「Columbia University/Barnard College」カテゴリーアーカイブ

Kaneisha Payton: Kyoto Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA)

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The more I volunteered at the YWCA, the more I came to like it. I wanted to help out at an organization that supports women, and the YWCA allowed me to do just that. There are various ways you can volunteer at the YWCA, ranging from assisting with event organization to answering phones on the women’s crisis hotline. Although I did spend an evening at the crisis center, where I learned about some of the more prevalent problems (including domestic violence, abandonment, and employment issues) that women in Japan— particularly, non-Japanese women —face, I ended up choosing to volunteer in the after school childcare program. This program facilitates free childcare to whoever needs it, and even provides meals in the event that the parent needs to work late.  Simply knowing that the service was so necessary was fulfilling.

My favorite part of the experience, however, was definitely hanging out with Chinatsu-chan. During my time there, Chinatsu-chan was the only kid who showed up regularly. Usually, another volunteer and I made sure she did her homework, then passed the time with games or letting her read borrowed manga. I loved hearing her chat about school life and her friends. It taught me a little bit about what the Japanese school system is like from a student’s perspective— from having to clean the classroom to playing surprisingly complicated hand games for the sake of becoming 仲がいい. Moreover,  a lot of her stories were pretty hilarious. She was very energetic, though, so it was occasionally hard to keep up with her. Once, in an attempt to channel her energy, I tried to teach her a bit of kung-fu. It was definitely memorable. As someone interested in teaching English in Japan after graduation, I’m very grateful to have had this experience, but I would recommend volunteering here to anyone with an interest in a laid-back way to be involved in a close-knit community, or working in an environment that supports women.

Deanna Nardy: Manga

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I don’t want to write this blog, because it means that my time in Okamoto-sensei’s manga class is almost over. Out of all the events and opportunities provided by KCJS, nothing made me feel more valued as a member of the community than my Manga CIP. I have made real Japanese friends (not just hey-we-met-once-and-added-each-other-on-Facebook-but-actually-what’s-your-name-again “friends”), people I will keep in contact with and, when I come back to Japan, will go out of my way to meet again. Manga class has been the one piece of home in a time abroad.

The incredible thing about my manga class is that everyone is completely supportive of one another. Whenever I felt dejected and thought “I will never be as good as A-san so what’s the point,” everyone was quick to tell me that my art is my own style and no one can draw the way I do, because the pictures I draw are mine, are special. It sounds cliché now, but that encouragement has meant the world to me.

This may just be the artist talking, but sometimes I look at what I’ve drawn, and I think, “Wow, I haven’t improved at all.” It’s easy to think this when Okamoto-sensei always couches praise between criticism: 「この辺はいいけど、この辺はちょっと…」. However, recently, a girl who had previously attended the manga class but is now a published artist has been visiting. Whenever she is there, Okamoto-sensei talks about me as if I’m not there and praises my work minus the disclaimers. “This is her first time inking, and you can see she understands when to make thin lines and thick lines,” “You should have read her Cheesecake manga, the action scenes were well done,” “She’s very patient and doesn’t rush, that’s why her art is clean” – after hearing all of this (for the first time!), I couldn’t stop smiling the entire class.

Now I realize that Japanese people in general feel more comfortable showing praise indirectly. Because I was only ever told points I could improve on, I interpreted that as I wasn’t doing anything right. However, that’s not the case at all – the second another non-student was there to listen, Okamaoto-sensei said only good things about my work. Perhaps directly praising someone runs the risk of discouraging the other students, or maybe you don’t want the student to get too cocky, but either way this dynamic is different from what I experienced in American classrooms.

I will never forget Okamoto-sensei, the kind assistant Fujita-san, the always-drawing-male-love-scenes-that-make-the-sensei-shake-his-head student, the two high school girls that are always squealing 「すげー！！」about something probably Sonic related, and the boy who offered me his heat pack that he fished out of his back when I said my hands were cold when we went out to eat ramen after class. Until we meet again!

