Home-stay : Part 3

This is the third and final post for my weekend home-stay with a Japanese family, so if you haven’t already read the other two parts, you can find them here(part 1, part 2).

This morning started out with breakfast, and then I was shown around the other house that the grandparent’s daughter’s family live in.  From what I gathered, the grandfather either built or bought the house, but realized that since he was getting older and his legs weren’t as good anymore, he preferred his old house since it was only one story high instead of two.  Anyway, after that, we set off for a city about 1-2 hours away to go on a short cruise on a ferry around part of the lake to see the scenery and learn about the history of both the lake, and the ferry.  Although, I mostly just enjoyed the ferry ride and watched the scenery, since I couldn’t really understand most of the history that was being talked about, since it was all in Japanese.
After that, we drove around for a while looking for a place to eat lunch, and finally settled on the restaurant that was right next to the college I’m studying/living at.
After we finished eating, we returned home for coffee and a last phone call to say good-bye to the relatives I had met before, and then we headed back to the college to finally drop me off.

This will definitely be an experience that I will take with me for the rest of my life.  There were a lot of things I knew, and a lot of things I didn’t.  I found out I know more Japanese than I think, but less than I would like, and the more I try to understand, the less I can because it makes me too nervous, and I end up over-thinking things.
And also, I honestly don’t know why, but in America, I really really don’t like kids……but here, I actually like kids…..so that’s something I learned….
Also, I learned that the average Japanese person knows less English than I thought, but obviously any English is more Japanese than the average American would know, so I guess I can’t complain….
I know now that even the students who come to my college knowing very little English probably know more than the average Japanese person, so I will not be taking that for granted anymore…..
I also realize that when I am in an unfamiliar place with no one who can speak English or translate, I speak very little……and I almost revert back to the way I used to be about 4 years ago……which is slightly frustrating, since I spent 4 years trying to improve on my ability to step outside my comfort zone, only to realize that when push comes to shove, I really haven’t improved at all……..

But, nevertheless, this was definitely an interesting experience that I would love to have again sometime in the future.
If anyone ever gets the chance to do a home-stay in the country that they are learning the language of, I highly recommend it!  It’s definitely a life changing opportunity that I am glad I experienced.
Well, until something interesting happens again then,

じゃあ、まった～

Home-stay : Part 2

Hello again!!!!
This is part 2 of my weekend home stay, so if you haven’t read part 1 yet, please check that out here(x)!

