毎週上京中学校の英語の授業でボランティアをしています。一年生の村松先生という英語の先生の授業を手伝います。毎週火曜日に行って、金曜日にも時々行きます。同志社大学から上京中学校まで歩いて五分ぐらいしかかかりません。十一時半ごろから一時まで手伝います。
日によって違うクラスに行くから、毎回新しい経験です。村松先生の生徒は一年生だから、いつも笑っていて賑やかです。村松先生は僕に英語の文を読ませたり話させたりします。時々僕が英語のゲームを作っておいて、教室で学生とします。生徒は英語のレベルがちょっと低いから、うまく喋れないし、ちょっと恥ずかしがりやだから、僕に質問をあまりしません。でも、僕の目標は生徒が将来英語が上手になりたいと思わせることです。日本の学校の生活が見えるから、とても楽しくていい経験だと思います。
CIPのためにボランティアしたかったです。だから、京大病院にある「にこにこトマト」というプログラムを選びました。「にこにこトマト」は病院にいる子供と一緒に遊ぶプログラムです。ほとんど毎日、違うアクティビティがあるので、子供と色々な遊ぶことができます。例えば、先週の水曜日は、「にこにこトマト」の人が楽器を持って行って、一緒にドラムや鐘などを鳴らして、歌って、楽しかったです。子供は皆可愛いし、遊ぶことは楽しいので、「にこにこトマト」でボランティアすることが大好きです。
僕は留学している間にいろいろな活動をしています。最初に、二月から上京学校で先生と一緒に中学生に英語を教えます。普通の行く日は火曜日か金曜日。着いたら、先生のオフィスに行って、そして、村松先生を待ちます。その後、教室に行ったら、先生のパソコンといろいろな教えるものを運んで差し上げます。それから、英語を教え始めます。
中学生達はちょっとしか英語を習っているから、僕の一番大切な仕事は学生のモチベーションを高くすることです。例えば、僕は学生が発音を練習している時、最初に発音を言って、それから、学生が僕と同じ発音をしたいから、一所懸命練習します。それに、ゲームをする時、モチベーションのために、僕がちょっと日本語で言うと、学生は僕が日本語で話すことを聞いて、「外国人が日本語を習えれば、私たちも英語が習える」と考えます。
教えることとは別に、休み時間に、友だちと遊んで、そして、昼ご飯の休みの間に、学生とサッカーをします。
僕は二つサークルにも入っています。同志社のバスケサークルと京大のサッカーサークルに入りました。バスケのサークルは週によって、練習の曜日と時間が代わります。チームを作って、８分のゲームをして、それから、チームが代わります。来る人の数に応じて、色々なゲームをしたり、チームのメンバーをかえたり、します。男性のゲームの間、女性は短いゲームをします。サークルの中に女性が十人くらいいます。
サッカーのサークルは十時半から一時まで一週間に水曜日と土曜日にあつまります。ゲームの仕方はバスケのゲームのし方と似ています。けれども、女性が少しだけだから、一緒にサッカーをします。その後、一緒に昼ご飯を食べます。
私のCIPは大原学院という小学校の英語アシスタントである。毎週、大原学院 の教師と一緒に英語を教える 仕事である。英語の発音をはじめ、文法とか単語などを教える。大原学院で色々なことを教えなくてはいけないが、一番大切なのは発音だと思う。
例えば、大原学院に行く時十二時から一時までは生徒の食事の時である。その時私は生徒と一緒に昼ご飯を食べながら、英会話を練習する。それに、英語の音楽をよく聞いてからサイモンセズのような英語のゲームをする。その時は本当の授業ではないが、生徒は私の英語を聞いたら発音が上手になる。食事の後で、教室でも少しフォーマルな教えることができるが、大切なポイントはいつも発音である。
たいていの場合は、私に教えてもらう生徒は小さい子供だが時々大原学院の中学生もいる。中学生の場合は大切なポイントはまだ発音だが、英語の読み方と書き方も一所懸命勉強する。それに対して、難しい文法を使うために英詩とかスピーチなどをよく勉強する。その時私の仕事は英語の間違いをなおしてあげることである。
大原学院は小さい学校だから、私は生徒のみんなを一回はおしえてあげたと思う。みんなの能力にすごくてびっくりした。英語に対する興味があるかを問わずみんなは会話すできることはすごいと思う。
For my CIP, I joined an LGBT circle called G-FRONT KANSAI in Osaka. My reasoning for joining an LGBT circle was because I had the desire to learn about the differences within American LGBT culture and Japanese LGBT culture. While I only was able to attend two meetings of G-FRONT, I feel that I was able to learn quite a bit.
