「Volunteering」カテゴリーアーカイブ

Manxian Zhang: Zenryuji Nursery School

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Back in the United States, I mentored a Chinese toddler who was adopted into an American family at the age of one. While I introduced aspects of his forgotten culture to him, he showed me what it is like growing up in an ethnically different family in a foreign country. I found that mutual exchange of knowledge extremely gratifying so I decided to continue that sort of interaction with children while I am here in Kyoto. I figured that volunteering in a nursery school would be the best choice since I would be able to teach the children some English and perhaps some American children games while their behaviors as well as the teacher’s actions would allow me to observe the values and expectations instilled in four to five year- old children.

That sort of interaction was not so easily achieved. My duties initially comprised of patting the children to sleep and disinfecting their toys. Not a single word was exchanged during my first couple of visits. So I decided to come an hour earlier and eat lunch together with the children. Changing my hours was the right decision. During lunchtime, I would pick a table to sit and talk to four or five kids as we eat. Japanese suddenly become ten times more difficult when talking to the children in the nursery school. Not only did they have strong Kansai dialects, but also they would talk about their classmates and address themselves in the third person, which sometimes confused me, as I would lose track of the subject of the conversation. I also noticed that children could play with anything you give them. During playtime, the teachers usually provide a few selections of toys for them, but that did not deter them from having a great time with clothespins and cups, not your conventional toys.

Also, I was pleasantly surprised by the extent the teachers allowed me to help out. I poured tea for the kids, brought out some of their meals, put the tables away, wiped the chairs and helped perform some other miscellaneous tasks. Initially, I was allowed to play with the children after lunch, but the duties I have to perform increased incrementally to the point where before mealtime I helped prepare lunch and afterwards, after cleaning up, I was usually sent downstairs to pat the younger children to sleep.  So the time of actual interaction with children was limited to just lunchtime and even the time set aside for lunch was not set because it seemed like every time I go there, lunch ended at a different time.

I did not succeed in getting the amount of interaction I wanted with the children (I never got to teach them children games or fun methods to learn English) and with the teachers (they were all very busy throughout the time I was there, as their duties range from a caretaker to a janitor). Despite the short amount of interaction, the teachers did not make me feel as an outsider as they would have me help out as much as possible. In addition, I was able to observe the values and expectations promoted in early Japanese education and I witnessed the dynamics of the children’s interaction among themselves and with the teachers. Although my CIP experience was not everything that I had expected, I learned so much from it and gain so many unforgettable memories. So my best advice to future students who are looking for CIP activities, don’t come into it with a list of expectations, you probably won’t fulfill all of it. Instead, enter your CIP with an open- mind and be prepared for failures and unexpected achievements.

Julie Shih: Nico Toma Hospital Volunteer

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Every week at Nico Toma is a different experience. As a group that plans and puts together activities for hospitalized children, one week we would be packing items to sell at their bazaar and another week we would be helping to serve food at their annual Sakura café. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect each week, but that was part of the fun, and the volunteers were always energetic and welcoming. While helping them prepare, we had many opportunities to talk with fellow volunteers. They were naturally curious about the places we came from and we also discussed the differences between American and Japanese culture. I also got the chance to talk to some volunteers about their experiences volunteering with Nico Toma and why they decided to become involved. Many of them had been part of the group for years and years, and from working with them, I could feel a strong sense of solidarity.

I’ve volunteered back in the States before, but never in this kind of setting. It was hard to see the children attached to tubes and machines knowing that there’s nothing we could do regarding their illnesses. I couldn’t help but wonder what a childhood would be like that was spent going in and out of the hospital. However, I’ve realized that children are children wherever you go, energetic and mischievous (one boy snuck back for seconds!), who enjoy playing with other kids and playing games on their DS. Seeing everyone smiling and enjoying the café, I hope that we’ve been able to do what we can to bring some joy into their lives. Overall, volunteering at Nico Toma was an enjoyable and worthwhile experience.

