「Boston University」カテゴリーアーカイブ

Alex Thomas: Volunteering (子ども食堂)

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My CIP was working at a Kodomo-Shokudo (子ども食堂) at St. Mary’s Church under Fujiwara-san. My time there was priceless and extremely gratifying! Of course at the beginning I was very nervous because I felt like my Japanese was not up to par enough to help everyone out, but it ended up being a much more relaxed and familial atmosphere. Leo Chau a friend and fellow KCJS study abroad student and I volunteered at this same church which made the experience even more enjoyable! The first day at the Kodomo-Shokudo we noticed there was already a huge number of staff there cooking and preparing the area for everyone to eat, so Leo and I were told to play with the kids. From then on Leo and I would go to the Kodomo-Shokudo every week and play with the kids for 2 and a half hours, and in my case I would always end up being sore the next day! Together we ran around playing tag (鬼ごっこ), while I pretended to be a monster and chase them around the church. I definitely wasn’t prepared to be worked out that much, but the kids had so much energy that I ended up having to bring sweat pants to volunteer! After playing with the kids we would all help set up the tables, chairs, and serve the food! Then Leo and I were able to have a short break as well as talk with everyone. Originally, I thought that speaking with kids would be easier and amazing practice because they would probably use simpler words. But, I ended up know less of what the kids were saying, and it seemed like they spoke to me as if I could actually speak the language fluently. I also noticed that the kids used completely different vocabulary from anything I learned in the textbooks which made me have to ask them to repeat everything a billion times. Despite this though, I think that this was an incredible eye opener for me, and I was able to understand more the differences in speech style as well as the type of vocabulary kids use as opposed to adults. Over the weeks I got to speak more and more with everyone and I definitely started feeling more comfortable speaking Japanese with everyone there! I learned a ton, played a ton, and I’m pretty sure I lost weight from all the running and carrying kids! It was an incredible experience and I am very grateful I had the opportunity to volunteer at this Kodomo-Shokudo!

 

 

Michelle Lee: Kickboxing Classes

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      For my CIP I did kickboxing at a small training studio near my apartment. Every week, I would either work 1-on-1 with the trainer, or work with a partner to complete a workout. When I first contacted the studio, I introduced myself as an abroad student and was surprised to find out that the one of the trainers had traveled to America in the past and the other had just started self-learning English. During my first lesson, the trainer Takahashi-san, would explain the moves in Japanese first, and I would translate it to English for him. This exchange continued through each lesson, and I found that because every word was matched to a movement, it was easier to follow along.

      Some weeks, I was also able to work with a new partner depending on if schedules lined up, and Takahashi-san would always be kind enough to introduce me as an abroad student for me. I was very happy how kind each of my partners were and they would always ask a lot of questions about America, or my reasons for coming abroad, and we would be able to carry these conversations through class. One class in particular that was memorable was during a partner exercise, where we played a game called “shiritori”. This made me feel, again, so welcomed and I found it funny how we would try to just think of words together instead of competing against each other.

      After being able to work in pairs for a couple weeks, I noticed that a lot of the time, I would be asked to compare Japan to an American lifestyle. I would usually compare the cleanliness of Japan compared to America, as well as how Japanese public transit has been a much better experience. But sometimes we would even talk about the how different American culture is in terms of manners. I was shocked to hear that one of my partners said she might actually prefer a more “straightforward” American approach, than a typical Japanese response. She explained that sometimes she found it hard, even as a native speaker, to have a meaningful conversation when a lot of the times people will only agree with what she says to be polite. This was definitely very interesting and put things into perspective for me as well.

      Overall, I think that through this CIP I was able to practice having a lot of casual conversations and being able to exchange information, whether it be thoughts and opinions, or plain vocabulary. Using the fact that I was an abroad student to my advantage, I was able to ask a lot of questions that I was curious about or raise conversations that might be interesting to hear about, and because everyone was so friendly and understanding, it worked towards my advantage. I found it to be a great way to meet new people and talk about a variety of topics, and get some good exercise, and I will definitely miss the this studio and everyone I met going there!

