Eigo ga hanaseru? Free Form

I will begin by observing that I am horribly behind in my blog topics. If time permits, I plan to complete several posts this weekend, so stick with me. Food, toilets, and several day trips are in the works. I will also be updating the do's and don'ts blog, so check back if you would like to read more about that particular topic. What I would like to discuss today is the experience of being invited as a "native English speaker" to an English speaking club. Objectively, it seems like a relatively simple thing - in reality, it is anything but simple. To illustrate this point, let me start at the beginning.
I was invited for a mutually beneficial experience to a medical english speaking club. The one who invited me was president of the club (a student like myself) and also a family friend (for my host family). One thing that anyone coming to Japan will quickly learn is the concept of pressured decisions, though I believe they are not something new to most people - when you go over to a friends house for the first time, for example, and their mom gives you chocolate ice cream when you really want vanilla, you eat the chocolate one because you're a good kid and know not to look a gift horse in the mouth. Anyway, I wanted to accept the offer made by this person anyway, because I was curious, but looking back I realize that even if I had wanted nothing to do with the club I would probably still have said yes. He invited several of my friends along as well (or rather, suggested that more would be merrier) but as my class unfortunately had an essay due the next day, I ended up going alone.

So, now I will say something that I think is true of any expedition for discovery (which going to Japan certainly is): if you go alone, you are bound to have a richer experience than if you go with other people. The group dynamics are entirely different when you are in a group of your own - meaning, you are unnapproachable and unwilling to leave the sphere of your personal comfort zone. No worries, it's normal, but stepping outside of that is the surest way to really (really as in actually) encounter another culture. I encountered another culture when said president swung open the door of the classroom and I was greeted by twenty or thirty pairs of eyes. Now the feeling here was uncomfortable in the sense only that I was clearly the center of attention. In fact, I believe I immediately realized I was about to be spoiled beyond belief. Sure enough, I was gestured in with the prefunctury "doozo, doozo." My shoes I removed uncertainly, and my host stepped past me to carefully align a pair of slippers on the other side of the shoe blockade. One person brought me a chair (placed neatly at the front of the room while everyone else sat at tables) and another gave me a choice of drink - in my somewhat overwhelmed state I simply thanked her and took one (rather than expressing a desire for one flavor over the other). This illicited genuine laughter and nervous laughter both. Thankfully (for my too-quickly-beating heart) the president quickly began the meeting, and asked me to introduce myself. English or Japanese is good, he said. Well...I explaind briefly in Japanese that since it was an English speaking class, I would use English. And so I did.
Interesting point number two: "a native speaker of English" is a thing. A valuable commodity, in a sense. Foreigners in the past have likened it to being a particularly rare speciment in a zoo - I think it is a more pleasant experience than that, assuming the people around you were like the wonderful people of this club and were positively brimming with welcome. You do, however, feel a very tremendous sense of expectation. When you speak, you can feel the attention in the room shift. You are the guest of honor, and, I have to humbly say, for the average American person that is very rare.

Interesting point number three: meeting with the individual people, at least in this case, required dividing up (for which I felt even worse that I had needed to report that none of my friends could actually come - not my fault, but still, when you are treated so carefully, there is a strong sense that you should deliver in full!). Introductions were carried out among each group, and then the questioning began. Generally, the conversation was made up of people asking me questions about my thoughts about Japan, favorite foods, and so forth. I spoke entirely in English to one group, entierely in Japanese to two others. Part of this was, I am sure, out of respect to the fact that I was there to learn Japanese, even if I had agreed to help them with English. Part of it might also have been because they felt more comfortable speaking in Japanese. I have experienced as well that it is easier to encounter new people, and to befriend them, when you use a language you actually understand (I might have suffered a bit there since we were speaking in Japanese).  We had assigned topics of conversation, but with each group, things quickly devolved to a simple question and answer session. It was fun, so I'm not complaining. I certainly got a lot of practice, and I hope they did as well.

Interesting point 4: the most difficult part of these sorts of meetings is the moment when you don't understand. Pretty soon, you have ten or fifteen people trying to explain a word or concept to you, and trying very, very hard. Everyone has endless patience. It makes you feel just a bit dumber with each explanation, because you feel that what they said makes perfect sense, and the words are all there, but somehow, still, you don't get it. Example of the day: Kodawaru. I pretty quickly came to the conclusion that it meant "picky." Indeed, I pulled out my dictionary and came up with the same word. Everyone was quick to disagree, however. "Picky" they said, "has a negative connotation, while Kodawaru is a good thing." A good thing? How could being picky ever be good? I eventually found that "selective" or "good taste" might be a better fit for the word as they were using it, but it took half an hour of conversation for them to explain this to me. I wish I could appologize to one student who spent another half hour trying to get my opinion on the thoughts of American vs Japanese students - I still don't understand the question!

Interesting point 5: OK, this is less interesting point then bragging, but there you are - after the meeting, a large number of club members went out to dinner. This basically meant me sitting at a little table with ten or so guys and eating a delicious bowl of ten-don (fried shrimp over rice) while they traded the typical amazed comments of "wow, you can use chopsticks" and "you speak Japanese well for a 3rd year student." They all speak amazing English (one girl started talking to me about indigenous species), but I can't say I hate Japanese modesty. In the end, they treated me to the meal, and my Japanese (despite their assertions) is not good enough that I could argue the need to pay for my own food. In the end, it was an amazing experience, and despite all their comments "Come again. Bring more friends next time!" I am just a bit stingy, and I kind of want my newfound Japanese friends all to myself. Haha. Anyway, I will be bringing other people along next time, but I definitely want to go back!
On a side note, or perhaps an important note, the pictures, while unrelated, do a nice job of breaking up the text. The top image is of Miajima, in Hiroshima. The second image is of the dinosaur statues outside of a horseshoe crab museum that we visited as a class - apparently, dinosaurs and horseshoe crabs lived at the same time, so there are dinosaur statues all around the museum. The final image is of a spider, and not just any spider. Although size is difficult to see in this picture, I would sai it was at least 2 inches long. BIG spider. And awesome. Apparently, one of the girl's I pointed it out to had nightmares and couldn't sleep all night. Oops.