Cecilia Dolph: Assistant English Teacher

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Even though I had taken a month-long break from my CIP over winter vacation, going back in January was like nothing had changed at all. Once the teachers welcomed me back, I ate lunch with the same students, taught the same classes, and participated in the same activities as I had last semester. Nothing might have been different for the students and teachers at Ohara, but for me, taking the experiences I had last semester and building off of those to reach my goals of becoming a better teacher and learning more from the students and teachers at Ohara, I was able to have a more rewarding experience this time around than I did last semester.

This semester I made it a point to become more active while teaching English classes. Most of the time I teach the younger students whose English ability isn’t at a level where they can understand my explanations of activities or games to learn the vocabulary or expressions I’m teaching in class. The English teacher I work with has to translate my explanations or we have to do an example of the game or activity in front of the class for the students to be able to understand. The point is for the students to be able to hear a proper English accent, but last semester I was still hesitant to use too much English for students who wouldn’t be able to understand what I was saying. This semester, I changed my point of view and made an effort to use English more and teach the class thinking like the students could understand what I was saying. Hearing phrases like “Now we’re going to play a game” or “This is how you play” over and over, the students are eventually going to come to recognize what those phrases mean, and that is that point of my CIP at Ohara to teach English and let the students hear how English sounds. I think this is an important point to remember when teaching someone a foreign language.

Last semester, it took me a while to become confident enough in my Japanese and brave enough to talk to the other teachers at Ohara to be able to have a conversation with them. It wasn’t until the end of last semester that I ended up having some very interesting and informative discussions with the other teachers in between classes or during the car ride to the station. This semester I did my best to talk to the other teachers as much as possible. In front of the students I’m not allowed to speak Japanese, so in between classes in the teacher’s room while we were all standing around the heater, the other teachers would be kind enough to involve me in their conversations or ask me questions. Sometimes I was able to connect some of the conversations to things I was learning in class, so it was nice being able to give my opinion about some of the things we talked about. I was also a great source of information for the differences between Japan and America, and the teachers were interested in hearing how the school system or classes or test taking worked differently in the States.

With such a diverse group of adults, opinions didn’t always agree, but most of the time the opinions I heard were those that I expected. Getting into heavier subjects, like religion or education or family systems, sometimes I would hear opinions I didn’t expect or haven’t heard at all, and sometimes I would hear some extreme misunderstandings of how things worked in America. For example, one of the teachers who sat near me in the teacher’s room had an interest in classical music. I played classical piano for most of my childhood and had an opinion on what music I liked and which composers I thought were good. We agreed on several points, but our opinions didn’t always match up. But having a conversation or discussion with someone is a give and take process, so while we may not have agreed on everything, I heard and accepted their opinion while they were able to do the same for me. On some occasions, I heard assumptions about American culture and the way things worked in the States that were just simply a misunderstanding.  On these occasions, I was able to correct their assumptions with information from my own experience and culture. In the end, I’m very glad I made an effort to talk more to the other teachers this semester. It was a chance to learn in a situation that doesn’t come around very often for study abroad students. I ended up learning a great deal and things I would never be able to learn in class or in a textbook and was able to create closer ties with some of the teachers at my CIP.

One thing I noticed this semester was the way the teachers worked together. When teaching English classes, the English teacher would work closely with the class’ homeroom teacher, asking if they thought this was a good way to do this activity for these kids or how they thought it would be best to proceed through the prepared lesson plan. The homeroom teacher teaches most of the classes for the students throughout the day, so they know the students and the way they learn a bit more than the English teacher does, who only comes in a few times a week. Therefore, when teaching English class, the homeroom teacher would know the best way to run an activity or game for their students in order for it to the most effective and would correctly convey that to the English teacher. For individual students as well, the homeroom teacher would know which students needed a bit more attention than others and would let us know who to keep an eye on when the students would be doing individual or pair work. I noticed this happening not only in the English classes, but between teachers of other classes as well. In between classes in the teacher’s room, teachers would talk to each other about their classes, discussing their students and their opinions and the best way to go about teaching a certain subject. It was interesting seeing that a class wasn’t just a class for the teacher leading the lesson, but also for the other teachers in the school. I’m sure something similar happens in America and happened during my own time going through school, but being on the other side of the equation was the only way for me to be able to see it.