ディアナ・ナーディ：マンガ教室

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先学期CIPとしてしていた漫画教室を今学期も続けることにしました。先学期、岡本先生のおかげで、絵を描く腕を磨くことができました。例えば、どうやってスピード線とか透視図法をちゃんと使えるかが少しずつ分かるようになってきました。もっと上達したいので、岡本先生にもっと漫画を描くご指導をしていただきたいのは言うまでもありません。

今学期のプロジェクトはチーズケーキの話です。主人公は女性の大学生です。大学のせいで、幸せな生活ができません。それでも、彼女はたまらなく大好きなチーズケーキがあれば、なんでもできると信じています。そこで、チーズケーキを買いに行くと、赤ちゃんのような顔をしている男性がラストのチーズケーキを買ってしまいました。みんなが想像すれば簡単にわかると思いますが、戦いは必然的です。

少なくとも半分以上はもう描き終わって、全部描いてしまってから、岡本先生がインクでの書き方を教えてくださいます。インクで描いたことがないから、その時をとっても楽しみにしています。

漫画に関係があること以外に、マンガ教室を通して自分についてことも習いました。気が付いたことの一つは、先学期は私よりも上手な人を見るにつけて、落ち込んでしまったのに対して、今学期は他の人の作品と比べないで、私自身の個人的な進歩だけ気にするようにできていることです。このようにすることで、私は未来の漫画家の私に絶対になれるでしょう！

ペイトン・カニーシャ：京都 YWCA

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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。

Deanna Nardy: Manga

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Really, this was the obvious choice for me. Dragon Ball Z absolutely made my childhood, and ever since about seventh grade I wanted to become a manga artist on the scale of Toriyama Akira. Reading, writing, and drawing, have always been hobbies of mine, so the opportunity to combine all in the form of manga is inherently appealing. Since art classes that focus on manga are virtually non-existent in America though, I was extremely excited to take advantage of being in Japan.

While the choice to join Doshisha’s Manga Club and also take private manga lessons was, in hindsight, extremely predictable, the actual experience was anything but. I had never taken an art class before, so when I showed up to Okamoto-sensei’s lesson, I was extremely nervous. He wasted no time in taking apart the drawings I had prepared for him, and there were times I felt extremely dejected. For instance, when he would say things like “Your arm comes out of this part of your body,” or “The bone from your shoulder to your elbow is straight, so don’t bend it,” I would think to myself dear lord, have I actually ever seen a real person before?

Despite being strict though, Okamoto-sensei and his various assistants were all extremely open to my vision. They did not mock me for wanting to become a professional manga artist, and they supported me when my version of a hero did not line up with the archetype. Knowing how to draw did come in handy when the Japanese conversation started to falter, but I am proud of the fact that we were able to communicate deeper meanings to each other. Out of all the Japanese people with whom I’ve come into contact during this program, I would say Okamoto-sensei knows the most about me as a person. Since I often feel different when I speak Japanese, this fact is very important to me, and I count it as a valuable success and evidence of my language improvement.

The Doshisha manga club, on the other hand, proved to be a challenge in this department. Every week, I would show up to the club room and draw for at least two hours with on average 4 other people. I don’t know if it was because of shyness or not, but the Doshisha students absolutely refused to start a conversation with me. The first two times I went were awkward “Hello” and “See you next time” experiences.

If you find yourself in a similar situation with your CIP, the crucial thing to remember is to never give up. Like Son Goku, you can either break or turn Super Saiyan. Knowing that I was getting nothing out of the experience (I could always draw at home), I began to take myself out of my comfort zone and initiate conversations and email a member of the group a few times a week. This made things significantly less awkward when I showed up. The conversations weren’t long, maybe fifteen minutes out of the time I was there, but it was progress.

Next semester, I hope to continue moving forward until both CIPs can be written off as complete successes! For those of you who are worried about this requirement of KCJS, take it seriously! This is one of the most important chances for you to make real Japanese friends without all the charade of planned mingling events (which are fun in their own way, don’t get me wrong!). So pick something you love, and channel all the energy you can muster!