First, LGBT culture has a number of unique vocabulary items, and learning new words and the equivalents to American LGBT culture words was a very cool thing for me. The way LGBT circles operate in America versus Japan is also rather different. In American LGBT circles (at least the ones at the University of Michigan), a person’s pronouns are asked, sexuality is never explicitly stated in self-introductions, and personal questions are often not asked for fear of making a person too uncomfortable. At my LGBT circle here in Japan, I was asked to state my sexuality in my self-introduction, was asked several times what my ideal “type” is (we even had a session where we all talked about our ideal type of boyfriend which was the focus topic of my first G-FRONT meeting). At the second meeting I attended, the subject was much more complicated—it focused on the issues of being LGBT while in care houses for the elderly. Unfortunately, the conversation was so complex and rapidly spoken about that I was essentially unable to contribute anything truly meaningful to the conversation, which was a shame.
G-FRONT seems to do activities and events for different types of people, so whenever I went to a meeting it was all gay men (meetings/events for lesbians or transgender people are separated for example). One distinct thing I noticed right away about G-FRONT was that, because it is not a college group, the members were quite a bit older than I. In fact, the youngest member besides me was 34, the oldest being in their 50’s!
After each meeting and get together that is part of the official G-FRONT itinerary, about half of the group goes out to dinner to get some food and a few drinks, so I was invited and joined them both times I attended a meeting (after the first meeting I went to, I was also taken to a real Japanese gay bar in Osaka, which was a very eye-opening experience for me, but not after the second meeting). These dinners occurred at the same restaurant each time (indicating the habitual, group spot of choice), and it was at this setting that I got to have more “real” and informal conversation where I learned new words specific to Japanese LGBT culture, the phone apps that gay men in Japan use to meet each other, and all sorts of interesting general information about the gay experience in Japan.
My CIP experiences have been extremely rewarding and fulfilling. My identity as a gay male has always been one of my most salient identities, and so back in America at college, my friend circles are LGBT-based and I am very involved in the community. Having been in Japan since June 2014, it wasn’t until I joined G-FRONT in October 2014 that I had any sort of connection to LGBT people in Japan, and I am very glad that I have begun to make these connections. I greatly look forward to my participation in this circle throughout the next semester that I spend in Japan.
I’ve learned a lot from my CIP experience with regards to both culture and language, and I’m certainly glad I participated in it. The primary function of the “International Exchange Team” was to plan events in which native Japanese speakers and foreigners could converse and exchange ideas in a fluid and unassuming environment. However, on a day-to-day basis, we visited tourist hotspots in hopes of finding people who were in need of directions. Naturally, we congregated near maps, floated meaningfully around significant temples, or otherwise foraged through wide, brightly lit streets. I’m still not very aware of what the other volunteers, interns, or part-time employers do in their working or university lives, but, we gathered in Higashiyama for these purposes.
In general, the act of guiding people and giving directions did not prove fruitful for me because I was almost completely useless in this task. When I first started to volunteer with this team, I understood the conversations between my peers and senpai fairly well, but the conversations often lapsed into the casual, and I’m sure the other team members kindly tailored the conversation to my needs. When asked for directions, I understood the language surrounding the locations, but was unable to understand the precise locations they were looking for, and I certainly could not tell them how to actually reach said destination. (I, myself, got lost on the way to my CIP every day except for one, as a result experimenting with faster transportation methods).
