「Circle (Non-Sports)」カテゴリーアーカイブ

Logan Cody: Klexon

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For my Community Involvement Project I participated in Klexon – an English conversation club. Every Tuesday I would meet for two hours in the Wings Gender Equality Center with other KCJS members and other native English Speakers living in the city, to talk with Japanese college students and workers in order to help them practice their English speaking abilities. For the first hour of the meetings, I would talk in one-on-one sessions with the Japanese club members – discussing anything from their jobs to their opinions on recent political developments. Then in the second hour, I would talk in groups of five to six people in order to practice group speaking abilities with them. The club would offer prompts and possible topics of conversation, but I found that most of the Japanese participants were happy to elect their own topics of conversation, and usually wanted to discuss broad cultural differences between Japan and the US, or grammatical novelties between Japanese and English. As I became closer friends with different members of the club, I began to join them for food and drinks after the meetings or at Karaoke parties on the weekend.

Through my continuing interactions with the Klexon group, in and out of the weekly meetings, I feel that I was truly able to integrate into, and participate in, Japanese social activities and functions. Furthermore, in helping to teach English to Japanese people I was better able to understand my progress with my own language studies: for example, it seems a lot of the Klexon members use the word “maybe” more often than what would be considered natural in English (eg. “Maybe, my job is working in finance”). My assumption is that this over-usage stems from learners attempting to directly translate certain phrases from their native tongue into their target language – which is probably a mistake that I make as well in my own language studies (ie. trying to convert head-first English phrasing/idioms into Japanese, instead of solely relying on the set head-last grammatical formations of the language). I also found that simply speaking to a large number of Japanese students and workers allowed for many fascinating insights into people’s opinions about food, and clothing, and history, and politics. A particularly interesting example would be my conversations with a member of Japan’s Self-Defense Force: I was able to learn about his daily work, and about how most Japanese citizens look down upon those who join the SDF.

As for my advice to future students, I can’t stress enough how important it is to get a Line! Everyone here uses Line, and it’s just such an easy way to make friends quickly. After a meeting, if you have even the slightest interest in being friends with someone, I’d highly recommend trading Line account information. And then afterwards, even if you don’t text them, the likelihood that they text you and ask to hangout is very high. There’s practically no work involved at all! And getting to meet Japanese people and hang out outside of the CIP activities is such a wonderful opportunity to make friends, to speak more Japanese, and to learn more about Japanese culture and life.

Allison Capron: Klexon

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For my CIP, I participated in an English-speaking circle called Klexon. Klexon took place every Tuesday from 7-9pm. Through this CIP, I was able to speak to college students and working people. The first hour consisted of 10 minute talks with 6 people, and the second hour involved group conversations.

I had a few observations during my time at Klexon. Most Japanese people studied English for work purpose or in order to gain a better advantage for job hunting. One interesting reason I heard for studying English was for talking with people at concerts. One person said he enjoyed metal music and wanted to learn English so that he could go to concerts and talk with other people. Another observation I had was that when I asked people where they want to go abroad, they usually said Canada or Australia. I thought it was interesting that many did not say America. One girl said she did not like New York because it was too loud, crowded, and dirty. Also, many Japanese people were courageous and wanted to speak with foreigners fluent in English. When some people learned that I would be returning to America, they would be disappointed because they wanted more chances to speak with foreigners.

While I initially hated Klexon because of the late meeting time, I became good friends with this one Japanese girl so I became more appreciative of Klexon. We went to Higashiyama together, rented kimonos and walked around in Arashiyama, and ate delicious foods. Overall, Klexon was a fun experience and I had the opportunity to learn more about the culture and engage in various conversations.

Cassie Rodriguez: Klexon

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The CIP I have chosen this semester is a circle dedicated to helping Japanese people improve their English skills. Most of the people who participate come from a wide variety of backgrounds, and I have been able to talk with college students my age, people interested in living or working abroad, people who study English just as a hobby, and even a member of Japan’s Self Defense Forces. One of the most rewarding things about participating in this circle is that you have the opportunity to meet people who understand exactly what it is like to study a difficult foreign language, so communication is not that difficult as we share similar experiences. Sometimes, depending on the level of English that my conversation partner has, I often offer explanations in Japanese, which helps both my language skills and helps deepen the understanding of my conversation partner.

