tučňák power

-          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.

-          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.

-          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.

-          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.

-          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.

-          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.

-          I found out complaining about little things often solves them.

-          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

-          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.