「Volunteering」カテゴリーアーカイブ

Sillin Chen: Volunteering at Bazaar Cafe

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I was recommended Bazaar Café  by my classmate as my CIP. Of course, since I do not have a high cooking skill that could be compared to a professional chef, volunteering at Bazaar Café basically equals to helping around chores like washing dishes or ironing aprons. Yet, when the kitchen is not very busy, other volunteers or regular staff are very willing to teach me using some special kitchen tools or allowing me to do some side works while preparing the orders.

Clearly knowing how poor my keigo is, I was very nervous on my first day. Luckily, Bazaar Café is a place where everyone is here to support each other, and thus keigo is not something mandatory even when you are speaking with the manager. Regardless of that, I was still able to learn some nuances in workplace culture. For example, there is a co-volunteer, nice middle-aged lady, who always greets me with “おはようございます” even though I usually go to Bazaar Café around 3 pm. Then my friends, also my co-volunteers explained it to me that in Japanese workplace culture, one would always greet his or her co-workers with “おはようございます” when starting to work. Besides, sharing snacks or small souvenirs after a trip among co-volunteers is rather common as a way to build up the relationship.

In addition to my new findings of unique Japanese culture, meeting different kinds of people at Bazaar Café is my best memory within these several months. As some of us might have known, Bazaar Café is like a harbor for minorities, LGBTQ, foreigners, and immigrants. It is also the reason why on my first day of work, the manager suggested me to not ask some sensitive questions on personal background. I then struggled a while on how to get into the group without being sure about what are the topics that I could talk about. To my great surprise (in a good way), they accept me naturally by leading me through the things I could help around and inviting me to share food. After around three weeks, although my co-volunteers are still trying to memorize my name as I was struggling on writing down everyone’s name, I was settled in the kitchen as well as I know where I should put dishes back.

I haven’t mentioned the details of my conversations with these lovely people because it might involve a lot of personal information. Nevertheless, if there is one thing I have learned from this experience, it is how to communicate with your heart. I know it really sounds like preaching or those old talks, but to treat other people with respect and trying to help whatever is within one’s ability range is never a wrong thing to do.

Austin Cobb: Volunteering at a Bouldering Gym

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I have had the wonderful opportunity of volunteering at the NOAH bouldering gym in Kyoto this semester. I took the CIP as a chance to do something I loved and I was surprised by how easy it was to find a gym in Kyoto.

NOAH has become much more than a climbing gym for me and many of the other customers. It is, in the truest sense of the word, a community. Part of this stems from the fact that climbing as an activity is much more group focused in Japan compared to America. That is, regardless of whether you know the person climbing or not, people will cheer you on, give support, and even advice on how to improve. The community this creates a welcoming atmosphere that makes me look forward to going back.

Volunteering at a bouldering gym means dealing with a wide variety of tasks. From cleaning the staircase to filling up chalk balls and stripping tape off the routes. By doing all of this, I am able to interact a lot with the customers and practice my Japanese skills. I’ve also learned that most of the people also have a curiosity about English, so it becomes beneficial to both parties when they speak in English and I reply in Japanese.

With this CIP, I’ve created many great memories and learned a lot. When I come back to Kyoto, I will definitely stop by at NOAH to catch up with my friends.

Alice Padron: Volunteering at the Manga Museum

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My CIP is working as a volunteer at the Kyoto International Manga Museum. I was told before going into it that it would not be a CIP that had as many opportunities to speak at length with Japanese people as many other CIPs, and for the majority of days I came in this has been true. Most days I worked around the main areas of the museum arranging bookshelves, but other days I worked in the back making files or labeling books’ spines. The people of the Manga Museum, however, taught me a lot about Japanese workplace etiquette – which mainly involves polite greetings. I think this created a workplace atmosphere based on respect and awareness of the work other coworkers are doing. These kinds of greetings tend to be much more casual in American workplaces, and are less of an expectation than here. The setting also gave me an opportunity to practice my keigo, which is something I definitely need to work on. Other than these days, however, volunteering at the Manga Museum gave me opportunities to speak Japanese at length that I did not expect to have. The fact that I am a Boston University student in Kyoto during the two cities’ 60th year of being sister cities resulted in me being interviewed by people from Kyoto City Hall about both cities, my time in Kyoto, and other related topics. I also have talked to Museum employees who are going to the Boston Japan Festival this year and wanted to know more about Boston and the average American person’s knowledge concerning manga. These opportunities really made me feel like I was helpful to people in Kyoto through my involvement during my time at the Museum. I have truly enjoyed my time at my CIP this semester.

