僕のCIP はクレソンという英会話サークルだ。CIPに入る目的は新しい人に会うことで、同級生と先生にそう言うと、みんなクレソンをすすめてくれた。それで、クレソンに入ることにした。クレソンは英語を勉強したい日本人のために作られたサークルだけれども、日本語で話す機会もあるので、留学生にとっても話すいい練習になると思う。サークルに参加している人は親切で、ミーティングになるべくたくさん話に来るから会話をするのはやさしい。クレソンのメンバーの年齢は人によって違うので、みんなは様々な経歴を持っているので、面白い話ができる。
クレソンは一か月に２回午後七時から九時まで会う。一週間おきにしかミーティングがないが、よくパーティーもある。僕はまだクレソンのパーティーに行ったことがないが、必ず学期が終わる前に行くつもりだ。色々なパーティーの種類があるそうだ。例えば、ホームパーティー、節分パーティー、なべパーティー。クレソンではパーティーだけではなく、メンバーはミーティングが終わってから、飲みに行くのも普通だ。そのような理由で、新しい人に会いたい人なら、僕もクレソンという英会話サークルをおすすめする。
私のCIPは、京都文教という学校で英語を教えることです。毎週、一、二時間くらい、三人の学生と一緒に英語で会話します。アメリカと日本の生活の違い、将来の計画、好きなテレビ番組や音楽、趣味など、色々なトピックについて、話します。最初、学生に話すのは、少し難しかったですが、少しずつ京都文教の学生と先生に慣れて、どんどん簡単になりました。
一番面白いのは、普通の日本人の中学生と高校生の生活を観察できることです。私が思ったステレオタイプと絶対にちがうので、ちょっとびっくりしました。例えば、日本の教育制度は、とても大変ですから、学生はいつも静かに勉強すると思っていましたが、今まで会った学生は、色々な部活動に参加して、よく笑います。もちろん、将来を考えていますが、今したいことも考えています。
今から、日本人の学生の生活を見続けたいと思います。学生と話すことを楽しみにしています。
私はCIPで女性を支援する組織でボランティアがしたかったです。先生に考えていただいて、京都市Young Women’s Christian Association でボランティアをすることになりました。同志社大学からYWCAまで歩けますから、距離からするとYWCAはとても便利です。YWCAでボランティアしたい人はいろいろなことができるんですが、私は放課後に子供の世話をすることにしました。一週間に、二回子供と勉強したり、お菓子を食べたり、遊んだりします。
今月は、子供がちょっと少ないですが、普通は私は千夏という女の子と 遊んだりします。たまに千夏ちゃんはちょっと分かりにくいですが、いつも元気で一緒に楽しみます。他のボランティアもいます。YWCAの ディレクターは私が留学生だと分かったら 、優しいディレクターは他のボランティアに私と日本語で話すようにを頼んでいただきました。そんなに難しくないですが、この無料サービスはお金や時間がない母親にとって必要ですから、いい経験だと思います。
For my CIP, I decide that I would teach English. While interacting with children is not my strong suit, I wanted experience with high schoolers as I was considering applying for the JET program. I also thought it would be a good way to step out of my comfort zone.
I ended up acting as a tutor for some students learning english at the Kyoto Bunkyou High School. A few times a week I would go to the school and meet with a couple of high schoolers. Since the school was only a short subway ride out of the way it was very convenient for me. At first the students were a bit shy, but they slowly warmed up to me. Still I found that I ended up doing a lot of the talking; my throat was pretty sore by the end of the hour. I quickly learned that the best way to get through to the students was to ask open-ended questions. Once I go to know them, they were really sweet. Upon hearing that I liked matcha deserts, one of them bought me a special macha-chocolate cookie and a little stuffed manekineko (lucky cat) as an omiyage.
Once, I ended up speaking to an entire class of students who would soon be going to Australia. Though I had initially anticipated that my job would be something like this, I wasn’t prepared that time and ended up simply awkwardly asking questions up in front of the board. I really wished I had prepared some sort of lesson plan for that time, and changed my mindset to deal with students who’s english was a bit weaker than I was used to.
However, as the semester went on, I found that the school had a lot more breaks and times when the students were too busy to have conversation with me. I would definitely recommend having a back-up plan for your CIP. Even if it seems to be going well at first, things can change.
