私のCIPは上京中学で英語のアシスタントをすることです。毎週三年生の授業で先生を手伝ったり学生と英語で話したりします。しかし、三年生の授業で英語のアシスタントしたことは一回だけです。４回上京中学校に行ったことがありますが、スケージュルがまだ固定されていません。一回目には先生に自己紹介して、何年生の学生を手伝いたいかとかどんなことをしたいかを先生に説明しましました。その日に、私は三年生の授業で英語のアシスタントをすることを教えてもらいました。
私はブランダイス大学で三歳と四歳の子供がいる学校で働いていたので、十四歳の三年生を手伝うのはちょっと大変だと思っていました。でも、中学校に行った３回目には三年生の授業で自己紹介したり、先生と話したりするのは大変じゃなく、楽しかったです。学生はアメリカから来た私に興味がありそうだったので、私に言いたいことが多かったです。学生の答えを通じて日本人の中学生の生活について少し習えました。また行く時を楽しみにしています。学年がすぐ終るのは残念だと思います。
For my CIP requirement I am taking Aikido classes two, sometimes three times a week. Aikido is a Japanese martial art that has the interesting priority of self-defense while inflicting as little damage as possible, even on the attacker. There are no punches or kicking techniques. Every move is an arm lock, a throw, or a takedown. Every move is designed to require as little force as possible, which means most of the movement happens in the core of the body. Aikido movements are all about circles. Every move I’ve learned so far involves circular motion, which can be really difficult to get right sometimes.
I practice at the Kyoto Martial Arts Center. It’s about 15 minutes away from Doshisha and is between my house and school, making it very convenient for me. The people are mixed but they all seem nice and willing to help if asked or open to suggestions. I confess I cannot understand half of the directions the instructor gives me but he always demonstrates so I just follow his example and I usually get it eventually. I’ve practice with the older students a few times, most of them are in there forties, I think, and they have no mercy. I learned pretty quickly that the harder I grip, the harder I’m going to get thrown. Fortunately I haven’t been injured at all yet, proper falling techniques were the first thing I was taught, but I have screwed up a roll or two and ended up flat on my back. Also sometimes they get a bit over zealous with the arm locks and end up bending my arm in the wrong direction a little farther than necessary, but they’re usually quick to release when I hit the mat.
I’m having a lot of fun with Aikido. It’s been a long time since I’ve taken a martial art and I forgot how much I enjoy it. It’s also a great workout sometimes, which is something I’ve neglected to do since I got here. The people are nice, the teachers are good, and the classes are fun and challenging.
Playing with the Kyoto University Frisbee team (Breeze) has been quite the experience, and it’s definitely taught me about the seriousness with which students in Japan take their circles. (If this isn’t enough proof, my host brother also sacrifices a lot of his life to his kendo club).
On a cold, rainy day when my host mother thought there wouldn’t be practice everyone was there, wearing their normal gear, no raincoats at all. On Saturdays, when there are no classes and no homework, practices can go for 4, even 5 hours (though I’ve only stayed 4 hours once). When a member of the women’s team couldn’t make it to a practice, she had to apologize and explain profusely why she couldn’t be there. They take the team very seriously.
But – it pays off. The men’s team is pretty high up in national rankings and I believe the women’s team is in the top 10 of the region. I haven’t been able to go to any tournaments because I’m not officially a member, but I’ve heard of their amazing feats and seen (and been overshadowed by) their skills.
I think I made the mistake of having very high expectations going into the club, which led to some frustration that actually, looking back, was unjustly felt. I expected the team to let me become a member – I didn’t even realize being a non-member was a possibility – and I expected them to talk to me, or at least ask me what my intentions were in showing up every week.
In the end, I realized that as the foreigner sitting in on a Japanese students’ frisbee practice, it is my duty to be interested, social, and the most ganbatte-iru person there. I also failed to consider, for the first few weeks, that this team is very competitive and only accepts as members those who can pour their free time and social life into the team. Unfortunately, by missing one practice a week for class and missing a few others for travel, I was already not member-material.
From my current perspective, I’m very grateful that the team has been so inclusive of me – letting me join entire practices, giving me slowed-down explanations of the drills we were running, occasionally asking me questions about Japan or the U.S., and most-impressively taking very good care of me when I sprained my ankle (two teammates piggy-backed me to a water spout and their trainer came to wrap it up!). The team has warmed up to me more and more and I’m really glad they’ve put up with my not-so-competitive Frisbee skills.
I have to admit that my role on the team is still somewhat imbalanced by my comparatively low frisbee and Japanese skills, so it can be kind of stressful and at times I feel like I’m a liability. Perhaps the most prominent thing that I have and they don’t – knowledge of English and America – will shine through at some point, and I’m dearly hoping for that day. Until then, I’ll keep trying my best – gaining skill, proving I know some Japanese, and making some friends! By the beginning of next semester, if I do really feel like a liability on the field, I think I’ll try to find a less-competitive team or even a different kind of CIP. Before I make any big decisions, though, I’m up for giving this CIP a few more shots at success.
Regardless of how things end up, I’m glad I spent this semester practicing with Breeze. It gave me a good time and a much-needed culture shock.