Kyle Matthews: DJ Circle

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For my CIP I participated in the Ritsumeikan DJ Circle, called “L@bel”. Even though I had almost no DJ experience when I joined I can confidently say that joining the DJ circle was one of the highlights of my time abroad. I was able to grow and improve in a skill that I was very interested in all while being able to communicate in Japanese and participate in a Japanese University Club.

One of the things interesting about the DJ Circle was the fact that senpai-kohai (上下関係)relationship was almost nonexistent. I think one of the best lessons I learned from this is how different social hierarchies in japan are based on the environment you are in. As a new member in the club I had to introduce myself to a lot of the members and if I hadn’t they wouldn’t have introduced themselves to me. But after introducing myself I was able to build relationships with my peers and they were able to help me a lot in becoming a better DJ. Being a circle focused on music it was interesting to see what kind of music the Japanese students used. A lot of them were fans of hip hop and r&b but mixed all different kinds of genres in their playing. I remember one time specifically one of my friends played an older song from the 60’s or so and even then all the fellow members of the club sang along and knew the lyrics, which is pretty rare in America I think.

Practices for the DJ circle are on Tuesdays from 7-10pm at a bar called ルカ in Kawaramachi in the center of the nightlife. It was a great experience to practice with nice equipment at a very cool venue. Usually we practice individually on our laptops as we take turns using the speaker system and turntables. My friends were always very nice about letting me have ample time to practice and encouraging me to take as much time with the equipment as I wanted. Unfortunately, one of the issues with the circle currently is attendance. I was really surprised to see how relaxed the club president was about attendance, but on the other hand because I showed up every week I quickly gained some respect and was able to make connections easier.

I was able to learn a lot more about the hip hop culture in Japan which I’m really interested in. I have many Japanese friends in Boston who grew up in Japan before coming to University in the US and according to them hip hop in Japan is still pretty unknown and uncommon, but within my community of my circle it didn’t seem that way at all. It felt really great to be able to have conversations with my friends in the circle about hip hop, and made me feel a lot more accepted and normal.

I’ll have the chance next month to DJ at our live show and I’m getting a lot of support from my fellow members.

I’m glad that I chose this CIP because not only did I find a new passion in DJing but I made some great friends as well.

Tristan Kim: Animation and Voice Study Group/NASA

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I switched my CIP for the last few months of my time at KCJS, away from the Animation and Voice Study Group and into another circle called NASA (not about space). The Animation and Voice Study group met in a designated club room on Doshisha’s campus, every single day from a little after noon when one of the key holders arrived and until 7-8 pm. There aren’t many formal club activities, and for the semester I studied in, there was only one event scheduled in November concerning a voice actor interview. As the for the latter circle, NASA has regular meetings at Monday and Tuesday lunchtime and Thursday afternoon. The room for these meetings is decided on the day of and sent to everyone in the LINE group by the time a free classroom is found. There are also occasional spontaneous outings, where invitations are handled similarly through LINE.

Honestly, when I first read that this program required you to go out and find a way to participate in the community, I was nervous. I’ve never actively sought out conversation and prefer to be left alone half of the time, if not more. Therefore, when I first starting searching for a CIP, I thought it would be simple enough to find a circle at Doshisha, or another university, that dealt with manga/anime/games, which was one of the driving reasons I wanted to learn Japanese in the first place. After learning that the gaming circles that responded to me were monthly meetings, and that I knew I couldn’t draw well enough to keep up with doujinshi circles, I thought I found a suitable CIP in the Animation and Voice Study Group. I had read in a previous one of these blogs that this circle was fairly free-form and casual, without set days, and I valued flexibility in setting up my own pace of engagement.

What I ended up realizing was that the clubroom was a place to relax, passing time through talking with friends, playing the various consoles or board games, or reading manga from the shared library or whatever books a member decided to bring on a particular day. Despite a good first CIP assessment, where I talked with the club president and a few others for an hour, I ended up falling into a routine that was counter-productive to the purpose of engaging in a CIP. I would walk in on a free day (if I hadn’t come before a member who could open the door, in which I would go home for the day), greet everyone with an “お疲れ様です”, stare at my phone half-heartedly as I worked up the nerves to strike up even a few minutes’ worth of conversation so I could say I learned something, realize I mostly wasted an hour or more doing nothing productive, and leave the room with everyone saying another “お疲れ様です”.