Half-way through this semester I made the scary decision to completely switch my CIP, from the Kyoto University frisbee circle Breeze, to Klexon, an English conversation circle at Doshisha. I know many people are thinking the same thing I was worried about when I joined — why spend the little time you have in Japan speaking English instead of practicing Japanese? And it’s true, almost all of the weekly meetings are done in English, but it’s also a group of amazingly friendly people and in my few weeks there I’ve made more Japanese friends than the other two months combined. After the meeting every week, most of the people there go out to a upstanding refreshment establishment nearby for a completely non-judgment-inhibiting drink of litchi juice or two, which is a great way to get to know the people better and finally practice your Japanese! There have also been two dinner parties at the leader’s apartment so far this semester, of which I was only able to attend one, but the leader made amazing Japanese food for us and it was a great opportunity to talk to everyone and have some fun.
Although it could have something to do with having come of age in Japan and not America, it seems to me that litchi juice is a lot more central to Japan’s social life than what I see in America. Maybe because Doshisha doesn’t have on-campus housing and apartments in Kyoto tend to be tiny to hang out in, almost all social events are out in the city and involve litchi juice in some way or another. Litchi juice seems to break down a lot of the social barriers that require people to be reserved and distant, and polite speech gets less and less frequent throughout the night, although even nights with litchi juice aren’t free of the kohai-sempai relationships so important in Japan. Whether in English or Japanese, the Japanese members without fail try to discern how old and what year the person they’re talking to is in school so that they know who is in the position of authority. Unfortunately, finding out that I’m both a Junior and recently turned 20, the age of a Japanese Freshman or so, doesn’t make my role any more clear. This emphasis on age sounds especially funny in English when you hear a bunch of people who just met asking each other how old they are, a rather infrequent occurrence in America.
If you’re willing to make the effort to do more than the weekly meetings, Klexon really can be a great way to both practice Japanese and make friends. I only wish I had joined earlier in the semester, as it feels like I just started right as the semester’s drawing to a close.
At the beginning of this semester, I knew my hobbies and I knew my interest in Japan, but I had no idea how they might intersect. I had lots of ideas: perhaps a regular photography blog or maybe a travelogue video or two to illustrate my time in the Far East. However, the CIP program soon seemed like a great outlet for creativity. I weighed my options and found one of two that I liked – initially, the Doshisha student television circle seemed promising (because I do student television at Wesleyan) but I had no idea if they’d let some foreign stranger jump into their production. The presentation for Impact Hub flicked a switch: it was exactly what I was looking for.
There, I would have a chance to use my creative skills and also have a tangible result that is not just self-satisfying but serves a somewhat larger purpose. The photographs I take and videos I create are used as promotional outreach to reach wider target audiences. I get to hone my skills and build my portfolio while also meeting a great group of like-minded people, more of whom walk through the doors at each event.
Initially, I was once again a foreign stranger with worth to prove. Impact Hub already got photography done casually on the side by some of their employees, but I felt like a devoted photo/video person could do them some good. It took a couple weeks to find my niche there: I attended two events to do photo and take some video. At my Wednesday afternoon sessions at Impact Hub I was careful to protect my work from prying eyes – in hindsight that absolutely reinforced the skepticism but I wanted the result to be a surprise. In early October, at the first intern presentation session, I showed the pictures I had taken and the event recap video I had made. The reactions were instantaneous and enthusiastic; my worth had been proven. Afterwards I was soon given much more slack to work at my own pace with my own method. A mutual trust had been established between myself and my superiors and co-workers at Impact Hub.
Now, the goals have extended beyond event photography and short documentary-style video. My last video was a short spurt of live-action animation set to classic American bebop, and a two-month project that I’ve been working on is slowly coming to fruition. The latter is a very cross-cultural project, which in itself epitomizes what Impact Hub is all about. A 60-second long animated promotional video describing what happens and what one can do at Impact Hub isn’t too much of a burden to take on, but to make it bilingual is something that I can safely say I’ve never done before. The translation into Japanese was a challenge twofold: firstly, the meaning needs to stay approximately the same, with connotations and conversational tone in mind. Secondly, the video has a very distinct flow and rhythm – things that occasionally need to be tweaked when switching the tongue from English to Japanese. Overall, I’m very pleased with how it has turned out – last week I received some excellent feedback, and soon I will settle down to knock it out and hopefully create something that they can use for a long time ahead. If I can leave a legacy somewhere in Kyoto, using my creative skills to make a difference is something I’m definitely proud of.