I’m very glad I chose this activity for my CIP and continued it into second semester. I was able to gain experience that will help me in the future going towards my career goals. Being able to compare the Japanese school system to my own education, learning what it was like to teach English to a group of kids at the front of a classroom and not just one-on-one, talking to Japanese teachers and learning their points of view on a variety of subjects, all of the skills and information I attained at Ohara will be beneficial for my future studies of Japan and teaching. At the end of six months of teaching, receiving gifts and words of thanks and appreciation from the students and teachers at the school was very rewarding. Even though I learned so much at Ohara and gained so much from everyone there, it’s nice knowing I was able to give something back in return.

Samantha Lee: Hospital Volunteer

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For the spring semester, I decided to continue my CIP with the Niconico Tomato (Nico Toma) volunteer group at Kyoto University Hospital.  Nico Toma is responsible for organizing activities for the children receiving long-term treatment at the hospital.  In addition to arranging activities, they also change the monthly decorations in the children’s ward and create holiday treat bags for the children.

Because of the language barrier, it was sometimes hard to understand the conversations that the other volunteers were having, but overall I felt that I had been included as a member of the group.  The other KCJS students and I usually sit around the table with the rest of the Nico Toma volunteers and work together on various projects.  No matter what task they are focused on, Nico Toma stays meticulously organized, and group cohesiveness is always important.  When making holiday cards, for example, each volunteer is assigned a different step in the process, and it is through our combined efforts that the quality of every card is preserved. Teamwork was also important when we prepared for the bazaar event, as all of the merchandise needed to be sorted, priced, wrapped, before being arranged neatly into sale displays.  The KCJS students were assigned to the towels and clothing section, and we were responsible for creating an organized display that would appeal to the shoppers.  We successfully completed this task, and I felt very happy when the other volunteers complimented our display.  Volunteering Nico Toma has been a great experience, and it was very impressive to see how much time and effort the volunteers spend towards helping the children have a more pleasant stay at the hospital.

Trisha Martin: Zenryuji Nursery School

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Last autumn, I compared the different disciplining styles of both American and Japanese preschools in my English CIP blog. Although most of my observations in regards to discipline haven’t changed, the age groups to which I have taken observations from have changed.  Last semester I primarily worked with 4 to 5 year olds, which were some of the oldest children at the school. However, this semester I usually work with the 2 year olds. Despite the 2 year olds being adorably cute, I do not have as much opportunity to actually communicate with them, based on the fact they are indeed 2 years old. Not only do 2 year olds lack a sufficient Japanese vocabulary, they are way too embarrassed and scared by my presence to even attempt English beyond “hello”.

Therefore, rather than talking about the communication I have with the children at my CIP; I’d rather focus on a question I’ve always pondered about my CIP – the significance of time in a time conscious society. I arrive at my CIP roughly the same time every week – 12 noon to the minute. Not only am I afraid of arriving late because it would give both KCJS and American’s a bad reputation, but I’m afraid of arriving any earlier and getting in the teachers way, since they wouldn’t be prepared for more. However, despite me arriving exactly on time, I always manage to feel either absurdly early or extremely late. Apparently there is not exact start time for my CIP (or end time, for that matter). Sometimes I arrive at noon and the students are already mid-meal, in which case I scurry to grab my food and join a table feeling like I’ve somehow arrived very late (which is not the case). Otherwise, the students are still midst their mid-morning activities and they haven’t even started the lunch prep duties, in which case I feel like I’ve arrived too early (again, this is not the case) and am standing around uselessly until lunch actually begins. I find this lack of an exact start time to be a very interesting, considering just how time-conscious my Japanese peers, host family, and school experience have all been. I wonder if lunch time is not exact because there is more emphasis placed on the motions of “lunch” rather than the promptness of “time” at this point in the education system; preschoolers are educated on the way to do things, rather than the timely fashion in which it should be done. . For example, a child has not finished lunch until has every grain of rice is cleaned from their bowl, even if it takes that child more than an hour to do so. I couldn’t even imagine being given more than 45 minutes in my elementary school, let alone an hour to finish lunch. If I didn’t finish lunch on time, well too bad for me. I either had to re-pack it and take it home or throw it away.

