07/03/2005: "Wakuru? �u‚í‚©‚é�v"

"Wakaru", first off, is a verb (doesn't that help???). It means, basically, "understand". You know, I wakaru, you wakaru, he/she wakaru. If you're in Japan for any period of time, your Japanese is questionable, and you're speaking to a native speaker, you'll hear this alot. Along with its many variations: wakarimasen, wakarimasu, wakaranai, wakatte, and whatever else can be done that I don't know yet.

Here's where things get really strange: my Japanese, by my own admission, sucks. Really bad. If someone tried English like I do with Japanese, I'd be.. curious, at best. I've only completed one year of Japanese. Most people in Japan have taken about six years of English. Six. Unless they pursue it further or care much about the language, most of the time this English is not good enough to carry a conversation. In fact, usually it's easier to talk to the person in Japanese than English. This is why people say the Japanese school system's approach to teaching English is horribly messed up. What they learn is clearly not practical, useful, nor likely even applicable.

Friday, I did the vocational school in the afternoon and then went on to play badmitton (or however this mysterious sport is spelled.. I haven't played it since I was 10) with some of my students from the class. I also found out that they have some clubs at the vocational school. With any luck, I'm going to try to join one if I can, so I can get out and do something more often, maybe learn something new (or just try to join the karaoke club.. it sounds like alot of fun, and the students in it are really nice). Later, my evening class was cancelled so I went and walked around the department store. I ran across one of my vocational students there, so we stopped and talked for about 15 minutes. Thought about trying English for a bit (after all, it's my native language and she's in a class to learn English), but.. she really doesn't seem to know much English. I'm actually quite pleased that I managed to hold a conversation for that long in Japanese, though. I always get terribly worried whenever I need to converse with someone for any period of time, other than asking simple questions. But, I guess that's how you learn.

Today (Sunday), I went to the kindergarten sports festival. It was about.. 4.5 hours long? I didn't really do much, since I'm only semi-staff at the kindergartens, but it was alot of fun to watch. There's alot that can be taken in culturally by watching the school festivals, actually. Afterward, I helped clean up, moved on to the after-festival meeting (that was all in Japanese that I didn't understand) and then had some random Japanese girl walk up to me to tell me.. something. By the waving of her arms and what I understood, apparently I was going to get in her car. Normally, I have a problem with getting in the car with some person I've never met that speaks a language I hardly understand, but.. well, this isn't the first time it's happened here, so why not! She was actually pretty nice and interesting to talk to.. though she knew not only didn't know much English, but she also didn't like it, so she hardly studied it through high school. Yes, this means I got to break out my scary Japanese.

Oh, and I was given a can of peaches and a tea kettle. Why? I don't really know. But these are the perks you get for getting in close with the kindergarten staff. Yay!

I have about 20 minutes until the library closes, and then another half-hour to kill until I need to get to my evening lesson. Two hours of a lesson followed by an hour drive home, and then I can watch the original Star Wars trilogy.. in Japanese! I've seen the movies so many times, I already know the script.. so I really don't mind. I just hope I'm home in time to watch ESB and RotJ.

So.. gotta go. I'll write later, when I can. For those I haven't replied to yet.. sorry. I'll try to in the next few days!


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