My experience of interning at HUB Kyoto was a unique one since I had the chance to work in a welcoming environment in which new ideas are valued and encouraged. The best part of my CIP was to be able to have conversations with the HUB people with various occupations at the HUB events or during regular weekly meetings. It was really interesting to experience the alternative side of Kyoto.
At the beginning of the term, I was working as a project assistant and researching about the HUB projects from all around the world and writing reports on them. The main idea was to find a project that would suit HUB Kyoto’s needs and aspirations. After writing reports and presenting them to the HUB people for three weeks, I realized I was not making any real contributions to HUB Kyoto, since my project reports were not stimulating any further action. That is the reason why I decided to change my role in HUB Kyoto, and instead of writing reports on other people’s projects, I decided to come up with a project proposal and work on it. When I proposed my project plan, they were surprised and happy to see me taking a step forward by myself.
My project was basically an event in which high school students sell food and drinks to raise some money that could either be used for other HUB projects or be donated. My main goal was to create an event that would encourage young people in social entrepreneurship and get them interested in making money through simple events. The idea was appreciated a lot by HUB Kyoto and Eri-san, one of the members, introduced me to another member who is working as a high school teacher. Having a conversation with a young high school teacher was very interesting since I had a chance to listen to Japanese high school students’ aspirations and life styles. Yamashita-san, the high school teacher, was also very encouraging about the project and he was willing to work with me one on one to make the event better. However, after having a meeting to schedule the time for the event, we realized that it would be really difficult to find a time that would both fit the high school’s and KCJS’s schedules. In addition, only one month was left and no preparation had been done, which would require me to do a lot of preparation by myself while also dealing with the schoolwork. Because of this reasons, we decided to cancel the project. HUB people were sorry that I would not be able to carry the project out after having been preparing for it for almost three weeks. However, I was told that my project proposals were suitable to HUB Kyoto and they would be implemented in the future. Even though it was a little disappointing not to be able to carry out my own project myself, I was really glad to hear I could make an actual contribution to HUB Kyoto.
All in all, thanks to HUB Kyoto, I was able to see the world of social entrepreneurship in Japan and have a conversation with people coming from very different backgrounds, with various occupations and interests in life. The fact that they were very willing to listen me talking about the economic and social world in my home country, made me feel a lot closer to them, not to mention a lot welcomed and included. I felt very lucky to be given the chance to listen to their point of views in certain global issues. It was very interesting to listen them talking about Japan’s stance on global problems and the social conflicts modern Japanese people go though. At HUB, I always felt like a part of the group and the family, which encouraged me to learn more about the Japanese culture. When I compared the conversations I had with my host mom and the HUB people, I can see how different generations perceive national and global issues in different ways. Even though 4 months was a very short period for this particular type of CIP, working at HUB was an important component of my study abroad experience and I am very glad I chose doing it.
Before coming to Japan, I had thought about many options as my CIP activity. When reading the list of extracurricular activities that previous KCJS students participated, I was really excited to see myself also becoming a member of a team, or a performance group in Japanese society. In the beginning, I only considered of learning a traditional Japanese skill, such as archery or a Japanese instrument, and avoid signing up for anything that is not “Japanese enough”. The main purpose of CIP is to let you be more submersed in Japanese culture outside of the classroom. However, everyone’s goal differs. It took me a few weeks to figure out what I truly want from my CIP experience. I want to improve my Japanese by communicating with people of my own age. Rather than joining an intense circle of sports or performing arts, where members focus more on practicing instead on communicating, I chose to join KLEXON, a circle that helps Japanese with any background to practice speaking English.
KLEXON is not an easy activity to participate. Members are usually expected to speak for 2 hours straight, in both English and Japanese, which is quite exhausting. Nevertheless, it is very rewarding. So far, I was able to not only meet many new friends who are from various backgrounds, but also gain knowledge and a deeper understanding of the Japanese language as well as Japanese society as it is today. When I went to a dinner party with friends I made in KLEXON and started having natural conversations in Japanese with them, I feel as if I have finally become a member of this society, a society that is very different from the classroom, and it is introducing me to Japan from another perspective.
