「Circle (Non-Sports)」カテゴリーアーカイブ

Khanh Ta: FBI Filmmaking Circle & Kyotographie

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For my CIP this semester, I decided to continue the CIP that I previously did during the fall, which is my filmmaking club at Doshisha University. Even though during the spring, Doshisha students have spring vacation from February until April, FBI club still has a lot of filming activities depending on the projects and students. Hence, one of the club members that I am close to actually invited me to join the shoots for her project during this time, so I was able to continue with this activity. I suppose, similar to how many student film projects in America are very network based, here too at Doshisha and Japan at large, film is also a network based domain.

Since shooting schedule is very irregular, there are weeks when I don’t have CIP participation. However, there are also weeks where we meet 2-3 times a week for around 4-5 hours in order to film the many scenes required for the project. Sometimes, shoot schedules are also adjusted based on the weather; especially, Kyoto often snows a lot during spring, so we had to reschedule twice. Our roles also vary depending on the day of the shoot; every member always want to try new responsibilities during a film shoot, so sometimes our roles are exchanged between one another. This is quite different from the US, since our roles are often decided during the pre-production stage, and people usually stick to that role throughout the entire project rather than changing it up day by day.

As aforementioned, since FBI doesn’t meet as regularly during the spring, I decided to join another activity as well for my CIP, called Kyotographie. Through a friend I met on the internet who is currently working at this company (a media editorial agency), I was introduced to Kyotographie. The company is currently organizing for an international photography festival in Kyoto, and they need volunteer help, so I decided to join as well as introduce it to my friend from E class, Kasey Huang. The fact that I was able to find a volunteering job to apply for and even introduce my friend to it really reminds me of networking experience in America as well. Originally, I wasn’t sure of how networking is like in Japan, but this experience proves to me that it is actually very much the same.

At Kyotographie, I get to utilize some of my advertising and communication skills from my actual major, combined along with Japanese, for work. From trying to connect the company to many different local universities in Kyoto to trying to expose the festival and events to many Japanese media outlets and students alike, these experiences allow me to do what I usually do best in English, only now in Japanese. At first, I was originally afraid that my Japanese wasn’t good enough to be used in the work place. However, considering this is a very international company, many people use both Japanese and English; while everything is mostly spoken in Japanese, many technical PR, advertising or art terms are in English, so I was able to do my work just fine. Thus, I feel that this volunteer is a great stepping stone for me to prepare myself for the workforce later if I manage to get a job and live in Japan.

In general, for those looking for CIP, my advice for future students is that having around two or more CIP experiences during the spring would be ideal. This is because even if your CIP are guaranteed to meet, you’re not guaranteed to meet as regularly as the fall semester.

Xiaoxi Wu: KU Amateur Dance Club

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During my stay in Kyoto I participated in the activities of Kyoto University Dance Club (社交ダンス), where I managed to immerse myself into a Japanese college club vibe. Since I’d never danced even a single time before attending the club, I was quite nervous on the first day, and found myself just as clumsy as I expected at the dance practice. Yet learning to dance is not the point of joining a dance club in Kyoto; rather, it was to interact with my Japanese peers on a regular basis so that we both could serve as かけ橋 through which we were able to understand each other’s cultural background better.

The Dance Club holds activities as often as 3 times a week. Each time lasts for 3 hours. I tried to commit as much as possible to the club activities, but I was also busy with schoolwork, so I often ended up going once or twice a week. One thing I found interesting though was the fact that the club claims to have between 20 to 30 members who have signed up for club activities, but almost every single time only those 6 or 7 same members showed up. Occasionally we would be lucky to have others join us but that was pretty rare. One of the club members told me that this phenomenon is quite common among Japanese university circles, where you would expect some members to regularly show up and become the core of the circles while others who rarely show up are labelled ‘ghost members’ (幽霊部員). I’m glad that I didn’t become one of the ghosts.

During the 3 hours of club activity we would practice different forms of 社交ダンス such as Tango, Waltz, and Samba, although I still have difficulties even now in distinguishing them from each other. To be frank, dancing is not my thing, but thanks to the warm-heartedness of my Japanese peers I was able to enjoy the activity sessions as much as I could. They knew I had never had experiences in ballroom dance and my Japanese wasn’t that good, so they treated me with patience and taught me step by step. Although more often than not I still ended up messing up with everything, I do not regret joining the Dance Club, because other members regarded me as a normal, functioning member of the club too. The opportunities to interact with Japanese peers are absolutely the most valuable experiences I’ve had so far. Therefore I highly recommend the KU Amateur Dance Club even if dance is not your thing, and on a side note I’m pretty skeptical that someone is actually worse than me at dancing.