This morning started off with breakfast while watching a Japanese dubbed Korean drama.  Then we headed out for some sightseeing around the city, and walked around a few streets with some tiny shops that I will definitely be visiting again……
After lunch, we drove to see the host grandmother’s older sister(it always amazes me how close family lives in Japan), and I got to meet two of her grand nieces who(from what bits and pieces I could pick up) are either graduated, or graduating from high school and starting college soon…….at least I think……
All I really got was some bits and pieces about being 18 and other talk of school, so that’s what I eventually pieced together……..
Anyway, I always end up understanding younger people better…….I don’t know why……but I have a lot of trouble understanding the older people……
It seems like so far, the younger they are the better I understand them…….
But anyway, basically I got paraded around today and shown off as the “外国人お姉ちゃん” which basically means the “foreign older sister”, but here “older sister” is a polite affectionate term for a young girl/woman.  Although, they eventually figured out that I have a hard time responding to “onee-chan” all the time, and fially settled on either ニコルちゃん or ニコちゃん, which are just affectionate ways to say my name.
After dropping off my host grandmother somewhere (she said where and why, but I didn’t understand…) my host grandfather and I went to a Japanese garden to walk around and have tea until it was time to pick my host grandmother up.
Afterward, we went shopping for dinner, and returned home.  I tried helping with dinner but my host grandmother didn’t let me do much except chop off the ends of the green onions, and slice some sort of root into slivers………
Anyway, we had sukiyaki for dinner, which is rapidly becoming my favorite Japanese food……and something I’m going to miss dearly when I return back to the US, since it involves eating food dipped into raw egg, and we can’t really do that back in the US…..
I met another daughter and her two children, who were super shy at fist, until they realized I could understand about 90% of what they said, and we ended up sitting down and studying Kanji(the Chinese characters) together with the two kids I had met the day before who came over with their parents again.
I got distracted at one point when an English TV program came on(trying to teach kids English) and I got thrown for a loop of nostalgia when I realized how long it had been since I heard a TV program in English……..it was almost weird that I could understand everything without trying……..
After we finished studying kanji, and the kids finished cross examining me about America and what I like about Japan, we played cards again, and I got quizzed on my elementary school math(which I might have forgotten most of).  But in my defense, not only was I was never good at math to begin with, but I got pop quizzed in Japanese by a 9 year old, who had a calculator and was rapid firing addition/subtraction/multiplication/division at me in Japanese……which we quickly learned that first he had to teach me the words plus, minus, multiplied, and divided in Japanese.  Which, then not only did I to remember the words for the mathematical terms, but I also had to be on top of my numbers in Japanese………
Moral of the story?  If you ever want to test if you truly know the basics of math…….do it under pressure in a foreign language………
Anyway, one by one the others returned home for the night, until once again, it was just my host grandmother, grandfather and me.  Usually they go to bed around 10, but my host grandfather and I got caught up in a murder mystery drama that ended up going till 11…..
I was surprised at how much I actually understood, and how absorbed I actually got in the drama without realizing I was translating or understanding the drama without subtitles……
I somewhat regret not doing a semester home stay, since I can tell how much better my listening has gotten even over just 2 days and I’m going to miss the feeling of being part of the family, but I think if I had done a semester home stay, I wouldn’t have had as many opportunities that I did have so far.
I hope I can come back and visit soon…….
Anyway, I guess its time for me to go to bed, so till next time….
じゃあ、またね~

Home-stay : Part 1

Welcome to part 1 of my weekend home stay experience.  Part 2 will be posted shortly after this.~

So, I’m currently writing this on a note app on my phone, and by the time you guys read this, I will be back.  But since I left in such a rush that I didn’t remember to grab any study materials, and I don’t have WiFi, or my laptop, if I want to kill time, this is the only way I can write.

Anyway, for those of you who may or may not know, this weekend all the weekend home-stay applicants are doing our home-stays with a Japanese family for 3 days from Friday-Sunday.
Mine is from a city about 5 minutes away from the college I go to, and they consist of a woman, her husband, their two children, and her parents.  Although, it’s mainly the grandparents that I’m staying with.  The kids are adorable, and I get along best with the younger one, because since he’s young, he still uses “easy” Japanese, and I don’t have to worry about being formal with him when I speak.  Of course, the kansai-ben(dialect) makes things a little difficult, but I’ve managed to figure out the gist of most things……so far…..
So far the kids have taught me 2 new card games, and a boatload of new Uno rules that I’m pretty sure don’t exist anywhere outside this household…..
The mom I think used to be an English teacher somewhere (China?…..maybe?…) so sometimes she can help translate a little…….but not much…..
I thought that living with Japanese roommates for 4 weeks would have taught me how to communicate well enough in Japanese, but oh how I overestimated that………
I guess it’s one thing to live with Japanese people in an English environment, and it’s a completely different story to be in a completely Japanese environment where you literally cannot use English……at all……
Honestly…….it’s a lot more frustrating than I originally thought it would be……
Especially when your brain is super tired from trying to decipher Japanese all day, and decides to default back to English no matter how hard you try…..
As far as I can tell so far…….the mother, husband and kids don’t actually live with the grandparents…….they’re in a different house, but its super close, like 1-2 houses apart, so they stayed the majority of the time in the grandparents house today, and then went back to their house in the evening……
Anyway, I feel bad, because somehow I managed to create some sort of misunderstanding where I think they think I’m studying right now……..but the truth is, I didn’t bring anything to study with me………so…..yeah…..
I wish I were studying……but I actually finished all the homework for Monday, so it would have been slightly pointless anyway…….
Anyway, I’m getting super sleepy so I’ll continue my home-stay recounting after tomorrow….
So untill then,
じゃあ、またね~