KLEXON also helped me improve my Japanese colloquial ability. There were a couple of things I noticed which answered my question about Japanese language. For example, back in U.S. I was taught by my Japanese teacher to use honorific form when speaking to Sensei or Senpai, and use formal desu-masu form to strangers. However, in real life, situations are not always clear as to when to use what form. In KLEXON, I was surprised to hear people of the same age using different forms of speech (formal/informal/honorific) in the same environment or situation. More girls tend to be more formal than guys and people are generally more formal when speaking to foreigners. However, there were also some people who would use short form to start a conversation with a stranger. Finally, I realized that, the “rules” of using formal or informal speech that I learned in school are a collection of general social norms, which are safe to follow for the most of the time. Nevertheless, a native speaker’s speech style can be very flexible, because for them, the language is merely a tool to reflect his or her emotions. The form they prefer to use shows their character and personality. Therefore, regarding the proper use of formal/informal form, there is not a set rule that everyone should always follow.
Last but not least, I feel fortunate for choosing KLEXON as my CIP activity. I did not expect I was going to receive so much out of it. The relationship I have forged and the deeper understanding of Japanese language I have gained are valuable, and greatly enriched my study abroad experience.
Now that several months have elapsed, I can say that my volunteer work at Zenryuji has offered me some unique glimpses into Japanese culture and language through the lens of children and a nursery school environment. The dynamics between teachers and children, between head teacher and a supporting teacher, and between the children and myself have been of particular interest.
Prior to coming to Japan, I was already quite aware of the hierarchy built into Japanese society as exemplified through things like the degrees of politeness in language and the senpai-kohai dynamic. At the nursery school, when a teacher is making an announcement or instructing the children to do something as part of the routine (i.e. when lining up), she uses polite language as a way to signal the formality of what is being said. On the other hand, it was interesting to observe teachers using plain speech when reprimanding the children, which I imagine was done in order to capture the teacher’s frustration and put the children in their place hierarchically, since plain speech can indicate the speaker’s superiority over the listener.
On a related note, though I do not find the power structure at the nursery school to be anywhere near as rigid as a regular corporate setting, it is clear that not all teachers share equal roles and positions. The two head teachers of the group of kids I usually work with are responsible for making announcements, directing the children during their routine, and, if necessary, reprimanding the children. Meanwhile a supporting teacher will help clean up the room or pour the milk for each child during snack time. Here too I have observed the use of casual speech by the head teachers between each other and to the supporting teacher, but the supporting teacher will use polite speech in response to perhaps indicate their difference in position within the structure of the daycare.
In my case, exchanges between teachers and I are exclusively in polite speech, while at the insistence of the children our exchanges are in casual speech. One child even corrected me the first day when I used polite speech too much, saying that it put too much distance between ussince our relationship should be that of friends. While this would not happen even among my peers, I suppose with children the rules get a bit hazy due to their age. Without any direct equivalent in the English language, these kinds of observations have been consistently fascinating.
In terms of the culture of raising children, I feel like my experience at Zenryuji was just like scratching the surfaceof it. What struck me immediately was the physical contact between teachers and students, where a teacher will not hesitate to grab or push a child as a means of correcting their behavior. My Asian background led me to be less surprised at the time, but knowing that in America such a thing would never be allowed without consequences did make me stop and think. That was probably one of the biggest cultural divides I had noticed while volunteering.
What was strikingly similar to what I have observed in America, however, is that children here are also keen on “playing house” during playtime. Participating children each take a role in the family such as mother or father, and someone is almost always “cooking” something (I need not mention how many times I have had to “eat” curry rice made out of sand). I noted that since children just about anywhere are most familiar with what happens at home, that represents one extent of their imaginations at this point in time.
Similarly, the children tend to quarrel with each other very easily about small things like sharing toys and someone not “apologizing” enough for something they did. I find being consulted on such matters a bit of a handful since I am not always sure what is culturally appropriate to say. Usually in the case of sharing toys, other teachers will go for the diplomatic approach and encourage the children to share, especially if one child has two of something. In the case of having children reconcile through apology, I think more so than the child wanting to apologize on their own it is the teacher’s authority that compels them to do so. I know in my case even if I were to say someone should apologize, they would either continue pouting at me without following through on the direction, or would simply run away. It reminds me that even though I am well-loved by the children, due to my age and outsider status I am in this limbo between teacher and friend, making my influence less effective. Whether in the future I will become more of one or the other remains to be seen.
A crucial part of the KCJS curriculum is one’s involvement in the CIP or “Community Involvement Project.” The aim of this project is to help KCJS students immerse themselves in a certain aspect of Japanese culture, and can consist of activities from volunteering at a hospital or nonprofit organization to participating in a Doshisha University club or circle.
Since I have aspirations to participate in the JET programme after graduation, and since I ultimately plan to pursue a career as a college professor, I opted to volunteer at an elementary/middle school called Ohara Gakuin as an assistant English teacher for the experience.
