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Another bonding time and cultural
exchange with the girls from local middle school. We went “cultural hiking” far
in the countryside behind Hiroshima: picking apples, making apple jam, meeting
huge Japanese cows, prescribed seats on the bus, k-pop crazy teenage girls.
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I love “teaching” the English
conversation class in the community center. Making friends with retired Japanese
couples. Na hodiny angličtiny chodím s taškou navíc, abych nakoupila levnou
zeleninu ve stánku u nádraží.
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Went to Miyajima again, this
time with my buddy Rina: pitch dark tunnels under the temple, Itsukushima
shrine, and talking about Japanese history. It turns out that a part of the
shrine is dedicated to Sugawara no Michizane, whose story familiar to every student
of Japanese (at least in Olomouc), and so now I know how to say Japanese envoys
to China 遣唐使 (kentoushi),
poselstva do Číny.
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朱肉印鑑 = pouzdro na razítko se jménem = stamp case (?). They sell very
pretty stamp and tissue cases in Miyajima. Never before would I have thought
this might be useful to me but here we are.
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It was cold and everyone was
walking funny and it somehow happened that I thought the word tučňák (penguin)
to a French friend L. For two days, L. would scream tučňák at me at every
occasion. Another day during a kitchen party (kitchening!) he started to shout
that word and, as a domino effect, in a moment the whole table of about ten
people was chanting tučňák tučňák tučňák. I am proud to say that since the tučňák
incident, there are at least to French students, two German students, one
Korean girl, one New Zealander and countless Japanese students who can now say
and remember this word. If nothing else, I have accomplished this.
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During my Czech class, I was teaching
how to say different nationalities in Czech. Particularly popular was Američan
(American). It took me several moments to realize, why they find it so “kawaii”
and funny. Ameri-chan. When teaching about food, they got angry about zmzlina
(ice-cream). Once again, Czechs were accused of hating vowels.
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I found out complaining about
little things often solves them.
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I was confused why I am not
able to turn off the sound on my phone camera when I am using a Japanese sim
card. 盗撮 (tousatsu) = sneak
photography, apparently it´s a thing in Japan and so that´s why my phone
refuses to make silent photos
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With classes from early morning
until late in the afternoon, Fridays have the power to either bring me to the
lowest point (of both mental and physical power) or they make me feel awesome and
strong. Last Friday was a happy one, as I managed to understand all my Japanese
classes during the day and even participated in a group discussion. Some days
are so much better than others.