Does anyone else face very interesting (either expected or unexpected) challenges when it comes to being “on time”‘?

Melanie Berry: Volunteering at the Kyoto International Manga Museum

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Volunteering at the Kyoto International Manga Museum has been a fun and interesting but occasionally demanding experience. I have definitely learned a lot there, not only about manga itself but also about tourism in Japan, how the Japanese tend to view their own pop culture and foreigners’ perceptions of it, and the culture of the workplace. Adjusting to such a new environment, though, is not exactly simple. The main two difficulties I’ve encountered while volunteering are switching sets of social cues between the Japanese staff and foreign guests and interacting on a casual basis with the staff.

Overall, I have found that for the most part I can communicate fairly effectively with the staff of the museum, but occasionally I have had trouble switching between Japanese and English when conducting tours and answering questions. Switching between the languages themselves is not necessarily the problem, although that is sometimes difficult. Moreover, the various social cues you utilize while in a setting like a museum seem to differ to a certain extent between Japan and America. Though I’ve volunteered in an American museum before, it was difficult to bring a lot of what I learned there to this experience, as the way one greets customers and generally behaves around them seems to be generally a bit different here. It can also be rather jarring to switch from using formal language in Japanese with our supervisors to using English with the guests. One suddenly feels the instinct to make one’s language more formal toward the guest, although my intuition developed while working in an American museum tends to push me to want to seem friendlier, more welcoming, and therefore a little more informal. This has definitely been more interesting than it has been difficult, though. Figuring out the different ways to interact with both the guests and the staff makes every day fascinating.

In addition, bonding with the staff has been a little difficult, mainly because we are always in a constant work environment. I regularly talk to the two employees who supervise us, Yasui-san and Uramune-san, who are both extremely nice and friendly and also have occasionally been able to speak to some of the other employees, such as the kamishibai artist who performs shows at the museum. However, because our breaks are at different times from the rest of the employees, having time outside of the main areas of the museum to speak casually is rather rare. Because of this, it has admittedly been difficult to get to know people at the museum. Overall, though, I’m glad that I’ve gotten to know the employees I have met at the museum! It has been a great experience.

Joomi Kim: NicoNicoTomato Volunteer

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My CIP project at NicoNicoTomato isn’t the first volunteer experience I’ve had at a hospital. It’s also not the first volunteer position I’ve had with children or in a foreign language I’m not comfortable in. Throughout all my different experiences in America however, my time at NicoNicoToma has been strangely unique and similar to them all.

In a very basic sense, NicoNicoTomato is very….Japanese. As obvious as that is, the famous “customer service”, attention to detail, and efficiency I found and expected everywhere in Japan came to life in a new form within the hospital setting. My previous encounters with volunteering, medical-related experiences, and kids in general were never very organized or based on anything further than the pure essentials of the job. Flowers, snacks, and games were always secondary or a means of killing time. Without me who would wipe the tables down, wheel the patients, or run through basic vocabulary? These tasks, however menial, made me feel like an integral part of the system I participated in, and although I knew NicoNicoToma would be fundamentally different from everything else I had been through, I was caught off-guard once I realized how exposed and inexperienced I was in this new form of contributing.

