Arielle is playing with a Japanese traditional instrument that is famous in Toyama Prefecture. We also got to make one.
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Friday, October 31, 2008
The Japan saga begins
Free at last. Free at last. I escaped from my "dancing white monkey" cage in Korea, along with my family, and am now working as a coordinator for International Relations in the Toyama Prefectural Office International Relations Dept. Sounds more important than it probably is, but after three years of the dancing white monkey that just happens to speak english role my feet were tired and I was ready for a desk job.
Baby number two is due to emerge sometime in January. Vyda and Arielle--Vyda's speaking for Arielle on this one--like it here. I'm actually interviewing Vyda as I write this.
Me: (looking at Vyda silently waiting for her to say something).
Vyda: We made some fun friends.
Me: would you care to elaborate?
Vyda: (Searching for the right expression for a delicate utterance): The foreigners here are higher quality.
Vyda: Japanese people have good manners. I feel uncomfortable when they keep saying sorry all the time. The church people are really nice and our ward here is pretty much similar to the American church. Arielle is still a little confused that Japanese and Korean people are two different races. Arielle met a Finnish friend here. The Finnish girl speaks Finnish to Arielle and Arielle responds in English and somehow they seem to play together well. So much for language barriers.
Interviewer' s note. This is no longer an interview--if it was ever even one to begin with. This has now become Vyda rattling off whatever comes to mind while I furiously transcribe and once in a while censor for potentially "offensive content."
We live in a small house. Like a shoe box. Everything is small here. We're getting used to it, though. This has become normal for us......moving all the time. After living here, we actually found out that Koreans and Japanese are very similar in SOME ways. People here tend to dress the same, have same fashion, say similar lines, have the same patterns of speech, etc.
Me: Somwhat astonished that Vyda has concluded most Japanese have similar patterns of speech with a very rudimentary level of Japanese comprehension skills.
Back to Vyda's flow: I'm going to master Japanese in......give me six months. I can already say a couple phrases pretty good. That's probably good for now.
Oh yeah. Arielle has become very righteous. The church here has trained her very well. She's actually become fanatical. Praying five or six times a day. She prays before and after she sings. She adminsters the sacrament to herself and by herself. And tells us to be quiet while she's doing that. And at "Japanese church" she's very well behaved (in stark contrast to how she acted when she attended in her words, "Korean church"). She claims she speaks Japanese to the kids at church. She also insisted that "Konnichi wa" means, "yes," rather than the commonly agreed upon translation of "good afternoon." What else does she do that's funny?
I'm going to use the blog as my writing practice. I'm very conscious of my writing (Vyda didn't come to America until she was almost 15) but I realize it's really important to improve my writing skills. And plus, I need to learn how to be patient. Because writing takes a lot of patience to just sit and write. Good night everyone.
Baby number two is due to emerge sometime in January. Vyda and Arielle--Vyda's speaking for Arielle on this one--like it here. I'm actually interviewing Vyda as I write this.
Me: (looking at Vyda silently waiting for her to say something).
Vyda: We made some fun friends.
Me: would you care to elaborate?
Vyda: (Searching for the right expression for a delicate utterance): The foreigners here are higher quality.
Vyda: Japanese people have good manners. I feel uncomfortable when they keep saying sorry all the time. The church people are really nice and our ward here is pretty much similar to the American church. Arielle is still a little confused that Japanese and Korean people are two different races. Arielle met a Finnish friend here. The Finnish girl speaks Finnish to Arielle and Arielle responds in English and somehow they seem to play together well. So much for language barriers.
Interviewer' s note. This is no longer an interview--if it was ever even one to begin with. This has now become Vyda rattling off whatever comes to mind while I furiously transcribe and once in a while censor for potentially "offensive content."
We live in a small house. Like a shoe box. Everything is small here. We're getting used to it, though. This has become normal for us......moving all the time. After living here, we actually found out that Koreans and Japanese are very similar in SOME ways. People here tend to dress the same, have same fashion, say similar lines, have the same patterns of speech, etc.
Me: Somwhat astonished that Vyda has concluded most Japanese have similar patterns of speech with a very rudimentary level of Japanese comprehension skills.
Back to Vyda's flow: I'm going to master Japanese in......give me six months. I can already say a couple phrases pretty good. That's probably good for now.
Oh yeah. Arielle has become very righteous. The church here has trained her very well. She's actually become fanatical. Praying five or six times a day. She prays before and after she sings. She adminsters the sacrament to herself and by herself. And tells us to be quiet while she's doing that. And at "Japanese church" she's very well behaved (in stark contrast to how she acted when she attended in her words, "Korean church"). She claims she speaks Japanese to the kids at church. She also insisted that "Konnichi wa" means, "yes," rather than the commonly agreed upon translation of "good afternoon." What else does she do that's funny?
I'm going to use the blog as my writing practice. I'm very conscious of my writing (Vyda didn't come to America until she was almost 15) but I realize it's really important to improve my writing skills. And plus, I need to learn how to be patient. Because writing takes a lot of patience to just sit and write. Good night everyone.
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