Because KCJS students are required to keep a CIP log and come up with small tasks for ourselves, I feel like participating in this circle has been really useful. For example, each week I set a goal for myself to participate in activities outside of the circle so I would be able to practice my Japanese and also make new friends. Each week I gave myself a small goal to complete that eventually led to me hanging out with some of the friends I made in the circle “outside of class,” so to speak. Funnily enough, even though many of the Japanese people try hard to practice English, most of the time outside of the circle we only speak Japanese, which has been actually really good practice. All in all, I’m glad that I have been able to participate in this circle because it has helped me accomplish my primary goal that I set before starting the KCJS program: becoming more comfortable with expressing myself in Japanese.

Esja Staggs: Calligraphy Club

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Before coming to Japan, one of my goals for my time abroad was to learn 書道, and so I decided to attempt to join the Doshisha calligraphy club. Unfortunately, the Doshisha calligraphy club did not meet until the beginning of their semester, and so it was impossible to actually start my CIP until well into October. Moreover, since I reached out to the club officers via email, it was extremely difficult to maintain contact and decide on a time that I could participate in their meetings. Eventually, however, I was able to meet with one of the club officers, who then lead me to the clubroom at the Shinmachi campus. Before entering the room, it was necessary to first knock, and then say 失礼します while opening the door. Although I did not speak directly to many of the other club members, I would overhear their conversations while I practiced. Particularly, I noticed the level of formality and/or informality of the conversations, as well as the use of Kansai-ben and colloquial speech. As 書道 is by its very nature a quiet activity, I did not speak to anyone in the room besides the club member that was assisting me for the day. Consequently, most of my observations pertaining to culture and language were vicarious. Although I still do not know the names of any of the 部員 that have gone out of their way to sit with me for well over an hour and (arguably in vain) teach me how to write characters that they learned as schoolchildren, I am extremely grateful that they allowed a 留学生 such as myself to take up their time and resources.

Dylan Ong : Doshisha Light Music Club

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For my CIP, I decided to join Doshisha University’s Light Music Club – an umbrella, music organization which contains over 70 musical ensembles. The whole premise of the club is that students who enjoy playing music with others can do so freely. This means that students often create their own bands, schedule performances, and invite other members of the club to watch those live performances, etc… The Light Music Club has 3 main practice spaces, and you can find the main practice space filled with people at any time of day. Because I have played trumpet and piano for a majority of my life, and since I am a part of the jazz orchestra at my university, I figured that I should join a music organization on campus. Currently, I am a member of 8 different music ensembles in the club! Since music has played such an integral role in my life, I felt like I could share my passion and knowledge of the subject by interacting and performing with other members of the club.

Every year, Doshisha University hosts its own festival called “Eve Festival”, which is a 3-day long event filled with food, games, and performances. In preparation for our bands’ live performances, I have gone to many rehearsals (almost 3 to 4 every week). There have even been rehearsals that run until 2:00 AM! Therefore, I am around many members of the organization for many hours. This presents many opportunities to interact with other students in Japanese, however, there have also been challenges in communication that I have encountered.

Because the organization has over 120 members, there are well-established cliques of students within the club, and therefore not everybody is interested in talking to new students – let alone students who do not speak the native language. In the beginning, I found myself not being able to understand what the other members were saying to each other in fast, Kansai dialect. However, over spending hours with some of the members inside and outside of rehearsal, I have been able to develop deeper relationships with a few of the them. It is still not easy to participate in larger group settings, as there is quick banter that goes back-and-forth, but I have found that people are much easier to talk to when you talk to them one-on-one. Since a lot of the band members like to congregate in the main practice space, this has been a very good place to try and talk to new people.

There are many ways in which I have initiated communication, or have interacted with members of the organization. For example, after jamming with the members in the main practice space, a number of them invited me to join the bands they were making for Eve Festival, and this is how I became a part of 8 different musical ensembles. This gave me the opportunity to interact with the band members before, during, and after rehearsals, and I have hung out with them outside of rehearsals on several occasions – whether it was going out to eat, or playing Super Smash Bros. Also, in order to schedule rehearsals and work out logistics, we often have to communicate with each other through LINE – a popular messaging service used in Japan. Using LINE has helped immensely by clearing up misunderstandings I may have had during rehearsal, and it has also been a useful tool in getting to know people who would otherwise be shy talking to me in person.

By spending time in the Light Music Club, I noticed a few cultural differences between my experiences playing with musical ensembles in America and Kyoto. The structure of jazz education taught in schools, operations and demography of collegiate music clubs, and 検便 (kenben) all came as forms of culture shock to me. Having grown up in Las Vegas, I was used to most public high schools having marching, jazz, and concert band programs. However, after talking to a lot of the members in the club about their musical experiences, jazz and marching programs in public schools are not very common, and music is regarded more as a club activity – not as a class. This system seems to continue through college, as Doshisha University does not have a music program, and all music organizations are student-run. The fact that all rehearsals are scheduled, organized, and conducted by students surprised me, and I was also surprised by the number of women who participated in these musical ensembles. There has been a lot of criticism directed towards the American jazz community because of sexism and lack of female participation in many bands, and I have definitely noticed this trend in my high school and college experiences. However, the Doshisha Light Music Club has an even-split of men and women who perform in their bands. The most “unique” experience I had was having to do “kenben” – or fecal examination. Yeah… I don’t think I need to explain why this came as a surprise. This isn’t common, though, so don’t let it discourage you from joining a circle!

