Eigo-no kyoshi desu. (I am an English teacher.)

Watashi wa Joy desu. Eigo no kyoshi desu. Nihongo-no benskyoshimasu. That’s right, I’m Joy, an English teacher who is studying Japanese. I came to Japan with the ability to count to 10, say apple (ringo) and hiccough (shakri), “Excuse me, I’m sorry for being late (sumimasen, osoku narimashita) and the basic greetings. Useful.. maybe?

Now, my vocabulary has increased manifold, and yet I still feel helpless when staring at menus, signs and any printed matter. Japanese is a difficult (muzugashi) laungage. But I'm learning. I have learned hiragana and katakana (two of the alphabets). I have learned the kanji for “men” “women” “mountain” “river”. Gold star, right? What drives me crazy is that the important words are usually in kanji, which to my untrained eye, look pretty but meaningless.

I am working my way through a correspondence course that JET is a part of and I go to a Japanese class once a week. I am getting better all the time (can’t get much worse) and the more I study Japanese the more I learn about English, and how my students are trying to figure things out. Sentence structure is different in Japanese, so are tenses, plurals, pronunciation etc etc. Today’s lesson that I helped with at Junior high was about pronouncing ~ed on different words, which is something that I’ve never thought about as a native English speaker. But the ~ed sound changes from “cooked” to “played” to “visited.” Muzugashi desu ne? (It's difficult, itsn't it?)

Happily, so far basic Japanese seems to have more regularities than irregularities, (when compared to English) and pronunciation tends to follow a set of actual rules. Which is good for me, but makes things difficult for Japanese people trying to say English words. A common tactic for teaching English in Japan is to put words into “katakana” which is a vague approximation of what the word would be using the Japanese “alphabet”. Words like “cat” turn into kato, door into doa, book into buku etc. Which isn’t English. The more I hear it, the more I understand it, but that does not make it English.

On one hand I want to drill correctly pronounced English into them, on the other, I’m getting increasingly confused as to what actual expectations I have of my students and what is within their grasp. It’s confusing. But I gambatte (do my best, well, that’s not the right way to conjugate that.. but I’ve never been great at verb tenses.) and treasure the kids who say "television" not "terrrrrevison". In an effort to improve my understanding of what English sounds like, I have booked off time in the summer from July 29-August 11 to immerse myself in the English speaking world of Southern Ontario. Till then I'll keep staring at kanji, practice reading katakana, and read my Japanese textbuku.

A natural response

The proposed "chant/song" for the lesson "do you have..."

Occasionally, Japanese people mix up Rs and Ls

Penpal in Japan

Two Dutch kids looking at a painting by a Dutch guy in Kyoto

Bamboo Forest

Japanese style rock garden and pond

"It's OVER THERE!"

Windblown at the Tottori Sand DunesKiomizudera Temple in Kyoto

These past 9 days have been spent gallivanting with my penpal (yes, my actual penpal, as in we’ve been writing letters- actual letters in the mail, with stamps and everything- for the past 5 years or so) about Japan. We went to the naked man festival, the botanical gardens in Kyoto, the bamboo forest in Arashiyama, Ohyama elementary school (on the way to which, as we biked by one kid walking to school let out a very audible gasp at the sight of him) where he experienced the thrills of “it’s here! It’s there! Its over there!” and entertained the kids with mad juggling skills. We also went shopping in Osaka (to be a consumer is a big part of many Japanese people’s identity, and a big part of my Japan experience) to the Tottori sand dunes, an onsen and Himeji castle grounds.

I wanted to make his Japan experience a little more authenic so he sampled sushi, ramen and gyoza (which are technically Chinese…) udon, soba, okonomiyaki, curry rice, crepes, a pan-eria (white bread/funny pastry buffet) ume-shu, sake, and a range of Japanese beers.

On his own he also went to Hiroshima to the peace museum, A-bomb dome and Miyajima Island.


A good time all around.

What I’m trying to say… is come visit me already!

Where am I?

A nice time in Nagoya

A long weekend calls for adventure. So I headed up to Nagoya (about 1 hour by shinkansen, or 4 hours by slow train) with Myrie, Maeve, Leanne and MacKenzie. Friday we went to see The Arcade Fire in concert and then danced the night away. Saturday we enjoyed a Denny's breakfast/lunch and then to one of Nagoya's claims to fame, the Toyota museum. We had hopes of robots but alas, saw only cars. Sunday we shopped, finding fun vintage wares amongst the new, enjoyed some ti-la-ma-su, and saw the biggest, most beautiful orchids I have ever seen, and danced a little more. Monday we wandered about a garden, found some cherry blossom trees in a hot house and gazed at the Nagoya castle. A good weekend all told.