Before coming to Japan, one of my goals for my time abroad was to learn \u66f8\u9053, and so I decided to attempt to join\u00a0the Doshisha calligraphy club. Unfortunately, the Doshisha calligraphy club did not meet until the beginning of their semester, and so it was impossible to actually start my CIP until well into October. Moreover, since I reached out to the club officers via email, it was extremely difficult to maintain contact and decide on a time that I could participate in their meetings. Eventually, however, I was able to meet with one of the club officers, who then lead me to the clubroom at the Shinmachi campus. Before entering the room, it was necessary to first knock, and then say \u5931\u793c\u3057\u307e\u3059 while opening the door. Although I did not speak directly to many of the other club members, I would overhear their conversations while I practiced. Particularly, I noticed the level of formality and\/or informality of the conversations, as well as the use of Kansai-ben and colloquial speech. As \u66f8\u9053 is by its very nature a quiet activity, I did not speak to anyone in the room besides the club member that was assisting me for the day. Consequently, most of my observations pertaining to culture and language were vicarious. Although I still do not know the names of any of the \u90e8\u54e1 that have gone out of their way to sit with me for well over an hour and (arguably in vain) teach me how to write characters that they learned as schoolchildren, I am extremely grateful that they allowed a \u7559\u5b66\u751f such as myself to take up their time and resources.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Before coming to Japan, one of my goals for my time abroad was to learn \u66f8\u9053, and so I decided to attempt to joi … \u7d9a\u304d\u3092\u8aad\u3080