. So this year, instead, they decided to allow the contestants to write their own story. Then I find out that one of my students I teach in English class, named Yuske, won the competition last year. I asked him what it was like to memorize 'Heidi'... he said he didnt memorize it but instead made up a bunch of stuff along the way and turned up the charm (winning smile) for the judges. Very slick... lol... he's an agriculture major here in Tottori U and he asked me what Canadian universities are good for agriculture and he had a 'Japanese guide to Canadian Universities'. It took me a while to think of some, but I ended up telling him 'Univeristy of Saskatchewan', 'University of PEI', and 'University of Guelph'. I never knew Guelph had an agriculture program until another sudent mentioned it. Anyways... tomorrow should be a fun filled day... judging and 'hunger banquet' organizing.
Today Otachi sensei (one of my Japanese language professors) paired me up with a Japanese student in the 'partnership' program. So at 1 pm, I met him at the library. He was ALSO named Yuske (this is another Yuske not the one with the english speaking competition), a first year undergrad medicine student (they have an undergrad medicine program here in Tottori U). We has a full Japanese conversation. It was tough at times for me and I had no choice but to throw in some English words here and there. And... he was nice enough to bike with me to the bookstore to buy a dictionary. It took us forever to find a good one. I wanted one that went both ways: Japanese to English AND English to Japanese. Furthermore, the Japanese needed to be in a form that I could understand. For most of the dictionaries on sale, the Japanese characters in the English-Japanese translation were in Kanji (chinese characters) and not hiragana/katakana (phonetic japanese characters). So, after 1.5 hours or so at the boookstore, Yuske and I finally found a Romaji (roman character representation of japanese words). It was tough... but we eventually found one.
posted by Arthur Kong at 3:05 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home