However, I realized that my primary job within the volunteer group, unlike the other members, was to deal primarily with foreigners. In this situation I could communicate with them, but not an entirely concise or accurate way. We ended up working with a rudimentary methodology in which I translated any English questions into Japanese, and then translated the responses back into English. This was a very uncomfortable experience for me because I always felt as if information was lost in the rapid exchange and I would worry afterwards. However, having vague and slightly warbled directions was slightly better than being completely lost, I supposed, with no slight mortification.
Among the other volunteers, thanks seemed to be a primary motivating factor. Hearing one’s gratitude was well-worth the experience of appearing shady and conspicuous, holding up ghostly signs in the rain. When we weren’t helping lost souls, I had many great opportunities to practice Japanese with people my age as well as people who were just a bit older than me and had recently entered the workforce. The oldest man, whose age was never verbalized, already had two daughters and a wife, and treated me in a very avuncular manner. He constantly assuaged my trepidations, telling me, “We’re not like normal Japanese, so if there’s anything wrong, tell us!” He was an important contributor in the team, as well as several other volunteers who came and went, including many warmhearted and charismatic young ladies. My main correspondence was with a twenty-four-year-old employee who had studied abroad in Australia. He had been lost many times in Australia, but kind strangers had always been present to direct him to his destination. This, he expatiated, was his impetus for heading the International Exchange Team. For this reason, most of my conversations were with him, and he spoke with me patiently in Japanese throughout the evening. Typically towards the end of the evening, he would switch into English, and we would continue in that vein until it was time to call it a day.
The Japanese conversations were an interesting blend of keigo, often quickly switching from very humble forms to very casual forms before I could properly assess my position within the conversation. This really helped me practice how to adjust my level of formality according to the flow of conversation. I also learned things like how to accept a business card (although most of the keigo slipped right off of my brain without entering it), and how to conduct a meeting which we plan activities, events, etc.
The “guiding” and event-planning by itself was a truly difficult experience for me, quickly becoming something I largely preferred to avoid. However, the people who I worked with were such compelling folks and I really enjoyed working with them. They, likewise, were not impervious to the fatigue of such monotonous tasks, and seemed to generally be able to sympathize with the Japanese-induced headache behind my eyes. They were all very hard workers and generous with my mistakes, often glossing over them completely. I didn’t want to burden them, but I have certainly learned a lot from them, and I hope I have been able to contribute in some capacity to their English education. I cannot thank them enough!
For my CIP I choose to be an English assistant at Kyoto Bunkyo, a high school/middle school combination school. Most of the students I interacted with were high school students but on the occasional tours around the school I was able to interact with the middle school students as well. I have only been able to attend my CIP four times this semester, and have only interacted with two students, but I learned a great deal about the nature of English learning in Japan. English can seem pretty daunting to nonnative students of English, alongside the complexities that exist within the English language, the cultural aspects of language don’t always translate. In order to surpass these cultural barriers, I believe that the student has to have some experience interacting with the culture that speaks the language. It wasn’t surprising when I realized that the only students that approached me were ones that already had prior experience living in a foreign country. Both students I had conversations with studied abroad in Australia and had achieved a certain level of linguistic and cultural proficiency. These students were inherently outgoing and inquisitive and were eager to talk to me. We talked about very mundane topics, such as school, music and boys, and I felt very relaxed around both students. However my interaction with the rest of the students present in the classroom was very scarce. The first time I visited the school the teacher urged the students to try to talk to me but the effort was futile and at some point I solely focused on the students that I met. They were so excited to befriend me that we even went out together and interacted with each other in a setting outside of school to practice using practical English. The student’s commitment to speaking only English was very commendable but it was due partly because of their great interest in Western culture. One of my students loved hip hop dancing and showed me pictures of her in Australia dancing. My other student loved Disney and Western music. It was fairly easy to keep the English conversation flowing between us. Apart from observing how these students interest in English helped motivate them throughout my talks with them I was also able to observe how the primary education system in Japan looked like. I was given the impression that learning English was not really something the students were interested in but was something that only people with a keen interest were able to achieve. Perhaps the same could be said about Japanese. I haven’t gone enough to be able to observe more than this.