Once I started inserting toy after toy into plastic bags, taking time to match the most suitable ribbon color with the content inside, I slowly began to realize that the goal of NicoNicoTomato picks up after all the basic work I had done in my other jobs and volunteering attempts. Perfectly gluing a paper bear’s paws to make it hug a heart seemed like a colossal waste of time at first, especially since I sucked at it. I was used to brushing over the details to get the job done, despite rough edges, and I was proud of it; but the other volunteers brought me down to their pace. NicoNicoToma volunteers are kind, seasoned, and deliberate. I began to see how the program pushed itself not to babysit the children or educate them, but to provide a childhood and memories. The painstakingly simple details mattered. The quality and care mattered. They were constantly changing the decorations and photographs in the children’s ward, creating an atmosphere of progress and relationships that I doubt many other long-term patients in the hospitals throughout Japan and the rest of the world are able to have. They appreciate the little sparks in daily life, and the constant waves of hard work NicoNicoToma puts into its little patients and events is one of the coolest personal accounts I have of watching and experiencing some very positive aspects of Japanese values first-hand. I am still really shy and embarrassed when speaking with Japanese people, but I am glad that I have these small, steady revelations in NicoNicoTomato that provide a new way for me to experience Japanese society and giving in general.

Rebecca Gabriel : English Teaching Assistant

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Starting in September, I have been volunteering as an English teaching assistant at a middle school for my CIP.  As I have mentioned in the previous blog entry, I had to change schools this semester because of schedule conflicts.  Though I missed my old school a bit, it was interesting to be able to help at two different schools.  Both of the schools were actually very similar, but the activities I did were very different.

In the first school, I went to class and played English work games or read off vocabulary lists or readings or I went around helping out with worksheets.  At the second school, I did that sort of thing the first time, but after that I started coming after class and practicing English conversations with the kids.  We talked about a lot of things. Where we want to go on vacation, kpop sings that we like, which club they were in, and so on and so forth.  They were really very cute, but it was a bit unfortunate that they were shy about speaking in English.  Most of the time, they would go off in Japanese tangents about whatever we were talking about at the time.  I sometimes think that I didn’t really do much to help with their English education, but I am still glad that I could meet them all.

The last time I went to speak with the 7th graders, there happened to be a girl in a wheelchair there as well.  I was actually touched by how they all included her.  Rather than making her sit in the wheelchair, one of the girls carried her over to a regular chair.  After we talked, she tried to help her to the wheelchair again, but they both fell.  They burst out laughing.  The girl who helped her didn’t seem troubled or put upon at all.  Although I am not well informed on the subject, I often hear about criticism for the Japanese view on and treatment of handicapped persons.  As such, I was really proud of all of the girls who so naturally helped out and included their friend.  Wednesday was the opening ceremony for the school, so I hope I can go at least one more time!  It’s been a really interesting experience teaching here, and I won’t soon forget it.

Mary Ross: Volunteer English Teacher's Assistant

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My CIP for this semester was working as an English teacher’s assistant at a nearby middle school, Kamigyō Chūgakkō. Before my CIP began, I had visions of myself (through my profound and awe-inspiring teaching abilities) stirring a love of the English language in my students. My real experience was something quite different: thought quite enjoyable, it was definitely not what I expected.

For one thing, before volunteering at the school, I imagined Japanese schools to run like a well-oiled machine, populated by polite and serious students. Maybe this middle school is an exception to that rule, but it all felt a little chaotic. Still, the students were thrilled to see me every time I came and always made me feel welcome. As well, the teachers were quite kind and were passionate about teaching.

Another unexpected aspect of this experience was the manner in which I was employed. I helped out in the classroom about two or three times and the rest of the times I went, I simply talked with a group of the students for an hour or two. These kaiwa sessions were successful to various degrees: one time it was a large group of both boys and girls and so the conversation flowed quite well; another time it was just three shy girls and I almost had to drag the conversation out of them. Contrary to my visions of greatness, while there were a few students who did love English (for which I sadly cannot take credit), the vast majority seemed simply to be suffering through the class.

