

I came to Fukui with a group of about 20 new ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers). Surprisingly enough, I am one of only 3 or 4 people in the group that speaks Japanese and has lived in Japan previously. This, apparently, makes me actually useful at times. An example from a trip yesterday to the beach:
Two girls approach a surfer from South Africa (not a joke, we have a surfer from South Africa in the group) and start speaking in Japanese, "Hello, what country are you from?"
...he replies with a blank stare
I glide over, "he's from South Africa"
"Africa?! You're both from Africa?"
...blank stare
"no, just him. I'm from the states"
"you speak English in South Africa?"
..."uh, yes? English."
The rest of the conversation pivoted around my ability to translate back and forth between the young women and the guy with whom they really wanted to speak. Sure, they'd rather only speak with the cute long-haired foreigner, but without the nerd associate all they'd have for conversation is blank stares.
It's good to be back.
1 comment:
I just love the manhole covers in Japan.
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