For my CIP I chose to volunteer at the Bazaar Café. Bazaar Café, in the way it functions, the Bazaar Café is much like any other café; however, it does have a few special traits that set it apart. One thing about the Bazaar Café that differs from the average café in that many of the workers there are volunteers. In addition to this, the café also actively participates in the Kyoto community to spread acceptance and has a policy of openness toward all races, nationalities, and religions.
Through my experience at the Bazaar Café, I feel I learned a lot about group work and work relationships in Japanese culture. In the kitchen, there are few set roles, and teamwork flows almost naturally. Everyone is attentive to the simultaneous tasks around them, so they know when and where to step in and help without being asked. Not having to ask for help prevents the feeling of placing a burden on others, which is something that seems to be avoided in Japanese culture. Also, whenever someone fills in a helping role, for instance, drying dishes, the one they are helping will almost always reply to this action with the set phrase “onegaishimasu” or “arigatou gozaimasu”. These set phrases serve as simple but meaningful ways to express thanks as well as smooth and efficient transitions into group tasks. On top of this, these phrases are used without connection to age or rank, therefore they also simplify complexities of hierarchy and honorifics in the Japanese language and make teamwork easier. Overall, through my experience as a volunteer, I feel like I was able to see how aspects of Japanese culture carried over into a work group environment in the Bazaar Café Kitchen.
In regards to entering a new community like Bazaar Café, one important thing I would stress is observing and learning from those around you. There are things you are expected to do or know that you won’t be told directly, as they are already obvious to the members of the culture or community. Being able to adapt is a huge part of your CIP.
For my CIP, I participated in the Doshisha Animal Life circle with Ryan. It meets every Thursday at 6:30 at the Doshisha Shinmachi campus and this study group’s aim is to enrich their own knowledge on the current situations of animals around the world. But since there were school festivals (Clover Festival and EVE Festival) coming up and free papers they had to finish, their usual study meetings were put on hold to discuss what kind of booth they wanted to set up and what kind of layout they wanted for the free paper. As part of my CIP, I decided to observe if there were any differences in the way they treat foreigners as compared to the way they treat other Japanese students.
Through my participation, I realized that their attitude doesn’t depend on whether you’re a foreigner or a Japanese person, but whether they think of you as a friend or a stranger. If you were a complete stranger, as well as a foreigner, the club members tended to avoid striking up a conversation and preferred to ignore your presence. For example, when Ryan and I went to the first meeting, although they first greeted us with smiles and snacks, as soon as they started to discuss the festival preparations, they turned their backs to us and proceeded to speak amongst themselves. Not once during the meeting did they meet our eyes or try to talk to us. We were left to figure out what was happening by ourselves. This continued throughout the semester. There was another instance when Ryan and I were working with a Japanese club member in order to make decorations for the club’s booth, but it was basically us working in silence. We tried striking up a conversation, asking what last year’s booth was like, etc., but the conversation always died after one exchange. The Japanese student didn’t try to continue the conversation and seemed like he felt uncomfortable talking to us for more than a minute. On the other hand, if you were someone they knew, they would greet you with exuberance and constantly joke with you, even if you were a foreigner. For example, there was a Korean exchange student who was in the club with us, but since everyone in the club was familiar with him, they would constantly chat with him and poke fun at him. There was even this one time when the president of the club wasn’t able to come to a meeting, so she made the Korean student the leader of that day’s meeting instead. Although it was a little disheartening to be ignored after trying to converse with them, it was still an interesting experience to see how the club members acted around each other.
