|
Yesterday I went to the Ota speech contest. I felt guilty going because I only helped my kids the day before. We didn't win anything, which is fine, because then they would have had to prepare for the prefectural level. The contest had 33 contestants and lasted 3 hours. It wouldn' thave been that bad, but so many kids did the same speach. Some of the kids had such strange pronunciations that I almost burst out laughing. I know that it is crruel, but you should have heard some of them. One girl had an accent that seemed to travel throughout the world, though it never sounded Japanese. It was like listening to Mad Libs and that's way it was so funny. So many of the kids obviously worked very hard, but still were really bad. One girl (all but 6 were girls) had a hand motion for every sentence. Another girl spoke with a lot of feeling. She obviously understood what she was talking about, even though no one else in the room could. It was a grueling 3 hours, but I am glad that I got to go. I realized how seriously the Japanese take learning English, even though no one seems to be able to speak it. I totally embarrassed my neighbor and probably myself as well. I have decided that next weekend I want to visit the host family I stayed with 2 years ago. I have terrible Japanese and they can't speak English very well, so I thought the best way to arrange a meeting would be to have someone else call them. So I asked my neighbor to call for me. You should have seen the look on her face. I could tell that she was really embarrassed. But she called the family and asked them if I could stay. I'm a gaijin. And nothing would ever get accomplished in Japan for me if I didn't stick my neck out and be rude. So next weekend I will go to Osaka and be really rude and impose myself on a faily for an entire weekend. Hope they don't mind too much. I had my koto lesson last night. I was a fun night. The lady was in good spirits and I got a real kick out of her dog. She has a little dog that I have never seen, but I always hear barking. Last night it must have been in a bad mood, because the thig barked for the entire hour lesson. The thing must have vocal chords of steel! But what was really humerous about it is that is souded like he was fighting with a cat. I swear that dog can HISS just like a cat, while he is barking! I loved it. I am also glad that I don't have to live with it. So I am really excited about the coming weekend because Mike will be visiting me from Toyama. We want to go to Mount Akagi and check out a German village that makes beer and cheese. We're hoping that they will also make pizza (no sense in wasting the cheese). So hopefully Mother Nature will cooperate with us, and my JTE will be able to find someone to cover her club activities. Valerie Straayer
|