Shoko!

hello everybody again

this week we had visitors staying with us which was pretty exciting. reina, cathy and yuichis daughter, is here for a week, and a bahai girl called Shoko was here for like 4 days too. shoko recently returned from volunteering at a bahai-inspired international school in Czech Republic, and her english is insaaaanely good like she has like 1% of an accent its crazy...

being with reina and shoko was very good for my japanese too. in japanese, you use polite form to your superiors (those older then you etc) and then plain form when speaking to people beneath you or equal to you (eg kids, teenagers etc). in school, u learn both forms but cos you always just use polite form in the HSC exam, you dont really ever practise using plain form.
so spending a few days with young people a lot helped me with my plain form although i often keep slipping back into polite form, i guess its better then the other way round when with older people.

the other day, a Japanese nurse whod just returned from spending a year working on one of Second Hand's projects in Cambodia talked to second hand volunteers about her trip. it was quite formal, which meant she spoke clearly and at a measured pace, and she had a slideshow of pictures and point from her talk which helped me to follow. this went for 2 hrs, but was hecticaly good for my japanese, and i found i could follow most of it so i was happy.

the project she was involved with was an ambulance service in Phnom Penh which Second Hand established. Cambodia is a country in south-east Asia near thailand where many people are living in poverty. but the standard ambulance service is really expensive and slow, so often even though someone is covered in blood and losing consciousness after a car crash, they dont want to go in an ambulance cos they cant afford it. the second hand service is faster than the other ambulances, has better equipment (donated from japan) and patients can pay as much as they want (or nothing) for the service. also, theyre trying to always have one japanese person with the ambulance service cos in Cambodian culture everyone takes there time to get places but obviously for an ambulance service this can cost people their lives. japanese people often tend to be really busy and rushing everywhere, and i thought it was a really interesting way to look at how certain traits of different cultures can complement each other quite well.

i could tell the difference with being bombarded with japanese at last nights study circle with the childrens class fathers. cathy wasnt there for most of it so i was left in a discussion about prayer, why we pray etc but it was actually ok. my work book is in english, and beneath each quote theres comprehension questions on the quote. anyway i always answer these questions in english, but last night yuichi was like 'why dont you do it in japanese?' (i always end up having to translate them verbally into japanese anyway) which made me happy.

yesterday i went to Ritsurin Park with angela, andrew, and haruna (ando-san's daughter whos 22 and is home for the uni holidays). it was so peaceful and beautiful, and it was a good time for us to get to know haruna and vice-versa. harunas fairly quiet, and im not hugely outgoing either, so when ive seen her before at social events its gotten a bit awkward, but after spending 3hrs together it got rid of all that. i also think shes incredible cos we were speaking in english for the whole time, except when i occasionally talked to her in japanese, and she didnt seem to mind at all. today shes coming over here again to plan the Naw Ruz party (Baha'i new year) were having on friday night here.

im also looking forward to that cos it signals the end of the Fast which ive really been enjoying cos its all spiritualish and stuff but at the same time i looove food and especially in japan where the food is actually nice 99% of the time... its so funny like everyday for dinner me and reina eat sooo much then eat sooo much dessert cos i have some weird outlook where i have to make up for all i missed out on that day hahha and then my stomach is always so sore hahaha


xoxo