11/9/09
Friday we went to Japanese class, as planned. It's really easy now, but we can move at a fast pace and practice pronunciation that way. During the last 15 minutes of class, a couple of people announced that we'd be practicing multiple languages. They'd figured out that in that room, we had English speakers, Chinese, Korean, Russian, Turkish, and more. So, they'd drawn up a chart with a few basic phrases that we can fill in as we learn each language, such as Good morning, thank you, and "let's eat!" This week we did Chinese - it is tough! They explained about the sound having different pitches, by drawing it on the board. In one "ah" is a word, it can be flat "-----" it can go up "/" or down "\" or down and up "V". That's how they can so so much with so few syllables.
Nothing seemed to be going on that evening after class, so we saved our money to go out to Denny's the next morning. Much to our delight, they DO offer free coffee refills like Denny's back home. It's one of the only casual dining restaurants around that doesn't have drink bar, and doesn't have a button to summon a waiter or waitress.
At restaurants here, you typically have to yell "sumimasen!" ("Excuse me") to get attention of the waiters or waitresses, unless the restaurant has buttons at each table. If they have buttons, you simply push the button, which makes a doorbell sound, and someone comes right over. At Denny's you don't have to do either. It's the only place I've seen here where you just have to make eye contact or wave, and they'll come over. Also, I may have mentioned this already, but every restaurant brings you your bill as soon as you've finished ordering, and you pay at a cash register on the way out. It's much more streamlined this way.
Saturday we did a lot of shopping - I'm all for bringing our own shopping bags and do most of the time, but at one store I'd forgotten them (not our usual grocery store) and it struck me as how un-friendly it comes off charging for bags, especially to poor foreigners who didn't know to ask for them and now would have to go to the back of the line to pay a petty 5 yen for a plastic bag! Note to Seattle and anyone else considering a bag tax: Please no! I'm all for the way QFC does it, giving people 3-cents off per reusable bag, but to make people load groceries up in their arms because they've forgotten their shopping bags is rather inconvenient, and definitely won't bring you more customers. (This wasn't helped by the fact that every store has you bag your own groceries. I have no problem with that itself, although they place them so nicely in the basket it seems like a wasted effort to keep moving them from cart to basket to bag…) I'm happy to say that our local grocery store doesn't charge for bags, in the unfortunate occasion that we buy MORE (oh no!) than we have room in our reusable bags for.
Sunday we were busy. We slept in, then called my family & Brandon's family on Skype. Then we headed over to a get-together at Jen's for good food and to work on a fall poster. We went straight from there to a bonfire in Naval Park. That was impressive. The park has a dedicated bonfire spot, with a large firepit, and staff to actually build a fire, douse it in kerosene, and light it. It made a cold night a little warmer. The bonfire was set up by a man who runs an English conversation school and his wife. (His school was the building we were painting last week). The ALT that works and lives there invited us to the bonfire, which had been set up to teach the kids about Guy Fawkes Day. (The man who runs the school and the ALT are British). So, even though the information was in Japanese, we learned a little more about it too. :)Brandon and I were talking to some of the kids. They kept saying "muja muja" to Simon (the person who'd invited us). We found out later it meant "big hair" or "afro." So Brandon and I teased them back. "Huh?" "I don't know." "moshi moshi?" (What you say when you answer the phone) "Wakarimasen" (I don't understand). A little girl, probably about 5 years old, said in Japanese something like "they're speaking strange words. Baka!" Yes, I got called baka (stupid, or fool, or idiot) by a five-year-old Japanese kid! It was adorable!
The young kids that learn English are amazing at pronunciation - They naturally learn to say the sounds older kids and adults struggle with, such as "r", "v", and "th".
In addition to getting to meet a lot of the kids, and help them roast marshmallows, we also talked to some of the parents. I even met the wife of one of the teachers at my school. They all seem to like practicing their English, or hear us speak Japanese, and they love making their kids talk to us to demonstrate their English skills. As always, everyone was so friendly and courteous - the group of people we sat with at dinner kept telling us to eat more because there would be too many leftovers, and they made us hot instant lemonade.
One more thing I have to add to what I wrote in my notebook about the bonfire. A very little girl, maybe 2 years old or so, won a prize in a game. She walked up to Simon and received the toy she'd won. She looked shy, and opened her mouth to say something, closed it not quite sure what to say, and gave a little bow. It was adorable! Even that she seemed unsure of, but the message was very clear that she was trying to say thank you in some language or another, even if she was too young to even speak much of her own language.
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