I can’t say if it was due to looking like I was peacefully reading, my poor social conversation skills, if the other members were as nervous as I was, or some combination of the above and unmentioned factors, but I ended up in my usual position of being alone in a room of people. I would answer a question of two, I’d try to interject in a conversation or two if I could actually understand and had something halfway interesting to say and try to scrounge up some reflection of Japanese culture by the time I decided to leave. By the time I decided to stop, I learned about the traditional “お疲れ様です” greeting, that people mostly talked with pre-formed groups, that conversations wouldn’t stop or dampen even when someone was asleep, and that the guys grouped around the playmat whereas the girls sat around the table. Honestly, if I were to transcribe everything that I felt I learned, more than half of that report would be the rules of the Power Grid board game.

When I was going over some of these grievances with Nakamura-sensei, she suggested that I switched CIPs, a suggestion that made me feel dumb about trying to salvage something that I was barely participating in. This is how Kyle, a fellow classmate, got roped into introducing me and a few others to the NASA group.

Within the very first meeting, through non-stop interactions with people whose purpose in coming to the club was to talk with foreign students, I came to multiple realizations about everyday conversation: about people who would always confirm “私ですか” even if the conversation had been one-to-one the entire time, about how people are understanding and flexible about switching between short form and ‘desu/masu’ form, about Japanese understanding on English words and the difficulty of perceiving a verb as a noun or vice versa (impacting, a fail), and even about how strong anti-piracy views concerning anime and movies (which I only got an impression of previously).

As a recommendation to any future extreme introverts with social anxiety, I would suggest trying to get outside of your normal comfort zone. I know that CIP is encouraged to be aligned with your interests, but it can be very easy to use that comfort as a crutch. I’m sure you’ve read through other blogs saying how the club members here are all very accommodating, and that can also work as a negative if you’re uncomfortable with social interaction and they pick up on that. Try volunteering and working with people who are happy that you’re there, introducing yourself to a new craft like crocheting or music, or finding a group that genuinely just wants to get to know you and your friends like NASA is for me. Maybe you don’t have to go as far out of your comfort zone as I do, or that your interests have a clearer objective with an active subculture and a dynamic vocabulary, but make sure to find a CIP where you won’t have any regrets about missed opportunities. Take it from someone with a few of his own.

Kali Routier: Kindergarten Volunteer

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My CIP was at a kindergarten close to Doshisha campus. Every week I would go to the kindergarten and have lunch with the children, after I would usually play with them outside or do other various activities until it was time for them to go home. The staff consisted of 2 teachers, 3 office workers the director and several volunteers like myself. There were 2 classrooms, one with older children that were about 5 or 6 and another classroom, which was my classroom,  with children that were around 4. 

At the kindergarten, I was able to observe how children interact within Japanese society; one interesting thing I noticed was how the children only used short form; there were several times I would use desu and masu form and sometimes they wouldn’t understand. Also, being able to observe lunch was quite fascinating, as there was an effort to have everyone eating the same thing. A sense of unity is created in the sense that everyone is equal to each other, even the teachers. In America it’s quite different; children eat what their families packed for them which usually ends up being different from everyone else. In Japan the kindergarten makes the lunches for the children and the teachers so that everyone can eat the same thing and no one feels excluded or different.

Even though in the beginning I was very nervous, I’m so happy I was able to have this experience and grow from it. I was able to observe children learning their own culture and through the kindergarten I was able to see a part of Japanese society I wouldn’t normally have access to. The number one thing that helped make my CIP successful was that I actively put in the effort to be involved. In the beginning I was a little awkward because I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to be doing. But at times like that the best thing to do is just ask someone if you can help with anything. Also, don’t be afraid to make mistakes and if you don’t understand something just ask. Volunteering at the kindergarten was a unique experience I’m happy I was able to do, it helped me grow and understand Japanese society better as a whole. 