私のCIPは合気道です。毎週月、木、土曜日に武道センターに行って、合気道を練習しています。合気道はとても楽しいけど、難しいです。合気道の先生はみんなに合気道の技法を見せて、補助教員と技法を実証します。先生はとても上手です。ぼくは若い人と練習します。でも、数人の合気道生の方が私より年を取っているけど、数人の合気道生は若いです。
練習毎に補助教員は私に新しい技法を教えます。いつも技法はたいへんだから、私たちは技法を何度も練習します。時々、上級生は私たちを手伝います。ぼくの日本語は上手じゃないけど、たいてい日本人の合気道生と話してみます。年上の人親切で、いろいろ助けれくれます。
私は毎週二回ブリーズという京都大学のフリズビーチームの練習に行きます。まだメンバーになっていませんが、十一月の大事な大会の後で、女性チームに入らせてくれます。その前に、大会のための練習が出来ないので、小さいゲームと投げる練習だけ出来ます。というのは、女性チームは夏の大会の後で十一月の大会のため練習をはじめましたから、私が京都に来た時は遅すぎました。
この場所は練習をする場所です。
大会のため練習が出来なくても、普通に練習をしていない人がいるので、一緒にゲームか投げる練習をします。そして、女性チームの最初の練習がワォームアップの練習ですから、私も出来ます。 私はアメリカで二年間チームでフリーズビーをしたことがあるけど、女性チームのみんなは私より上手です。 ですから、チームと一緒に練習をする時、上手なメンバーになるように、いつもがんばります。
私はメンバーじゃないので、女性チームに入っている友達が少ないです。でも、よくチームの先輩と練習するので、先輩の友達が出来ました。どうしてチームより下手な留学生がメンバーになりたいのかと考えている人がいますけど、親切なメンバーが多いと思います。私が先輩とフリズビーを投げている時に、時々メンバーの一人は私にドリルに参加したいかどうか聞いてくれます。わたしは投げる練習しか出来ないのに、一人の人が参加させてくれました。
練習はたのしいので、いつも練習を楽しみにしています。メンバーになることを楽しみにしているけど、ちょっとこわいです。チームのため、自分のため、上手になりたいです。
At the beginning of this semester I was extremely apprehensive when we were told that we needed to participate in a Community Involvement Project. I was terrified of the notion that I would have to carry on a conversation in Japanese without the assistance of a professor or textbook to tell me what to say and when. On top of that, I was at a loss for how I was going to fit another appointment into my already hectic schedule.
The first day of ballroom dancing had me extremely anxious and I was not sure what I would say after I introduced myself to the group. However, my fears quickly dissipated as everyone began to introduce themselves to me. No one seemed to care that I was a foreigner; they all wanted to know where I was from and what I liked to do besides ballroom dancing. The best part was that even when I struggled with a sentence everyone did their best to help me express what I was trying to say and kept the conversation going. That first afternoon of practice showed me that I could hold a conversation in Japanese and gave me a lot more confidence in my speaking abilities.
Since that first encounter, I have gone to lunch with most of the ballroom members at least once and gotten to know a lot of them really well. I know that my Japanese is not perfect and I will probably practice for the rest of my life without getting it perfect but I have had a great time getting to know some fellow college students on the other side of the world and I hope to keep in touch with them when I return to the U.S. What I thought was going to be my least favorite part of this semester turned out to be the part that I enjoyed the most. I could not wait to leave politics class on Wednesday nights and go dancing. I also loved getting up early on Saturday mornings (which is blasphemy for college students) just so I could make it to practice on time and get to go out to lunch with everyone afterwards to discuss everything from our favorite professors to Pokémon.
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.
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.
私は先学期から引き続き、京都市立大原学院で小学生と中学生に英語を教えていて、先学期から続けている。大原は京都市内の中心部から一時間かかる田舎にある。大原には人が少ないだが、景色がきれいで、有名な神社もある。冬に大原は雪だらけになるそうだが、まだ雪を見たことはない。大原学院は小学校と中学校が一緒にあって学校は結構大きいのに、生徒は九十人しかいない。
毎週水曜日に大原に行って、子供達と給食を食べたり、遊んだり、英語を教えたりする。十二時半から五時半まで大原にいるから、生徒の昼ご飯の時間から放課後までいる。毎回英語を教えることができないけど、他の活動に参加して、英語だけを使う。
たいてい、大原に着くと小学校一年生と昼ご飯の準備をして、一緒に給食を食べる。一年生は英語が分からないが、私はいつも英語で話している。給食の後、英語の先生と英語の授業の準備をして、一年生と二年生の授業を教える。生徒が正しい英語の発音が聞けるように、私は全部英語を使って、英語の先生に日本語の翻訳をしてもらう。時々、私はどういうふうに英語を教えるのを決められる。その後、中学校の一年生の授業を教えるか、他の中学生の授業に参加する。この生徒は小学生よりもっと複雑な英語が使える。先学期、中学生の漢字や地理や科学などの授業に参加することができた。
放課後は、バドミントン部と一緒に練習しる。バドミントン部で英語だけ使いたいですが、学校の先生と一緒に練習しているので、時々日本語が必要だ。できれば、英語で数える。最後に、まなびに行く。まなびというのは、生徒が両親が迎えに来るを待っている間に、図書館で宿題をしたり、本を読んだり、ゲームをしたりする時間のことだ。まなびで私の仕事は学生の宿題を手伝ったり、英語の本を読んだり、ゲームをして一緒に遊んだりすることだ。学生の宿題はだいたい日本語の宿題けど、その時、日本語を練習することができる。先学期、天気がよかったら、生徒と外で遊んでいたが、今学期はとても寒いから、図書館の中に遊んでいる。
このCIPは大原学院の学年が終わるまでに行けるから、２月末は最後だ。その後、他のCIPを探さなければならない。多分、KIXSの活動に参加したいと思う。
私は京大アマチュアダンスクラブと一緒に社交ダンスを練習しています。 毎週、水曜日と土曜日に京都こども文化会館で三時間練習しています。毎回、二つのダンスを習っていて、パートナーと一緒に練習しています。たとえば、先週、ジャイブとタンゴを習いました。みんなはとてもやさしくて、楽しい人です。ダンスの練習の後で、私たちはいろいろなところに食べに行きます。とても楽しいCIPです。