My biggest piece of advice for those interested in joining a circle is that you should be proactive in trying to forge relationships. This is due to a number of factors: 1) Many of the members already know each other, and won’t inherently have an interest to make more friends. 2) People might assume you are busy if you keep to yourself and are silent. 3) Others are just as afraid of the language-barrier as you are.

Although there have been some challenges in communication, joining the club has been a rewarding experience overall! I would recommend this club to those who interested in music, and are willing to be proactively involved in Doshisha’s community!

Khanh Ta: FBI Filmmaking Circle

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For my CIP, I decided to do something that was related to my main major, Film, so I found a filmmaking circle named FBI to join. Because there are neither film-related classes offered nor are there opportunities to boost up my resume during my time here, I figured joining FBI would be a great way to network as I would also like to find work soon after KCJS is complete. Considering that film is my passion, I figured that this would also help me improve my Japanese exponentially as my interest doubles; getting an insight on how Japanese function within the film industry is also a good place to start professionally.

The club meets irregularly as it depends on whether or not there are upcoming film shoots. There are around 4-5 projects per semester being developed, so I had to try to join a project in order to attend film shoots. After messaging them on Twitter and going to the first general meeting, I was able to get the vice president’s contact information and learned about upcoming film shoots through her. There are also many screenings that we get to attend, considering the club also collaborates with other local universities. We even participate in the Doshisha school festival. The professional level of the club really surprised me, as everyone takes their jobs very seriously. Although everything is student-run and self-organized, I was very surprised of how similar it felt like one of my beginner-level film classes back at BU.

Nevertheless, the first and perhaps still biggest challenge that I faced when joining this club was obviously the language barrier. Because film is a very jargon-oriented thing, I had to learn many new industry-related vocabularies in order to communicate with my club members. It’s difficult communicating advices to club members when I was struggling to find the Japanese word for cinematography or light meters. I came into the club originally assuming that – because this is film, something belongs to Hollywood and America – everyone would automatically at least know the English terminologies at least in some shape or form, even katakana. However, that’s definitely not the case, as, after some heavy research, I realized that there are many kanji words for film-industry jargons. I had to self-teach myself all these things before every shoot in order to communicate well with fellow club members. Even slating is different. Because slating is simply saying the scene’s name and takes’ number, I assumed it would be simple in Japanese as counting and listing the alphabet cannot be that different. However, that was not the case when I arrived on set, as the Japanese slating system that the shoot I was in was completely different to what I anticipated. There was actually no slate; my club members simply kept a notebook to keep track. Perhaps this is a result of lack of funding, but even so I was surprised that they did not use a slating app on their phones instead.

Overall, my advice for future students who are thinking of joining this club is that we all need to be very prepared, especially with learning the specific industry-terminologies in advance. This circle is more of a professional circle for filmmakers, as I really do believe and can see that everyone in the club works very hard and takes their duties seriously. Without the CIP, I would say that my KCJS experience would have been much less fulfilling, and I am incredibly thankful for this experience. Not only was I able to make such amazing friends – my first Japanese friends actually! – I was also able to enrich myself with the things related to my career in Japanese.

Rachael Miller: Doshisha University Ping Pong Circle and Anime Club

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My experience with the Community Involvement Project has afforded me the opportunity to witness two phenomenon which, I believe, are equally common, but which are opposite in nature: timidity versus openness towards foreigners. Having participated in two different CIP activities during my time at KCJS, I feel that I can say with a fair degree of confidence that I’ve seen two sides of the same coin, and that the difference in my treatment in each setting had a significant impact on my enjoyment of the CIP activity as a whole.

To begin, I initially set out to join Doshisha University’s Ping-Pong Circle. I’ll confess that I don’t have much experience playing ping-pong, despite being somewhat competitively intrigued by it in my high school days, and so for the Japanese students who were already in the club – and who appeared to take their practice of ping-pong very seriously – playing with me must have been extremely frustrating. That being said, apart from their apparent unwillingness to step up to whichever table I’d staked out, I experienced a further unwillingness to even engage in conversation. Despite multiple attempts to get to know my fellow club members, to learn more about their club and its members, etc., my attempts to start conversations were repeatedly shut down by their mere unwillingness to provide me with answers.

