Jump to content

my first experience with japanese people


dannyboo

Recommended Posts

Hey there

 

This year my town's Kendo club organised the annual New Year's Kendo Training Course that's always held on the five days from the 2nd til the 5th of January. It was a great success but I'm going to tell you some of the stuff that happened to me..

Arguably the most important thing to this annual event are the Sensei that teach us during that time.

This year, we had two japanese guests. Both teach Onoha Ittouryuu are 7th Dan Kyoshi.

I had to pick them up from the airport in Frankfurt (which is 4 hours from where I live).

 

Some info about me:

  • 17 years old
  • haven't had a serious japanese conversation before
  • have been learning japanese for ~18 months

 

I think you can all guess that these aren't the perfect conditions for success.

But, whether I liked it or not, I had to be the one to pick them up because someone had to and I'm the poor guy who's learning Japanese lol--

 

I arrived at the airport.

You should know that at that point I was really nervous as it would be the first time I'd have to use my japanese for anything else than my own entertainment. :wacko:

In my head, I had a list of things that I'd practised beforehand. But all I could remember was

Are you hungry? Are you thirsty? And the polite word for toilet. (otearai)

My nervousness had swallowed the rest :P

 

When the waiting was finally over -and I was ready to make a run for it- the two walked towards me, searching for familiar faces. I bravely approached them. Three seconds later I had already made more cultural mistakes while greeting them than I'd dare to count. (Like forgetting to tell them my name :nervous: [so stupid :saber: ])

Anyway, they're really nice people and luckily they remembered me from last year so they knew they had to go easy on me with their japanese. I asked them if we (I wasn't alone at least) should carry their lugagge and one of them kindly handed me over his way-too-big and way-too-heavy bag..

 

I started walking back, trying to remember which way to go to get back to the parking lots until I realized we had walked past the lifts. So we went back again thinking everything would be alright but when we stepped out, none of the doors through which we had come before on our way to the terminal would open.

We go back up and try our luck with the lifts on the other side of the terminal. Eventually we made our way back to the car. :)

 

 

I believe you're fairly bored after reading this much so I'll make the rest short lol :lol:

 

The hour that followed was filled with questions about me and the location of the training course which I tried my best to answer in reasonably good Japanese. After that they just fell asleep. :rolleyes:

They were a bit shocked when we told them that my coach had invited us all to spend New Year's Eve at his house. But they didn't mind anymore after I told them that there'd be fireworks^^

 

When we arrived, all the nervousness and uneasyness seemed to be washed away and we gradually came to understand each other better and better. Even though I still made a lot of mistakes, the conversation didn't stop anymore and it was a great time for all of us.

 

I fell ill after that due to an allergic reaction and Asthma so I wasn't able to participate in the actual training but I showed up every day to say hello and I met a japanese boy who is an exchange student here in Germany.

I wanted to exchange email addresses so we could keep in touch but unfortunately, I didn't meet him again.

 

 

I learned a lot in that time but I also realized that I still have to study a lot to have a proper conversation.

I'd like to hear about your first experience with japanese if you've had any. Maybe we can all share our stories with each other ^_^

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That really amazing m8

 

I'm not surprised , jp and DE has really great exchange.

 

How did they fought in trainning session? Everyone got wrekt?

 

Couldn't stop laughing at the airport moment, i bet they gave you the typical stare.

 

Also you says your first experience? Didn't you write they recognized you?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That really amazing m8

 

I'm not surprised , jp and DE has really great exchange.

 

How did they fought in trainning session? Everyone got wrekt?

 

Couldn't stop laughing at the airport moment, i bet they gave you the typical stare.

 

They can't go full out in a fight because it's really exhausting. Literally everybody wants to fight them so it's rare to see them really motivated.

But even so they're extremely good and you almost feel like they can predict your movements.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

trust me you can like dem japanese fellows as much as you want, BUT better think twice before adapting some of their habbits, cause the western society isn´t as tolerant as you might believe it is.
especially when it comes to wearing crazy full-body outfits in public or an exessive otoku lifestyle

summary: weird language - weird clothes - weird food - weird sexual habits - very very weird at moaning - weird toilets  = cant live without dem anymore

Link to comment
Share on other sites

trust me you can like dem japanese fellows as much as you want, BUT better think twice before adapting some of their habbits, cause the western society isn´t as tolerant as you might believe it is.

especially when it comes to wearing crazy full-body outfits in public or an exessive otoku lifestyle

 

Honestly, I don't think those two japanese who came to germany would ever consider leading an otaku life. :lol:

But about that full-body wear... I've had that on in public several times but not in everyday situations^^

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It seems like you had a bumpy ride in the beginning but things started to mellow out toward the end. That was quite the adventure you had at the airport. It must have been nerve wracking having to escort your guests, but at the very least I think they'll remember that you were helpful and dependable in that situation. Do you feel you were able to learn more and adapt faster with the Japanese language when you were thrown into the deep end in this situation?

 

I don't personally have a story to tell considering how I haven't really taken it upon myself to get serious about learning Japanese, but I still enjoyed what you had to share with us.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It seems like you had a bumpy ride in the beginning but things started to mellow out toward the end. That was quite the adventure you had at the airport. It must have been nerve wracking having to escort your guests, but at the very least I think they'll remember that you were helpful and dependable in that situation. Do you feel you were able to learn more and adapt faster with the Japanese language when you were thrown into the deep end in this situation?

 

I don't personally have a story to tell considering how I haven't really taken it upon myself to get serious about learning Japanese, but I still enjoyed what you had to share with us.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

interesting read and quite funny to if i may say so.

 

This is only mildly related but last week i found out that my country ( Netherlands) and Japan have a more than 100 year old treaty for free work and living trafic between the country's.

To bad it seems as that my country managed to forget that one as it was found out while trying to resolve a case of illigal working by some japanese in the netherlands.

That also managed to put a smile on my face about the funny things that just seem to happen in life.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

interesting read and quite funny to if i may say so.

 

This is only mildly related but last week i found out that my country ( Netherlands) and Japan have a more than 100 year old treaty for free work and living trafic between the country's.

To bad it seems as that my country managed to forget that one as it was found out while trying to resolve a case of illigal working by some japanese in the netherlands.

That also managed to put a smile on my face about the funny things that just seem to happen in life.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's an interesting thing.. I guess I'll look it up on the net now :o

 

But I find it truly amazing that they resolved the problem that way. I think that nowadays, people would rather send them back or turn their backs on illegal workers from other countries instead of just making the whole idea legal for all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the link, I couldn't really find anything on english websites...

I don't speak Dutch but I do know German so I could make out a few sentences^^

 Let's hope that the good relationship between western countries and Japan grows.

Although I fear that due to ignorance Japan is not taken seriously enough  :/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...