ナーディ・ディアナ：マンガ

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私はマンガを描くため、同志社大学のマンガサークルに入って、それと京都精華大学を卒業した先生のマンガのクラスも取っています。マンガサークルは新町キャンパスの学生会館で一週間に一回行って、マンガクラスはかくしゅう土曜日に先生の家にいきます。

マンガサークルに初めて行った時、まずドキドキしたにもかかわらず、部屋に入ったとたに進撃の巨人のコスプレーをしていた人が来たから、正しいサークルを選んだとすぐわかりました。進撃の巨人や、ドラゴンボールなど一番いいマンガが何かについて話すことによって、気がつかないうちに、きんちょうがなくなりました。それに、マンガサークルは自分たちの月刊誌を出しているので、私も宿題としてマンガを描けるようになりました。将来マンガ家になりたいから、本当にうれしいです。

マンガクラスは私以外に二人学生がいますが、マンガサークルに入る時に比べて、あまりドキドキしませんでした。でも、すぐに岡本先生は厳しいという事実を思い知りました。いくら私がある絵を時間をかけて描いても、岡本先生は容赦しないで「ここはだめ。直してください」と言います。岡本先生はとても上手なマンガ家とみえて、私が描くのに30分かかったものでも、先生は５分だけしかかかりませんでした。自信がなくなったのは言うまでもありません。でも、岡本先生のおかげで、学んだことがいっぱいあります。マンガサークルとマンガクラスを通じて、私のマンガ家への夢は少し近くなっています。

Lauren H.: English Teaching Assistant

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It’s a little hard to give you all an update on my CIP since the school has been on break for the last few weeks. Instead, I’d like to talk about my observations of Japanese high school life and the high school system, since I can go into more detail in an English blog post.

I wish I could sit in on (and understand!) some of the non-English language classes, if only to see if their as boring as people tell me they are. I know I already mentioned this in my last blog post, but it really shocked me when I asked my high schoolers what their favorite subjects were, and they looked at me like this was an inconceivable notion. They truly don’t seem to enjoy any of their classes, and the kind of system that shuts people down like that is pretty concerning.

Though, of course, I’ve heard equally bad things about the American public education system, so I should really stop judging the Japanese system. Growing up, one of my childhood friends was too smart for the classes he was in, and his boredom and frustration caused him to just give up on doing schoolwork altogether, until he had terrible grades when really he should have had amazing ones. But the thing is, people like that, in the U.S., can get a second chance. He eventually wound up at community college, got a 4.0 there for two years, and transferred into UC Berkeley. Frankly, he saved a ton of money on tuition for the first two years, and now he’ll get a degree from a world class university. Not too shabby.

People here don’t seem to have those kinds of chances. There’s not a lot of room for alternative paths. It makes me think about the Ghibli movie, Whisper of the Heart, where the main character, Shizuku, decides not to focus on schoolwork and to pursue her dreams instead. She’s lucky enough to have parents who encourage that kind of thinking, but even so they warn her that she will have no one to blame but herself if not getting the right test scores ruins her life from then on. And her sister gets angry because she believes that you only get options in life if you play by the rules—only by getting into a top notch high school will the main character have multiple doors open to her.

On another note, one other thing that really took me aback was the discovery that the class with whom I’ve interacted the most, a group of middle school girls whose English teacher is actually an American guy from Wisconsin, is considered the advanced/special English track class. That surprised me for two reasons. First, honestly, they didn’t seem that much better than some of the younger students in the normal track. They knew more vocabulary, but they practiced talking about nearly the same things as the younger kids. Maybe that’s not something to be blamed on them, but on the course syllabus and the rigidity of the way the Japanese education system teaches English. Second, the girls had always struck me as extremely cheerful and outgoing, almost to the point of obnoxiousness (like I said, discipline in the middle school section is pretty lax) but it turns out that they, as a class, are kind of outcasts at school. During a break between classes, most students flooded the hallways, chatting with friends at lockers or visiting friends in other classrooms. But these girls all stayed in their one little classroom, talking to each other. When I asked one of them why they did not also go out into the hallways, she told me that they don’t really have other friends. Very sad!