Interestingly, while this experience certainly sheds some light on the degree of comfort these students have interacting with foreigners, Joey Ye – who joined the club before I did, and who was at a similar skill level as I was – didn’t seem to have much of a problem interacting with the club members. Thus, I couldn’t help but wonder – was their unwillingness to interact with me also because I’m a woman? I did notice that female members of the Ping-Pong Circle seemed few and far between, and it occurred to me that potentially, my  being a foreigner was not the only source of hesitation that the Doshisha students felt in interacting with me.

Unfortunately, after several weeks of repeated, failed attempts at making conversation, I came to the conclusion that perhaps the Ping-Pong Circle was not the right CIP for me. Given that the goal of CIP participation is to involve oneself in the community, I felt that rather than being involved, I was more being made to observe – regardless of my own desire to be more engaged in my activity. Feeling that I might strike better luck with a group of people with whom I had more in common, I ultimately made the decision to leave the Ping-Pong Circle in pursuit of another activity: participation in the anime club.

It was here that I found myself truly enjoying my CIP activity. The response that I received from the members of the anime club was, in almost every way, different from the response I received from the members of the Ping-Pong Circle. I was welcomed enthusiastically into the anime club, apologized to repeatedly for some minor inconveniences surrounding my membership fee, and spoken to often and willingly by the various members who would come and go without, it seemed, adherence to a strict schedule. Rather than gathering together for the purpose of cultivating a specific skill, the members of the anime club seemed to be more a group of friends who found enjoyment in one another’s company than anything else.

Although I will confess that my language skills – or lack thereof – prevented me from engaging with the members on an especially deep level, I found that they were more than willing to help me get my membership fee squared away, figure out a schedule for coming and going, helping me read various kanji, etc. In the instances that I experienced a lack of communication with the club members, the reason seemed sourced more in lack of ability than lack of desire.

Ultimately, I’ve found that my experience with the anime club has been entirely pleasant, and I am glad that I was able to find a CIP in which I felt more comfortable. While I certainly am not able to make any sociological generalizations based on my experience, again, I feel that I can accurately summarize the difference in my experiences by pointing out the different attitudes held by Doshisha students toward interacting with foreigners. While one is neither better nor worse, right nor wrong, I will admit that after my experience in the Ping-Pong Circle, I will absolutely go out of my way to interact more with foreign exchange students at my home university. Because although I have finally found a setting in which I feel more comfortable, that initial experience of discomfort was a bit disheartening.

Melissa Chang: Doshisha University Animation and Voice Actor Club

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For my CIP, I joined the Animation and Voice Actor Club at Doshisha. Since I was only here for a semester, I didn’t get to participate in any of their big events, but I was allowed to hang out in the club room. It was a cozy place where I was free to come and go as I pleased and interact with the other members. Some of the things I did were play video games with the members, talk to them about all kinds of things, and read manga.

By participating in this club, I was able to experience the dynamics of a Japanese club. This club was one of the more laid back clubs, with senpai–kouhai relationships not as pronounced. It was a good place to pick up on Kansai ben because a lot of the club members spoke in that dialect. Doshisha’s Anime Club was very different from the Anime Club back at Boston University. The club room at Doshisha was smaller than I had anticipated. There are also no planned activities at Doshisha’s Anime Club as opposed to BU’s Anime Club. Because the club room is open every day and I could only go once a week, I didn’t always see the same people. This made it harder to maintain relationships with them, but it was a good experience nonetheless.

My advice to anyone who wants to join this club is to try to go as often as possible. The more times you show up to club, the better your chances are of making friends. Everyone’s really nice and welcoming so don’t be afraid to talk to them! It’s also fun and useful to read manga with them because they can help you learn new words in Japanese! For anyone spending a year at Doshisha, I would suggest that they attend the special events put on by the club. The more people you meet and the more involved you get with the club, the better your experience will be.

Grace Bologna: Model United Nations

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For my fall semester community involvement project, I was extremely fortunate to continue an activity I deeply enjoy at my home school. I joined the Kyoto branch of Japan’s Model UN competition cycle. The branch includes Doshisha University, Kyoto University, and Ritsumeikan University, housing about forty college students. Through the organizations, I was able to gain a first-hand look at the inner workings of MUN in Japan as well as improve my own skills as an international delegate.

