私のCIP プロジェクトはNICCOでのボランティア活動である。NICCOは「日本国際民間協力会」という公益組織で、中東、アフリカ、南アジア、また日本国内で、災害支援や環境保全など色々なプロジェクトを盛んにしている。京都本部のオフィスは六角通にある和式の建物の一階程度の広さだが、ここまで幅広い分野へわたっているのは相当なことだと思う。

NPOに興味があるので、去年のKCJSの先輩が発表したブログを読んで、日本のNPOを理解するために、NICCOを選んだ。オフィスのスタッフは十人ぐらいで、皆優しくて、熱心に仕事をしている。この点はアメリカに行っていたNPOと似ているので、懐かしいと感じる。

普段のプロジェクトは広報部のための文書翻訳だけれども、最初は募金のための工芸品オークションを手伝った。それは一年間、NICCOの一番大事なイベントだそうなので、参加できて、嬉しかった。初めは入り口で入場者を数える仕事だったが、服装が原因で、内で仕事することになった。一回目のボランティアなのに、迷惑をかけてしまって、恥ずかしくて謝ったが、NICCOのスタッフは気にしていなさそうで、親切に説明してくれたので、よかった。だが、服装のことで間違ってしまったのは、私もびっくりした。やはりアメリカでの服装に慣れていたのだと思った。しかしそうはいっても、日本にいるのだからこそ、郷に従わなければいけない。確かに、ミスから沢山学べるけれども、普段から注意しなったら、このような学びは意味がなくなってしまう。だから、よく観察し、謙遜に学ぶのが大切だ。そうすれば、日本の社会の常識をちゃんと理解し、メンバーとして活躍出来ると思う。

Over the past two months, I have been volunteering as an Assistant Language Teacher at Ohara’s joint Elementary and Middle School. I have had experience being a teacher’s aide before, but my experiences at Ohara have differed greatly from what I expected going into the position. Indeed, rather than being an assistant, I actually conduct most of the classes while the Japanese teachers I work with stand off to the side. As a result, the teachers tend to address me as their equal when speaking to me, and the students all know me as “sensei.” Now when I’m spotted in the hallways, I’m greeted by heartwarming choruses of 「ロスリン先生」or “Hello!”

We have had many fun times together, and I will be walking away from this experience with some very interesting anecdotes. For example, when I first introduced myself to the fifth grade class, I told the students that I have two younger brothers (in English). When one of the Japanese teachers asked「ロスリン先生が言った事分かった？」(if anybody understood what I had just said), one boy confidently exclaimed 「分かった！」(that he did). When prompted to explain what he had heard, he replied 「子供二人いるって」(She says she has two kids!). During another class, when I asked one boy what his favorite sweet is, he managed to say “my favorite sweet is” before a troubled expression overtook his countenance, and he fell into deep thought. As I waited expectantly, he cradled his head and muttered「チョコレート」over and over again before finally raising his head and asking, “Teacher, what is チョコレート in English?”

While I have only grown more and more fond of this school and its children, thoroughly enjoying the school lunches we’ve eaten together, the English lessons and accompanying games, as well as the few times I’ve been able to join the kids out on the playground after class, I have come to a rather alarming observation. Oftentimes, it seems that the ninth graders at Ohara barely surpass their third grade peers in terms of spoken English level. In fact, the younger the kids are, the more enthusiastic they seem about learning English and the harder they try. Additionally, I am often asked to teach two different grade levels with extremely similar lesson plans. When I suggest what to me seems to be a simple addition or change to what the students have been learning for at least weeks already, the teacher I work with usually questions whether or not it is too difficult for the students. For example, I have basically been teaching the following phrases to students ranging from first to fifth grade during my time at Ohara:

Q: “What’s your favorite _________?” OR “What _______ do you like?”

A: “My favorite _______ is ______.” OR “I like _______.”

The question is quite standard and has always been about either foods or animals, but I realized that the first answer needed an additional word to be correct—namely, “the.” However, after I convinced the teacher I work with to try to teach the kids to say “my favorite animal is the _______,” I was surprised in class to find that the students really did struggle with this one extra sound. In fact, I wonder if these words are all mostly nothing but sounds to them, for without prompting from the teacher, second graders and fifth graders alike have not been able to remember how to phrase a question in this manner. Thankfully, in this respect, I have seen that the ninth graders have much stronger grasp of basic English grammar structures and vocabulary.