Maohua Wu: Boxing and Japanese Cooking Learning

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Always loving to explore different things in the world, I had a great chance this semester in KCJS to do a Boxing Training Class and 和食料理 Japanese Cooking Lesson Community Involvement Project in Kyoto.

I do my Boxing Training class in a small gym nearby Doshisha University every Friday. All the coaches, students and even the own of the gym are very friendly. Knowing my Japanese isn’t good at the first day, they try their best to slow down every single sentence they speak with me. Moreover, in order to make my training more comfortable, they try to use the way of training in USA instead of Japanese way: In Japan, the basic boxing terminology and words such as straight ストレート, hook フック. And there are eight different basic movements for the Japanese Boxing system. But the boxing training way in US, all those movements are places by number from One to Six and there are only 6 movements in US. Therefore, it was hard for me to change my habitual training way from US to Japan directly. Instead of forcing me to learn the Japanese way, they combine the Japanese training methods and US training methods together to form a new training way. In this case, there are still six different types of movements, instead of eight in Japan. But when they train me, they use Japanese terminology. It is a cool experience!! Only after several time, I feel my punching and dodging speed increase to a different level.

Not only on physical, but also on culture, I learnt a lots by talking with different people in the boxing gym, from young students who are 11 years old to someone who is around 40. People in Japan prefer Cardio better than the muscle training. But boxing, which is Cardio but also requires a great amount of power, becomes more and more popular among people who want to both increase their power and lose weight. Therefore, many of the people coming to this gym just because they want to keep good fit while gain a little bit of muscle. This is very different from my reason for going to the gym. Moreover, by talking to several middle school students, I learnt the high pressure situation Japanese middle school students are facing as well as what young people in Japan love to date ( Do not ask me why we discuss where is the best place dating a Japanese girlfriend). But anyway, it is very interesting because I learn different aspects of the countries through conversations with different people.

Another CIP I do is through the La Carriere. This is a great place to learn not only Japanese dishes, but also French and Italian dishes. OMG, this 7-floor building with luxury decoration is amazing! The teachers here are all Japanese. Even though they speak so fast and I barely caught what they say, the equipment in the classroom such as the big screen with automatically focusing and zooming in cameras show me clearly all the steps for making the dishes. Moreover, those teachers and assistants are so nice when you actually cook yourself. They always stand right next to you to help you. Sometimes I feel embarrassing asking them so many times, but they will offer me help before I even ask them. Therefore, during this semesters, I learn more than 8 different Japanese dishes.

Besides my improvement in my cooking skills, I also learn many about the family culture in Japan. Most of the students who attend this class are female staying at house or retired male who wants to learn more to cook for their wives. By talking to them, I feel like I can understand their purposes and get more familiar with the culture in the society. For instance, the reason why one 53 years old male wants to learn how to cook is that he wants to treat her wife back who has been cooking for him for more than 25 years. This is cute! Moreover, by talking to those people, I feel like in Japanese society, they value the Italian and French food expensive food while Chinese and Indian relatively more average in terms of price, even though they are super delicious too. Therefore, if cooking a delicious meal, they will choose Chinese food, but if they want to make a romantic meal, their first choice is either French or Italian food.

All in all, CIP is so meaningful. On one hand, it provides me great opportunity to meet more Japanese people outside the school which can make me understand more about the Japanese society; on the other hand, the CIP I choose definitely improve my skills sets. So by the end of this semesters, I am not sure whether my Japanese language ability will increase a lot, but I am pretty sure I will have a much better understanding of the Japanese cultures and the whole society.

 

Leo Feininger: Kyodai Kendama Circle

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This semester I have been attending a kendama circle at Kyoto University (Kyodai). The circle is held about once every two weeks at a community centre near Kyodai. At an average meeting there are about 5 to 7 people, sometimes more. Kendama is loved by people of all ages in Japan. While it is perhaps more traditionally considered a children’s toy, many also recognize it as a serious pursuit for adults young and old. Aside from being satisfying in other ways, Kendama appeals to me because there are no official rules, and every player you meet has a slightly different technique and selection of tricks.