I come from an institution that takes the activity quite seriously. I spent nearly twenty hours a week on Model UN activities at the peak of competition season and a failure to win an award at competitions can end your career on the team. Our hard work shows—UChicago has been ranked number one in North America from 2011-2016. A slip due to negligence and changing competition style dropped us to 5th place in 2017, although reapplication has put us back at #1 for the start of the 2018 cycle. Needless to say, I was ready to dive into a similar level of competition in Japan.

What I found was quite different. The first shock was the level of collaboration between students from different institutions. Within the Kyoto branch, Ritsumeikan, Kyo-dai and Doshisha students share research and training sessions. The branch also hosts small simulations of topics large competitions will discuss. That is to say, the Kyoto branch may host a simulation of a committee on refugees when a national conference will offer the same topic a month later. From an American competition perspective, this would be near-suicidal. If a student from a different institution found my plans for committee before the actual competition, I’d be forced to scrap all of those plans and start anew. Such an issue seemed barely on the periphery of the Kyoto branch.

Yet there were many hidden benefits from the relaxed style of competition. The most glaring difference between the American and Japanese competitions spheres was the presence of women. American Model UN has a distinct male focus, with a ratio of about three men to every one woman. In Japan, the ratio was near equal if not more heavily tilted towards women. I was very interested in what tactics made female participation easier or more enticing on the Japanese side. Two of my friends (both women) told me they had never thought of it. Nothing in their experience on the team made it harder for them to compete than their male counterparts. I believe this may directly linked to the inherent lack of team competition. Japanese college students compete as individuals at nationwide conferences. This means you could be paired up with a student from another school, or in my case, even another country. Since there’s no team honor to defend, participants can focus solely on their own growth and knowledge. I believe America could take a lesson.

I would advise any future American participants in Japanese Model UN to keep an open mind. If you have competed in America, the laxness of Japanese competition will surely feel inadequate. However, enjoy the increased range of participation loosening competition allows participants. Develop yourself as a delegate, and take your time learning new vocabulary and building new friendships. You may not return to your American team with new skills, but you will certainly return with a greater understanding of the internationality of MUN.

Amanda Grice: Klexon and Kyoto Cooking Circle

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I am doing two activities for my CIP: taking cooking lessons with the Kyoto Cooking Circle, and volunteering my time at Klexon to help people practice English.

The Kyoto Cooking Circle was made to teach foreigners how to make Japanese food. It only meets once a month so I have only been to two meetings. The first one we made a Japanese stew dish called Nikujyaga. The second was a special meeting to teach a group of high schoolers studying abroad from Boston and took place in a very old style Japanese house. We cooked ramen over a very old wood-burning stove, and washed the vegetables from a hand-pump in the backyard. It was really interesting to be in a very old style Japanese home.

At Klexon we sit in rows at tables and talk to the person across from us. Every ten minutes we all shift one seat down so we get to practice with new people. After that, we split into groups and have a discussion.

Klexon is for anyone wanting to practice English, so it has been helpful for meeting a wider variety of people. I’ve seen college students, English teachers, pharmacy technicians, shopkeepers, Disney World workers, and chemical engineers, to name a few. I have also met other English speakers from all over the world — France, Holland, Syria, India, and Canada. I have been very thankful for this opportunity to meet and talk with such a variety of people and have made many friends at the meetings.

We’re always given a sheet of paper with a conversation topic on it but there have been many times where we have gotten sidetracked and never discussed it. Some topics have been favorite childhood foods, favorite childhood games, favorite thing to do in winter, dream vacations, or clubs you joined in high school.

I like the assigned topics sometimes because it gets you talking about things that usually don’t come up in regular conversation. For example, the night we talked about childhood games, I was seated at a table with three Japanese people, a Dutch man, and a French man. We discovered that we had played all the same childhood games, though we had different names for them. We bonded over these shared childhood experiences that I would not have guessed were so universal.

Some things I have to talk about again and again. I always have to talk about where I’m from and what is famous there and why I came to Japan and what is difficult about Japanese.

Many people I spoke to at Klexon did not understand why I wanted to learn Japanese because they felt like most people in the more visited areas of Japan spoke at least some English. In addition, most of them seemed to have felt forced to learn English for their careers. This was not true of everyone, though, and I met others who were learning English as a hobby along with other languages. 

I think Klexon has helped me be a better communicator. I was able to practice my Japanese during and after most meetings. But I also learned how to communicate better in English. Speaking to non-native English speakers forced me to speak clearly and learn how to word things so that they would be more universally understood.

Many people were shy with practicing their English. I can understand, since I’m very shy with using my Japanese. Over time I got better with keeping a conversation going, so that there would be no awkward silences.

I am really thankful I had this opportunity to meet so many different people and talk about culture.