思い出３お名前は何ですか？

 

3.お名前は何ですか？

 That's perhaps one of first few sentences we learnt in Japanese. But it was not easy to remember Japanese name, do you agree?

I had so much trouble to remember my teacher’s name, worse still, in our Japanese school, not only did we need to know teacher 's name, but also class’s name.  Each class was given a Japanese name, the classroom was　randomly assigned on the day of lesson. Before you could go for lesson, you needed to ask Reception which classroom was assigned for your class.

When I was already very late for class, still had to rush to reception and ask which classroom would my class be.

 

“CLASS名前何でですか?" the lady in Reception asked me

 

".....   ."😓

 

"先生の名前は何ですか?

 

“……”😢😥😰

 

That was most embarrassing moment.

Some classes were easy names like "雪 "," 桜", but my class was named as, (actually, I still don't remember, wait, let me check). Oh, it was called " 野沢菜”, and my teacher’s “下村” haha, finally I remembered her name.😁😂

 

4. 日本人の友達ができるのに、、、、

 Actually I could have lots of opportunities to practice conversional Japanese with Japanese.

I used to have Japanese neighbors who stayed in the same apartment. I also have many

 business partners who are Japanese.

But the conversations with those Japanese were somewhat like this.

Me: “おはようございます”

My Japanese friend: “Good Morning, How do you do?” ( I have no choice but reply “I am fine, thank you!

………I took courage and tried again.

Me: “どこへいくんですが?”

My Japanese friend:” Shopping, and you. ……. あのさ、Robin san,  don't have to be so

formal with me, come on.”

I was like, " Did I just offend him🤔?"

Once, we had a senior Japanese manager been posted in Singapore office.  When I heard

 this news, I was overjoyed. ｙｙｙｖ

"たくさんな日本語を話すしようと思います。"

When I finally met him.

Me: “初めまして、どうぞ、宜しくお願いいたします。わた….ともうします。”

Japanese Manager: “ Robin san, 日本語じようずですね。Nice meeting you, call me Jack!”

 

それから、彼らと日本語おを話すことはありませんでした。

日本人の同僚や友達があるのには知ってのに、日本語の話機会はあまりありません。

おすすめ曲

 A friend from HT recommended a song for me.  I have never been touched by a song to tears for such a long time.  Even though I could not full understand the lyrics at the first listening, I was moved by his voice, it was kind of soul moving, the emotion just flowed by his voice.

Here is lyrics and Youtube link for his live performance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjPLUJJVf64&ab_channel=NAGABUCHIVEVO

ひとつ

作詞：長渕剛
作曲：長渕剛

ひとりぼっちに　させてごめんね
もう二度と
離さない　離れない　離したくない

君によりそい　そばに生きるよ
もう二度と
忘れない　忘れさせない　忘れたくない

悲しみは　どこから　やってきて
悲しみは　どこへ　行くんだろう
いくら考えても　わからないから
僕は悲しみを　抱きしめようと　決めた

ひとつになって
ずっといっしょに　共に生きる
ひとつになって
君と生きる　共に生きる

月のしずくが　涙にゆれて
海に光る
逢いたくて　逢えなくて　それでも僕は探した
星が降る夜　君を想い
ずうっと　歩いたよ
明日きっと　明日きっと　しあわせになれるね

永遠のしあわせは　どこから やってきて
永遠のしあわせは　どこへ 行くんだろう
いくら考えても　わからないから
僕は悲しみを　抱きしめようと　決めた

ひとつになって
ずっといっしょに　共に生きる
ひとつになって
君と生きる　共に生きる

Learning Japanese : おもいで

 

⭐思い出２⭐

ごろごろしました
 
One of activities we had to do in class every lesson was group discussion 

"先週何をしまたか。?"

One day, in my group,  there were 4 others students,  some said 買い物、some said 映画、泳ご etc. When come to my turn,  I  totally blanked out, after, "hmmmm", for long time, suddenly,  I remembered a phrase,
 
  "うちでごろごろしました。"
 
"Oh Robin san,すごいね❗" 
 
 
that was first time my teacher praised me. Since then,  for almost next two years,  Whenever we had group sharing 

" 先週何をしました？"
 
My answer was always
 
"うちでごろごろしました。"

Learning Japanese 思い出1: You don't have to speak perfectly to gain understanding.

 

⭐思い出１⭐

 

I started to learn Japanese 5 years ago.　

I attended Japanese school once a week.  At first, my class was at weekdays, from 7.45 pm.to 9.45pm. Because of work, very often I was late for class. I ran to the class panting and  thinking how would I say

 " sorry for being late. I have been caught in traffic jam ...", 

instead all I had uttered was "すみません。車、車、、、".  

Teacher was very understanding.  She said a long sentences of Japanese on my behalf.

Another time was because of meeting,  all I could say was "会議、"、my teacher again understood me perfectly.
 
After class, we usually had some homework,  but I was not good at
submitting on time. So teacher asked,
 

"Robin san 宿題をしますか?" 

My replies were, "仕事、時間、、" 

As usual,  my teacher would fill in gaps and complete into sentences.  

You see, you don't have to speak perfect language to gain understanding. (Not excuse though)

My Language Partner

 His name is Suzuki Yuseke, 

25 years old, works as dental related industry, but his dream is to be a police officer.  He is currently studing English for TOECI exams.  He has good English understanding, but his sentences are causal and full of grammar mistakes, but that doesn't seems to bother him.

He works very long hours, often do night shifts, when finally get day off, he says he will not waste it on sleeps, which he is certainly much deprived.

He is polite and humorous; even sometimes he could not reply message immediately , he will apologize for late reply;  he often replies my message at 3:00am, because of working hours.

He likes following Western singers, "Hollywood undead, Sia, Bring me the horizon, linkin park and Set it off".  I don't know so much about them, and tell him what I know about few singers I like.

He was surprised when I told him that I like Shimizi Shota, : "How did you find out about him?" 

What we do as language partners is to exchange message, to correct mistakes for each other, and talk on random topic.  So far, I don't have time to chat ; sometimes I am also too busy to type in Japanese, whenever I type in Japanese, it seems take ages, but I try to correct his sentences as much as I can and encourage to study more formal sentences.

So far, I like him to be my language partners.

There are also many expressed interest to be my language partners, but I am afraid that I could not take so many, as time constrains.  

Language Gap

 I have been learning Japanese for years,  I enjoy learning and use exams as motivation to keep me study more.  Recently, by recommendation of fellow students, I joined Hello Talk, which is platform to language learning.  You can exchange learning and helping one and another.

I have since posted some of learning questions and moments, and also made a few learning partner.   That was when I first time knew exactly how easily different language can cause misunderstanding.

One of language partners sent his request to help his English in half broken English, to which I could still understand all what he tried to say.  At end of his requests, "Please help me".

I did not read his message till  the next day. so I replied "Sure, please also help me" in Japanese.  

”私をたけてください”

I received instant reply with alter fact " What happened?"  "どうしたの？”

Then I sensed something must had gone wrong.  I asked my Japanese teacher, who told me, 

”私をたけてください” is only used when you are in trouble, is like "Help!!!", while in my situation, I should have replied

”私を手ｃたててください　( I don't know how to type that word)

So it is dangerous to use other language without full understanding.  From now on, I will study harder.

これから、もっど頑張ってしようおもといます。