Groping in the Dark

Posted on June 20, 2007 by Nene

When I first arrived in Japan, the thing that made me worried was the language. We had to travel from Narita Airport to Sagamihara which was almost 2 hours travel by train and bus. Because of the long travel, I couldn’t help but had to use toilet at the train station. I was surprised when I finished using the toilet I couldn’t flush it, because I couldn't find the lever. Since I studied some Nihongo before I came here, I tried to read the instructions and label on that modern-style toilet which were written in KanjiThe most complex of the three types of characters used in written Japanese. Sometimes called "Chinese characters.". But unfortunately, I couldn’t read it. I started to panic, my sweat started to run down my face until I noticed a hand picture on the button. I positioned my hand in front of the button and I was thankful it worked.

My husband’s parents welcomed me when I arrived and I greeted them in Japanese. As we were having our dinner they were talking, but I hardly understood them. A month had passed and I started to become depressed about my situation. Until my husband’s uncle told us about an organization of volunteers that are teaching Nihongo. I registered with the organization and now I am attending lessons. I noticed a good improvement in my Nihongo skills. Now, I can understand my in-laws fairly well when they talk to me and I can even respond to them in broken Japanese.

If you are interested in learning Japanese you can visit the web site of the organization, < a href="http://www1.odn.ne.jp/sil/English/english1.html" >http://www1.odn.ne.jp/sil/English/english1.html or contact them at:

SAGAMIHARA INTERNATIONAL LOUNGE

2nd floor Promity Fuchinobe Building, 1-9-15

Kanumadai, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 229-0033

The building is near Fuchinobe station, 5 minutes on foot. I usually attend classes every Monday and Saturday at 2:00pm-4:00pm but there are other schedules and other locations for classes. I am only paying 200 yen/per month.

One of my plans this year is to rebuild my personal web site but I can't edit the code yet because the software installed on my PC are all in Japanese characters. Most are written in Kanji. I don't have problem reading HiraganaOne of the three types of characters used in written Japanese. It consists of 48 characters, each representing a syllable. and KatakanaOne of the three types of characters used in written Japanese. Consists of 48 characters, each representing a syllable. Primarily used for the phonetic spelling of foreign words. characters but I can't read sentence/word if there are difficult Kanji characters included. It seems like I am groping in the dark. These Kanji characters and this foreign language are really a big hindrance for me to make any project. Therefore, I have to learn it first before I can begin any project. But I will still try to grope in the dark, maybe I can find out something worthwhile and one of these days I will find some lights.