Sophie Burke: Volunteering at the Children's Kitchen

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For my CIP, I volunteer at a children’s kitchen（子供食堂） every Thursday. The organization is located on the second floor of a church in Higashi Kujo, and caters mainly to families with young children. The objective of the kitchen is to build a community, and I definitely felt this while working alongside the other volunteers. Most of the other volunteers were from Kyoto, and were generally college-aged. Every week we worked on a variety of different tasks including serving food, cleaning and putting away dishes, and engaging in conversations with the other volunteers. It was overwhelming at first, since I was largely unfamiliar with some of the vocabulary used, but little by little I found myself improving and becoming closer with the regular volunteers.

One of the difficulties of the Shokudo was trying to communicate when I didn’t understand instructions, since everyone was already familiar with each other and spoke very quickly in Kansai-ben. However, the volunteers were always patient with me when I didn’t understand something, and would take the time to explain it to me and make sure I understood. I also observed how friendly and accepting they were of me and the other KCJS volunteers, as well as new members who arrived at the Shokudo. Because of this welcoming atmosphere, we were always able to joke around when the kitchen wasn’t too busy and learn a lot about Japanese culture. They even taught us some useful phrases in Kansai-ben, and taught us some popular children’s games. As most of the volunteers didn’t speak a lot of English, Japanese was often the only way of communication. Because of this I was forced out of my comfort zone while trying to communicate. This was a fantastic chance to build up my own confidence and practice speaking casually with the other students my age while learning new grammar and vocabulary. Out of pure coincidence, I was even able to meet an alumna of my home college who is now living in Kyoto! I am thankful for the opportunity to volunteer at the Kodomo Shokudo and engage with the community.

Tara Satnick: Klexon

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For my CIP, I registered for Klexon, a club based in Kyoto that provides opportunities for Japanese people practice their English-speaking skills. I chose this group because I was interested in meeting new people and helping others improve their English language skills. Through Klexon, I have been able to meet Japanese people of all different backgrounds. Beyond that, I have been able to talk engage in a variety of topics with them, which has given me tremendous insight into Japanese culture.
My favorite part about Klexon is that it is has taught me so much about Japanese everyday life. The conversations I have at Klexon are very casual, so my partner and I usually start by sharing about our week or day. A specific element of everyday life that particularly surprised me was the way that some of the members talk about their jobs. I had always been under the impression that, because Japanese people generally work very hard, they must have a lot of respect for their work. As it turns out, this was not the case for many of the members I met at Klexon. I heard from several members that they either hated their jobs and planned on quitting or had just recently quit, which I was not expecting. Due to the strong work ethic and polite nature of Japanese people, I quickly assumed that most Japanese people care a lot about the type of work that they do and are very committed to their jobs. However, by talking to people at Klexon, I learned that there are many Japanese people who actually hate their work. Listening firsthand to Japanese people talk about their daily experiences has helped me see that many stereotypes about Japanese society are actually untrue for many people.
Another interesting lesson I learned from attending Klexon meetings is that many people take longer than others to shift from formal to casual style speech. For example, within minutes of meeting certain members, they were using casual style speech. These people were usually very outgoing and friendly, so they felt more comfortable using conversational speech. Shy and quiet members, on the other hand, tended to wait longer before using conversational speech. Since arriving in Japan, I have struggled to figure out when to use casual style speech when speaking to Japanese native speakers, but Klexon has taught me that there is no strict set of rules for speech style. The style of speech you choose depends on your relationship with the other person, but it also largely depends on your personality and your comfort level with the other person.
Overall, I have really enjoyed my time at Klexon. I found all of the members to be extremely welcoming to me and grateful for my willingness to help them practice English. I would recommend Klexon to anyone that is looking to meet a lot of new Japanese people and have opportunities to practice your own language skills, as well as opportunities to help others with theirs.

Nicholas Lombardo: Volunteering ("Interning") at Impact HUB

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I had the chance to assist the staff at Impact Hub Kyoto as my Community Involvement Project this semester.

Impact Hub is a non-profit organization that provides working space for community businesses to utilize and collaborate, hosts events promoting local social and entrepreneurial initiative, and provides an international network of “Hub Members”. At the Hub here in Kyoto, my main objective was to assist the Hub associates with small projects and to get to know the large community of members that frequented the Hub each Thursday. I also had the pleasure of attending and assisting with setup and cleanup of  a couple of events.