Kamigyō Chūgakkō

Moreover, I was a little disappointed that I couldn’t work in the classroom more often or in a more academic manner with the students. While conversational skills are important, the conversations sometimes devolved into me making small-talk and the students answering just “yes” or “no,” which doesn’t do much for their language abilities. I think using the volunteers in a more structured and academic manner (such as short individual sessions to address a particular student’s concerns or weaknesses) would be a better use of everyone’s time. However, the conversations (when they extended beyond me making small-talk) were a lot of fun and taught me some fun Japanese slang when the students wanted something translated into English.

If a KCJS student’s goal for their CIP was to interact deeply with Japanese people, I would probably not recommend a volunteer English assistant position to them. I did learn a lot about Japanese schools and youth, but I felt more like an outsider looking in than a part of the society itself. As well, since you are teaching English (and I was asked to stick to only English when talking to the students), there aren’t many chance to practice Japanese. To better integrate and become a member of Japanese society, I think it is important to speak the language and develop deeper relationships with Japanese people which is, unfortunately, difficult to do when you are interacting solely in English and with people who are much younger than you.

However, I did feel that I was able to get a glimpse into Japanese society and I think that by interacting with the Japanese students and allowing them to interact with a non-Japanese person, I was able to make a small impact on Japanese society. No matter what country it is, I think interacting with people from other countries not only gives you a wider, more global perspective, but also enriches that nation’s culture.

All in all, I really enjoyed this experience. To better integrate in Japanese society, I would advise supplementing volunteering as an English assistant teacher with activities that have to do with Japanese culture and language (KIX is a good option for this!). However, I found this CIP very fulfilling; it felt nice to know that I may have furthered someone’s interest in English or at least offered them a new experience. It was definitely a new experience for me, so I guess they taught me something too!

Rachelle Chouinard: Volunteering at a Children’s Hospital

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For my CIP, I have been volunteering at a program called Nico Toma (which aptly stands for “smiling tomato”), a program which runs a playroom and other fun events for the children staying in the Children’s Ward at the Kyoto University hospital. Once a week since September I have been going to Nico Toma and mostly helping out with decorations or other craft and organizational tasks. On days that there are special events, like the spring and Christmas cafes and fundraising bazaar, I get to have more contact with the children as I am usually assigned a task where I get to help them pick out which basket of candies they want or help them put cookies on their plate. Increasingly as I have acquired more experience with the program I have noticed an increase in the responsibility of the tasks I am assigned, which is a relief because although I like doing arts and crafts always doing simplistic tasks is boring.

Something I have noticed as I have worked with the same volunteers is a gradual transformation of speaking styles when speaking with the other volunteers, not just the style of speaking becoming less formal, but also the content of the questions slowly becoming more personal and more complex. In the beginning, we spoke of mostly simplistic things such as likes and dislikes, basic facts of our lives, etc. Now we tackle much more complex topics, such as the differences between Americans and Japanese, politics, and other much more esoteric topics. I also find it interesting how in Japanese, much more clearly than in English, you can tell your closeness to a person by their use of particular language. Perhaps this clear language distinction reflects a Japanese preoccupation with distinctions between social gradients.

As I have spent a little more time this semester out in the Children’s Ward changing the decorations, I have also had more of an opportunity to witness the reactions of parents and the hospital staff to us as volunteers in the hospital. The reactions of the different types of people in the hospital to us are usually very different. Doctors and nurses usually seem pleased to see us, and really seem to appreciate the decorations. The children are always pleased and curious, although the younger ones can look a little intimidated. To the younger kids we are almost as interesting as the new decorations; they stare unabashedly at us the whole time we are working. It’s the parents who have the most diverse reactions. Some are very enthusiastic about seeing us there, others are ambivalent, and some people even seem annoyed or confused about why we are there. Because volunteering in hospitals is so uncommon in Japan, at least according to the other volunteers, perhaps it is just that these parents see communicating with a foreigner another added burden in an already stressful situation. Overall, I have enjoyed my time volunteering with Nico Toma and the opportunity to interact with so many different kinds of people that I would not have had contact with otherwise. Plus, the kids are always so adorable!