Charlie Tran: Klexon

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During my time at KCJS, I participated in a Japanese-English Conversation program called Klexon. Klexon is similar to speed dating. People sit in rows facing each other, and then talk for ten minutes until they have to switch partners. After about 6 cycles, everyone is randomly placed into groups and group conversation begins. A piece of paper with the week’s topic of conversation is handed out at the beginning of the session. However, one does not need to talk about the conversation on the sheet; Klexon is basically free conversation.

In Klexon, I noticed that most Japanese people are learning English because they believe it is a necessity for their job, so their motivation to learn is quite high. Also, since they know that this is a conversation program, I feel the Japanese people in this program are more comfortable with talking to foreigners and generally are not as shy as Japanese people outside of the program. Therefore, there is no need to have worries about conversing because they are quite easy to talk to.

Although KCJS is a program to learn Japanese and Klexon is a program to help Japanese people speak English, I chose Klexon with special purposes in mind. Those purposes were to learn more about Japanese culture from different perspectives, to make Japanese friends, and learn more Japanese from them. During the program sessions, you can talk about anything with the Japanese people, so I took this liberty to ask them about Japanese culture that couldn’t be learned about in a class or in a book. For example, I learned about different dialects around Japan and popular slang Japanese people were using. At the end of the program, I would invite the people I was paired up with to go out drinking at a bar or an izakaya. This was a great way to strengthen our bonds and become friends. Also, we would speak in Japanese, so I was able to practice my Japanese conversation quite a lot. I highly recommend choosing Klexon as a CIP because it is fun, you can learn a lot, and most of all, make many Japanese friends.

Kanoa Mendenhall: Jazz Bass

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Although I initially wanted to explore and try a new activity, I continued playing jazz bass (my line of work back in America) for my CIP here in Kyoto and Osaka. It has been a wonderful experience being able to participate in the Kansai jazz scene while at KCJS this spring semester.

As all jazz musicians do to get introduced to the local scene, I started off by going to a jam session in the area in order to meet local musicians. This was one of the main objectives of my CIP – to continue going to a regular session that had other members consistently participating.

The first session I attended was a weekly jam hosted by Kyoto University’s student-run jazz circle. The sessions were how typical jazz jam sessions go; a newly fused band collectively chose standards from the Great American Songbook and improvised on these tunes. Students from KyoDai as well as students from additional neighboring universities were involved in these sessions. Getting to know these students from various areas eventually led to participation in other jam sessions at other universities and venues.

As the semester progressed, not only did I get to know fellow musicians my age, but also people from a wide age range who shared a similar passion for jazz. Meeting people from different backgrounds and generations allowed me to practice my keigo and respectful expressions a fair bit. In addition, I had to do quite a lot of writing/messaging to people who I had just met at each session, which was good practice.

One aspect that varied a bit from gatherings in America was the formality, such as saying よろしくお願いします to all of the other members on the bandstand without fail before playing each tune (at jam sessions). This surprised me quite a bit at first, and was a shock compared to the cold, cutthroat atmosphere of New York jam sessions. Also, it has been confusing to decipher the distance between musicians and when to use honorifics. The jazz scene in Japan is unique in the case where numerous musicians have studied or lived in America, therefore demonstrating the vibe and casual approach of American jazz musicians (slang, handshakes, affirmative shouts during performance, etc.), yet there are still limits to how close you can get to a person, especially if there is a rank/age difference. I once called a club owner (who lived in New York for multiple years, knows jazz culture well) that I thought I had established a firm connection with (after multiple casual interactions) by their first name, and they reacted quite hostilely. It took some time getting used to, but overall I found that musicians in the Kansai area are friendlier and supportive of each other, which I wish there was more of in New York City.

These jam sessions ultimately lead to a few performances in formal settings, called by members I met at jam sessions such as the one at Kyoto University. The performances typically involved rehearsals and preparation beforehand, and involved some energy and time. Nevertheless, they were highly rewarding, and I’m especially grateful to the teachers and friends from KCJS who came to my gigs. Continuing music while in Kyoto was one of the highlights of my study abroad experience, and has provided much joy and language practice as well as career connections that are sure to be useful in the future. There were some language barriers at times, but music, especially jazz, is a language and mode of communication itself.

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.