From the very first day I went to Hub to meet with my first point of contact, Asada-san, I was struck by a well established yet fluid system of honorific language used among the Hub associates, towards and among the Hub members, and with me. Even after several weeks chatting together, Asada-san, and the head of Hub Kyoto, Asai-san, continued to use very formal language with me. Although at first I didn’t understand, however, especially given the nature of our relationship – I am doing them a favor helping with work, and they were doing me a favor by taking me on like an “intern” – I came to see how the register of the Hub associates speech matched our roles, and created an overall pleasant, polite atmosphere throughout the working space.

In addition, I got to meet many different entrepreneurs and company employees through the Hub associates, and as these new acquaintances would introduce me to their co-workers. I’ve come to appreciate the process of introducing myself to others and how one tailors common phrases and sayings based on to whom one is talking, and then builds natural conversation from the common ground established. And the conversations, although usually brief, are still so interesting, given the variety of businesses and organizations that come by the Hub.

My advice to anyone would be here: while I think I did well getting to meet many people, and navigating the space and interactions politely, sometimes I think I was not direct enough, and did not push myself enough to talk more with people, missing out on a more fully engaging with such a cool community. While the members and associates may be busy, and so may I with whatever task I had for the day, I wish I had tried more to talk to everyone about their work, and tell them about mine – in the spirit of the collaborative space of this CIP itself!

Emily McKenna: Klexon

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For my CIP I go to a group called Klexon every Tuesday. It is kind of like speed-dating, but for friends. There are a lot of young Japanese working professionals and a few foreigners looking to learn English there. There is a different topic of the week to discuss, for example fast food, and you talk to a partner for 10 minutes then talk to someone else. I chose Klexon because I wanted an opportunity to speak Japanese with native speakers. I found that for the most part, my Japanese was better than their English, so when there was a sticking point in the conversation, my partner and I would usually speak in English. At Klexon, I learned a few things about Japanese culture.  A lot of the people I talked to were learning English for their jobs and there were especially a lot of engineers. I had no idea that so many people used English in their jobs. I also learned that the Japanese start learning English from a very young age.  Another thing I observed was that the Japanese were very persistent in their study of English. They tried and struggled to speak English when they could have easily reverted to Japanese to express their thoughts to me. However, they persevered where I might have given up. One more interesting thing I learned about Japanese culture is that a lot of the people had been born in Kyoto and had never traveled out of the country, or even to Tokyo. I learned that it is not extremely common to travel.

One of the hard things about Klexon is that the Japanese speakers there are trying to learn English so it is sometimes hard to speak Japanese because they really want to speak English. However, a lot of them were eager to speak Japanese so I was able to have a lot of Japanese conversations. I learned a lot of new vocabulary and was able to improve my speaking abilities. I failed in that I probably could’ve spoken more Japanese, even when my partner was speaking English to me.

My advice would be to pick a CIP activity that actually interests you and when you do get there, do your best to speak as much Japanese as possible.

Sean Kwon: Volunteering at Muromachi Children's Center

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With the help and counseling from Maeguchi sensei and Nakata sensei, I could join Muromachi jidoukan (children’s center) as a volunteer teacher helping students’ homework and playing with them for my CIP this spring.

Although I was not confident with my Japanese language when I first joined the children’s center, I was warmly greeted by the children and staff at Muromachi jidoukan. They were curious about where I was from, which language I spoke, and customs I was used to. I was surprised how much children were interested to know more about where I was from, languages I spoke, and how old I was–like anywhere else, children were full of questions that were innocent and straightforward.

I was also surprised by how children were playing あやとり (thread game) and 五目並べ (gomoku) that I played in Korea in childhood. I could see how I could overcome barriers in language and customs through such games, as if we spoke the same language. For other traditional Japanese games, children were more than willing to explain the rules over the weeks I was there with patience, so that I became able to play such games with them.

As I came to talk with children over games and their homework, I could pick up some kansaiben that they spoke–virtually all the time. The way children spoke to me was not only fast, but also filled with kansaiben words and accents. After a while, however, I became used to the way they talk and started to mimic them–as if I started to learn a new language. As I came to share the lexicon of children over time, I felt that I became part of the community that I love a lot.

My volunteering experience was a rewarding one where I could be part of the Japanese culture as a teacher and a friend of children who offered me more than I could. To anyone who loves children and would like to be part of the community in Kyoto, I strongly recommend volunteering at Muromachi jidoukan.