As I have been attending the children’s services at Doshisha Church, more and more I realize that there are typically more adults who do not bring children at the service, than there are adults who are actually bringing kids. Although it may appear to be sketchy, rest assured that most of these adults are staff members who help out before and after the service—handing out flyers, setting up the projector, helping to carry in the keyboard, and such—but still, I decided in my mind that there must be something that these adults are getting out of coming to the children’s service every week. In my curiosity, I decided I would interview three adults whom I regularly meet at Doshisha Church every Sunday.
I interviewed two staff members and Doshisha Theology students, Shimiri and Noyuri, and one adult who did not have children, but regularly came to the services, Ms. Sekiyama, just to see why these people attended the services, and to find out what they were getting out of it. When I interviewed Shimiri, she told me that one of the requirements for Theology students at Doshisha is to run the children’s services, so when I asked her why she continues to come, of course her answer was “I come because its my job to come.” However, when I pried for what she got out of coming to the services, she said her favorite part was playing with the children, and that she seemed to become naturally energized because of them. From Shimiri, I learned that she thought that three year-olds and eleven year-olds who attend the services should not be given the same activities to do, and if she could change it, she would. As for Noyuri, although she got involved with the children’s’ service because she is a Theology major, she said she knew the experience would “be helpful in the future.” She shared with me that she didn’t like children before, but now she loves them and thinks that they’re cute. Noyuri also said that she thinks its great to get to hear sermons from people other than Doshisha’s head pastor, she loves being able to gain spiritual peace through the easy to understand message, and that learning about the Bible along with the children makes her think that “God is sweet and kind, but also strict at times.” I was thrilled to hear that although her participation in the services was not initially her choice, she still was able to feel that she had grown and received something positive from her experience as a staff member. In Ms. Sekiyama’s case, when I asked her what she has enjoyed about coming to the children’s service, she said that “the sermons are easy to understand—I was able to become like a child!” When I asked more about that, she said that Jesus said in the Bible that those who will inherit the kingdom of Heaven must first become like children, meaning pure in heart; Ms. Sekiyama said that attending the children’s service helps her to do just that. She said that it helps her to prepare her heart, and quiet her spirit to become like a child before she dives into the adult service later in the morning. If she goes to the adult service straightaway, she says, her heart does not feel quite ready yet, but if she attends the children’s’ service first, Ms. Sekiyama says her heart is prepared to receive the message the pastor will give in the adult service.
As a non-native Japanese speaker, I certainly understand enjoying the children’s service simply because it is easy to understand. As the adult service can be—more times than not—difficult for me to comprehend, the children’s service is given in simple Japanese, with a message that all ages can benefit from. Through my experience coming to Doshisha Church every week, I’ve learned that being with children, playing, and learning the things they are learning all have great benefits for the adults who participate, including me!
My experiences playing the violin at a church in Japan have also been drastically different from my experiences participating in the praise band at my church in America, Binghamton First Assembly of God. Namely, the way of communicating and scheduling when someone will play is quite different at Doshisha. Every month a small group of staff members meet to schedule who will be in charge of music each week, then that schedule is passed out to staff members later. In America, there is a website that the praise band uses allowing everyone to input whether or not they will be free to play the date they are scheduled for. As music for the services at First Assembly changes week to week, the website allows for music and schedules to be sent out easier; however, at Doshisha Church, the music the children’s service uses stays the same week to week, reducing the need to use a more complex scheduling website. The genre of music played at Doshisha was also a drastic difference from the church music I had become accustomed to in America. While the Christian Alternative Rock I played in Binghamton had been used at times to stir up the congregation into praising God openly and loudly, I felt that the music at Doshisha was used in a much calmer way to aide the congregation in praising God through softer means.
I learned that in my CIP I had to be open to learning about a new way of doing things using my interests. Instead of comparing my accustomed way of doing things with the staff at Doshisha’s way of doing things—causing myself a great deal of frustration in the mean time—I found that it was best for me to realize that this culture is not worse or better, it is simply different from my own; in that realization, I allowed myself to try new things, to create new relationships with people I never imagined I would meet, and to learn about the world in a new and profound way. Playing the violin at Doshisha Church’s Children’s Service as my CIP has been a great experience!