While no teacher can force a student to be interested in learning a foreign language, I do wonder whether or not teachers are being too soft on their students in terms of English education in Japan. The fact that there seems to be a lack of a permanent teacher highly proficient in English at my particular volunteer location must make English education even more difficult, and I have come to understand why the teachers I work with all insist that I speak nothing but English around the children. For them, it really is an important opportunity to gain exposure to a native English speaker and for at least once a week, have a taste of being in an “English speaking environment.” However, the vast majority of the students I’ve met have chosen to rely on their Japanese teachers’ translations of my English rather than making an attempt to listen and decipher for themselves. I only regret that once a week for an hour at most with a couple of grades is simply not enough to give these kids a better learning opportunity, but they are all bright young children, and I hope that the right opportunities will come their way sooner or later.

As for me, I am nothing but grateful for having had this opportunity, which seems to have broadened my love for children of all ages. I had come in thinking that I could only enjoy teaching middle school students, but by the second week at Ohara, I had come to love a wide range of elementary school kids as well. Though it may seem a trite phrase by now, my experience at Ohara has taught me once again to never say never (except for the two times you need it to say the actual expression)!

私はＣＩＰとして、毎週の月曜日または金曜日の午後に京都の北部にある大原小中学校で英語を教えている。同志社から大原まで行くのは地下鉄とバスで約一時間かかるが、大自然に囲まれている学校であり、どこから見ても高い木がいっぱいある。バスから外を見ると、ふと自分がとても小さいと感じ、それまでどんなに忙しくても、心穏やかになる。

今まで大原に三回行った事があるが、一回だけ教室で子供達に教えた事がある。その前の二回は大原学院の先生方に会ったり、大原の文化祭を見たりした。文化祭で色々な学生の演奏が見れてよかった。それに、大原の中学三年生達の劇に特に深い印象を受けたが、その学生達と打ち解ける事を願ってやまない。

一番最近行った時は、一年生ととても美味しい給食を食べた後、大原の先生と授業の準備をしてから、一年生と二年生に授業を22分ずつ教えた。そして、中学三年生と大原の寂光院と言うお寺に行く機会があった。学生達の英語が上達するために私は英語だけで話してもいいと言う規則があるから、学生達と交流するのがちょっと大変だが、状況はこれからだんだんよくなると思う。

また、私は大原に行く前には実は同志社のすぐ近くにある上京中学校に一回ボランティアしに行った事もある。今学期そこの何人かの学生が英語のスピーチコンテストに出るから、私は放課後二、三人の学生のスピーチを聞いたり、英語の発音やイントネーションなど指導したりした。その後、一つの学校だけでしかボランティアできないと思ったので、もう大原だけで英語のアシスタントをしようと思い、初めて上京に行った時が最後の時になるはずだったが、その一回の中で、一人の学生と色々話しができて、すぐ仲良くなった気がした。それに、「いつか時間があったらぜひまた来て下さい」と誘われた後、結局大原を主なＣＩＰとするかたわら、上京中学校にもボランティアしに行くと決めた。

大原では英語のアシスタントというよりは、一人の先生になったように感じているから、とても大切な経験をしている。一方、上京中学校でも学生達と交流できるから、毎回行くのを心から楽しみにしている。二つの学校ですばらしく、独特な経験ができているので本当に満足している。

上京中学校のウェブサイト：http://cms.edu.city.kyoto.jp/weblog/index.php?id=200707
大原小中学校のウエブサイト：http://cms.edu.city.kyoto.jp/weblog/index.php?id=106504

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.

私のＣｏｍｍｕｎｉｔｙ　Ｉｎｖｏｌｖｅｍｅｎｔ　Ｐｒｏｊｅｃｔは京都大学の病院の子供の病棟でボランティアをすることです。最初、何をするかよく分からなかったので、バスに乗った時から他のボランティアにさよならと挨拶した時まで、ずっと新しいことを発見するばかりでした。

他のｋｃｊｓの学生と病院にとうちゃくして直ぐに「ニコニコトマト」の日本人のボランティアに自己紹介をすると、ｋｃｊｓの学生は違う仕事をさせられました。私は一人の他のｋｃｊｓ学生と一緒に、五人の日本人のボランティアの方々が子供のためのバレンタインデー の贈り物を作るのを手伝いました。私たちは新米で、外国人だけど、日本人ボランティアの皆さんはとても元気で、おしゃべりをしながら作業をしました。出身地とか日本でびっくりしたことについて聞かれたり、面白いアメリカと日本の違いについて話したりしました。そして、ボランティアは全員すごく細かいな贈り物を作っていましたが、時間がたくさんかかっても、当たり前のようにちゃんと全部作りました。私はそんな細かい作業は全然よくできませんが、「ニコニコトマト」でボ ランティアすることは面白いです。