Leila Lin: Kyudo

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This semester I continued to practice kyudo with Kawaguchi Sensei at the Budou

center one to two times per week. Unlike the first few months, the sensei does not
come to supervise me as often. What happens usually is I would practice by myself
for one or two sessions, and then Sensei comes over and corrects one small posture,
and then I continue to practice for a few sessions focusing on correcting that one
posture until Sensei comes to correct another small posture. This may sound
incredibly boring but for the archer herself every shot is a brand new cycle of self-
examination and so it was never boring for me.

Kyudo is not a group sport and people like to be left alone especially during practice,
which makes perfect sense, so I only rarely interact with people other than Sensei.
My interaction with Sensei, however, varies session to session but sometimes is
quite a lot. We have talked about everything from her family to knitting to my class
project related to kyudo. I definitely do not always understand 100% of what Sensei
says, but luckily kyudo is not something that requires one to understand 100%
verbally. I have, however, gotten involved in a few “Changing Room Chats” but never anything very deep because most of time I don’t understand what they are talking about. Instead I just made it an opportunity to observe the way female acquaintances communicate with one another.

As to advices, kyudo is definitely not a workout or a very social activity but what
you get out of it is a deep sense of connection to Japanese tradition. Many people
began practicing kyudo for its relationship with Zen. But what seems to be the
common consensus is that you don’t usually get to think about that until you’ve
perfected your skills, which takes years and years and years. At this early stage, you
just get used to simply follow the Sensei and not question. This sounds like a very
negative thing, and of course if you have a question the Sensei will always answer,
but the chance is that because your skill is so horrible at this point that even you
understand the idea of what she says you would not be able to put it into practice, so
you might as well focus on the actual skills first.

ローレン・ハッシュ：英語アシスタント

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初めまして。コロンビア大学のローレンハッシュです。今京都で留学していますから、京都文教中高等学校で英語アシスタントとして働いています。英語アシスタントの仕事はとても面白いです。日本の教育とアメリカの教育はとても違うと思います。日本の私立学校では、皆は月曜日から土曜日まで授業があります。とても大変だそうです。でも、日本の学校のスケージュルはきびしくても、しつけはあまりきびしくないです。中学生はいつも大きい声で叫んでいて、先生が言ったことは学生の耳に入りません。

 

でも、高校に入った時、学生はもっとていねいになります。私が教えている高校生はいつも中学生と違って、失礼な質問を聞かないで、小さい声で話します。中学生は、“先生は男性が好きですか”とか“先生は彼がいますか”とか言う質問をたくさんします。高校生はアメリカの生活について興味があります。

 

私は子供のとき私立の学校でフランス語を勉強しました。その経験は日本の中学生の経験ととても違います。フランス語の先生はとてもきびしかったし、いつも大きい声で学生をしかりました。ですから、日本の中学生の方がラッキーでしょう。

 

みんなとてもかわいくて、アニメみたいな生活がありますから、私はがぜひ毎週学校に行きたいんです。CIPを楽しみにしています。

レイラ・リン：弓道

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今学期も先学期のように弓道を練習しています。毎週二回武道センターへ練習に行きます。練習の雰囲気は相変わらず穏やかですが、いつもとても楽しいです。弓道の先生はとても可愛くて、親切な人で、先生が好きではない生徒がいないと思います。先生と出会って、本当によかったと思います。または、初心者として来る生徒はふだん様々な外国人なので、練習中に色々な外国の話を聞くことができて、いっぱい勉強になりました。私は弓道がすごく難しいと思って、色々なことがまた分からないけど、弓道の穏やかな時間を大切にします。