There were a few regulars at the circle, all university students, but at an average meeting there would usually also be some other kids high-school age or younger, sometimes accompanied by a parent. Because the focus of the circle is ultimately on improving one’s skills, most conversation ends up being limited to explanations of particular tricks. However, because Kendama is generally a more casual and individualistic pursuit, it was not that hard to make other conversation. Even when not actively engaged with each other, members would support each other as they tried different tricks. This is not necessarily unique to Japan, but I was struck by the way in which people have reverence for relatively insignificant activities like kendama.   

In the United States, when it comes to individualistic pursuits such as Kendama, I wouldn’t be exaggerating at all by saying that practitioners of such activities barely interact with or even acknowledge people who are less skilled than they are. Of course, there’s a slightly different dynamic in my case as I am a foreigner, but still I have not observed this phenomenon nearly as much in Japan. Joining this circle was a great experience and I hope I can become involved in similar activities in the future.

Jingzhou Huang: Tea Ceremony Lessons at Wabichakai

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For my CIP of the spring 2019 semester, I attended tea ceremony lessons in Kyoto Wabichakaiわび茶会(http://www.kyoto-wabichakai.info/) two hours once a week, normally on Wednesdays from 5 p.m.

I have to say this could be my worthiest experience over the time I have spent in Kyoto to get close to authentic Japanese traditional culture. I did not only learn and practise complicated tea-making process, but also come to understand stringent tea ceremony manner, improve my communication technique while talking with my tea ceremony teacher, Fujimura sensei, and other group members, and spend awesome time with them doing extracurricular activities outside the lessons. For instances, we occasionally had delicate cuisine preparations for specific Japanese events instead of regular trainings, and we once went out to participate in large tea ceremony in Heian Jingu Shrine for cherry bloosom viewing in April. These unprecedented experience enriched my oversea life that could not be gained in scholastic classes or anywhere else.

I chose this lesson as my CIP since I was very interested in this sort of somewhat mysterious Japanese cultural property, so I asked KCJS teachers to look for a local tea ceremony group that could accept a totally inexperienced foreigner like me. I think Wabichakaiwas probably slightly different from other tea ceremony groups in Kyoto, according to my experience exchange with other KCJS students who knew about tea ceremony to some extent. Wabichakaidoes not that traditional and rigid but more flexible and original in the way of delivering the spirit of tea ceremony.

Wabichakaihas its own weekly special event called “ocha therapy” in which the activation of sensory experience is the most pivotal essence of holding tea ceremonies. The most important thing is to perceive the instant existence and obtain spiritual joviality by feeling, hearing, smelling, and tasting the tea. The concept and atmosphere of Wabichakaimade me feel less constrained and more like an insider of this group. Certainly I had to prudently learn each single act and way of phrasing from preparing tea tools to tidying up them after making a cup of tea, but, to my surprise, I was not required to strictly comply with 上下関係or use keigo in face-to-face conversation as I used to imagine. The lessons I had in Wabichakaiwere private ones rather than in a group, so generally I had only Fujimura sensei along with one of her apprentices N san in my lesson. Sensei is an amazingly elegant, easy-going and enthusiastic lady. In our normal practice lessons, as I proceeded to a certain step of the tea ceremony, sensei often explained some interesting cultural background and origin in relation to that step. For instances, I have learned the history and features of overall Japanese tea ceremony and Kyoto tea ceremony, the reason of arranging tea tools in given places in the tea tray, the meaning of conducting certain ritual acts, etc. I have learned far more manners about not only tea ceremony but also Kyoto culture than I expected.

Honestly speaking, as for tea ceremony itself, the intricacy of it was sort of out of my scope that it was difficult to truly assimilate things I have learned in the lessons. The semester is not long enough for me mastering a newly learned skill and being adept at tea ceremony. But overall the experience of building good relationship with these friendly Japanese and experiencing Kyoto culture with them was memorable.

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.

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.