Zack Even: Volunteering at a Kodomo Shokudo

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At the start of the program, I was unsure of what I wanted to do for my CIP. I had mentioned in the KCJS questionnaires that I was interested in participating in an activity involving cooking, and Nakata Sensei suggested that I work at a kodomo shokudo, a cafeteria where members of the community, particularly families with kids, can come for a free meal.

I tried calling a few kodomo shokudo’s in the area, and, after handing off the phone to Nakata Sensei almost immediately in the first call, I managed my way through the second on my own and found a shokudo that needed volunteers. With a limited amount of information about the cafeteria – just the name of one of the volunteers, its location, and a time I should arrive by – I set out the following Friday for the first time.

Because I knew very little about what to expect, I was nervous on my first day. Even finding the shokudo was a bit difficult: it is much smaller than I anticipated, located within an unassuming house. I waited for a few minutes along the street until someone appeared whom I could ask. Luckily, she was one of the volunteers.

Working at the shokudo has improved my Japanese language and allowed me to apply it in a way I rarely get to in class – to discuss food and cooking. My CIP has also introduced me to a number of interesting people, including the two kind women who run the shokudo, an economics professor at Doshisha, and a man who works in computer graphics, whom I met up with outside the shokudo to talk about computer animation. By preparing food alongside the women who run the shokudo, my vocabulary relating to food improved, along with my miming skills, which I could always fall back on if I didn’t understand what they had asked me to do. I also got to interact with kids who came to the shokudo. While my host family has a two-month-old baby whom I love having around, obviously I cannot communicate with her yet, so the shokudo gave me an opportunity – to practice my language with children – that I would not otherwise have had.

While, as a foreigner, I often felt a bit like the odd one out at the dinners, I also felt like I was truly participating in and even contributing to the community. As the woman who runs the shokudo asked me when my last day would be, I felt a sense of pride knowing that to a small degree they had come to depend on my help. While it seems that, at least at this particular shokudo, some families come simply to enjoy the community atmosphere, others seem to rely on the Friday dinners. Like in the US and any other countries, a portion of families in Japan cannot afford enough food for their children – one in seven, Nakata Sensei informed me. The shokudo guarantees them at least one stress-free, pleasant meal a week, and I enjoyed being able to help create that meal for the families who came.

Danni Qu: Volunteering at Impact Hub Kyoto

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For my semester in Kyoto, Japan, I volunteered at an NGO called Impact Hub Kyoto. Impact Hub Kyoto offers a space for people to exchange new ideas and to change the local community by organizing different forums. In addition, they also rent co working space so a lot of office workers would work here. Through Impact Hub Kyoto, I learnt a lot from interacting with the people there and from my project.

As a college student exchanging at Doshisha University, I do not really have chance to interact with office workers. Through Impact Hub Kyoto, I learnt about how you are supposed to say お疲れ様 to people who are leaving after work. Moreover, I attended a 送別会 (farewell party) for my mentor, and I was able to closely observe how people pay for the meal, what they do at the farewell party and what they say, which is very interesting. I was invited to my mentor’s house and went for food shopping with her prior. After lunch, she took out all the receipts and started calculating in front of everyone divided the price based on the number of the people. This was new to me because in China, usually the colleague that leaves the company pays for the farewell party at restaurant or cooking at home.   

On the other hand, my project at Impact Hub Kyoto taught me so much in multiple aspects. Our goal is to increase the recognition among college students, so we came up with the idea of organizing a forum that interests students. We first interviewed some students and we came up with the theme of the forum: work and travel. Nakamura sensei introduced me her friend as the guest speaker and in order to invite him, I learnt how to write in Japanese business style email and used 敬語 for every email to him. Furthermore, I was able to learn a lot about Japanese people’s mindset by cooperating with my Japanese partner. I talked very directly while he was very indirect and sometimes I misunderstood his meanings. I realized this might be a cultural difference and talked to him about what I think and finally we were on the same page.In addition, we needed to advertise for the forum and I learnt how to ask Doshisha University on Twitter to advertise for us and how to talk to Professors at Doshisha politely to ask if it is possible for him to distribute our flyers on his class.

Overall, I am very grateful for being able to volunteer at Impact Hub Kyoto not only because I get to interact with the type of people I normally do not have a chance to, but also being able to organize a Forum in Japanese with Japanese partner.