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July 27, 2004
Nihongo Kyampu
So for a couple weeks there was this pair of little Japanese girls at camp. It was the first time since leaving Japan that I've been able to practice my spoken Japanese, so it was a very nice opportunity to have. Since they didn't speak much English, I got to be their interpreter for the camp, too, so I proved my worth. ^_^
The older one, Mari, was 12 and already beyond the stage where Japanese children are all bouncy and playful. Don't get me wrong, she was a very sweet girl. But she was very cute and shy, and didn't really want to socialize much more than reading her book. Mari could understand some English, which was definately good... I felt pretty bad because most of the other kids left her alone. So I taught her to play some board games, and eventually she was playing with a few of the other kids.
The younger one, Jun, was 10 and very adorable. She didn't speak more than a few words of English, so I had to speak to her only in Japanese. It was really good practice. She was so cute. She would wave and smile at me whenever she walked past Arts and Crafts, and I was able to ask her what afternoon activities she wanted, and figure out what was wrong when she was unhappy, so at least I proved useful to her too. She was such a sweet girl the whole time -- very polite, very friendly, and very playful. She even taught me how to play Othello (although, when she asked if I had "osero" it took until she said that it was a ge-mu for me to realize what she meant).
Unfortunately they were only there for 2 weeks... they're visiting Canada now, where Jun was born. (All this I got from speaking to them in Japanese! I'm so proud! :-p) Well, it was a very good experience for me, and I hope that I was able to make their stay at camp a little more fun. I feel really bad for the foreign kids, because they can't really communicate at all with the other kids or the adults. So they're basically isolated from everyone in the camp... very sad.
P.S. On a side note, there are 2 Venezualan kids at camp this week... and I can't do a thing for them since I don't know Spanish... Zannen da ne! At least most of the kids have a very basic understanding of Spanish from school... and some of the counselors can speak high school level Spanish.
Posted by dminky at July 27, 2004 08:49 PM
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Comments
Mari & Jun were so lucky yo! me wish me had someone as helpful as you are when i first came lah! cause you are fluent in Chinese too right?! ai... zannen ne! but it's allight, me met you at last, which is wondaful!!! ^_^"
Posted by: Flankey at August 3, 2004 04:17 AM