Ohara Gakuin is a quaint little school in the middle of the mountains a little ways outside of Kyoto City. The school consists of grades 1through 9, and they have also just recently instated nursery and kindergarten services. Since I do not have afternoon classes/commitments at KCJS on Mondays or Wednesdays, I volunteer on one of those days, once a week, from about half past twelve to 4 pm.
I shall hereby describe a typical day of volunteering. Since Ohara and Doshisha are quite far apart, I have to take a series of very strictly scheduled trains and buses to make it there on time every week, and the commute can take up to an hour. But once there, I typically will eat lunch with one class then teach two classes during Ohara’s 5th and 6th periods. The grades I eat with and teach alter every week, so I have a chance to interact with every grade 2-3 times over the course of 10 weeks. However, since I teach all grade levels the teaching itinerary is never consistent, but there is a pattern. Generally, with the 1st-4th grade (sometimes 5th) we tend to just play games, sing songs or do other fun activities that involve using English on a very minimal level. Whereas with the older students, we do grammar exercises, and dictation and reading drills (some examples include learning about relative pronouns and how to use the gerand in English).
Over all, teaching at Ohara has been a very eye-opening experience for me. Since I was born and raised in Jamaica, I can only compare the activities to Ohara to what I experienced in my own school system at home (as opposed to the U.S. where I only went to high school and college), and the overall operation of the education system is drastically different. First of all, in Jamaica, we have one teacher for all academic subjects who we work with every day, as opposed to staying in the same homeroom and having teachers come in and out depending on the subject. Another discrepancy is that in Jamaica, when a student or group of students started to cause a ruckus or disturbed class in any way, teachers are very quick to rebuke students about their conduct and discipline them if necessary. At Ohara, the teachers often turn a blind eye and continue teaching or simply wait for students to calm themselves down before resuming the lesson.
In addition to this, while working at Ohara something else that struck me as odd was the nature of the English education system in itself. For instance, when using the textbook, I often found some very unnatural English structures that are understandable, but would be very obscure to a native speaker, and also some expressions that seemed very ‘Japanese-y.’ In fact, I brought this up with some of the teachers there and they agreed with me! Therefore, we created alternative expressions/explanations and I was extremely pleased to know that my contributions had made some kind of a difference. Otherwise, the pacing of many of the classes seemed extremely slow, and consequently, I noticed that quite a few of the students had a hard time keeping focus for the full 50 minute class period.
Now, I understand that with only 10 visits to the school, I am seeing only a very limited example of what the system is like. Therefore, it is impossible for me to make judgements on the Japanese English education system on a whole based on my time spent at Ohara. However, I still could not help but consider the scholastic practices which are so different than what I am accustomed to on a critical level.
For instance, some of my findings included the realization that the pronunciation ability of the students in 1st and 2nd grade rivaled the ones of those in 8th and 9th grade, and classes in all grade levels spend a lot of class time focusing on perfecting their 「自己紹介」or “self-introductions.” Out of curiosity, I asked two teachers, whom I assist frequently, for their thoughts on the matter. It turns out that one teacher believed that the most effective method of retaining material learned in class is through repetition, and so because of that, progress can be rather slow. Conversely, the other teacher told me that the reason these inconsistencies exist is actually because the English program at Ohara is a fairly recent development. In fact, English language instruction was not fully incorporated into the syllabus until about 5 years ago. Currently, the elementary school students take English classes once a week for an hour, while the middle school children have English 4 times a week for one hour. Whereas beforehand, the 1st through 3rd grade did not have English lessons at all and 4th through 9th grade only had classes once a week.
The limited English ability of the students often left me feeling frustrated because I often felt there was so much I wanted to do or try that worked for me as a language student, but because of the strictness of the syllabus, because I could not express my sentiments clearly to the students and to avoid overstepping my boundaries, I often simply had to sit back, have faith in the methods employed by the teachers, and do my best to help where I could.
Additionally, I am a Cultural Anthropology/Japanese double major, so cultural differences among social groups, especially as they relate to Japan, are extremely interesting to me. Therefore, although volunteering at Ohara has been an extremely fantastic and rewarding opportunity, it is simply not enough. Thus, when I go on to (hopefully) participate in the JET programme, or whenever I have any other exposure to the Japanese education system, I intend to further my studies and research and derive some concrete theories as to how and why the system works the way it does.