Today, I went to a barbeque with Nakai Sensei and his church. It was very very good and incredibly fun. There was one girl there who was 16 and a few college students. I also went with David, so there was no lack of people to talk to. It was a successful day for me for several reasons. I had no problems mingling with everyone. I always have problems mingling. Why not here, in Japan? I did not take up the stupid, I-don't-know-what's-going-on role (another thing I did fairly regularly in the U.S. but not here) and I spoke and I understood and they understood me. I could follow pretty much everything said to me. A few people didn't make any effort to slow down or use really easy words either (at least I don't think). In fact, a few times, they would address their questions to a translator and I would answer them before the translator would get the chance to translate. Yeah, I'm so cool. It felt really good when Nakai Sensei (who is absolutely fluent in English) came by to see if I needed any linguistic help and saw me participating in a conversation. Also, I enjoy answering questions about America. I can. I am an authority on American culture. That's wierd. But I like it a lot. I like being listened to and I think it's exciting to be able to share my culture with these people. And it helps me find my own cultural identity to hear their questions.
I chased little kids who didn't even know I couldn't speak their language and talked to me with the expectation that they would be understood. Score for me. I participated in an outdoor tea ceremony and I think I butchered every aspect of it, but it was mecha interesting. And I kicked hard core butt in a tug of war contest. Even when a big strong man went to the other side to help them. I totally beat him and all his manliness. The whole church group stopped what they were doing to be impressed with me. Haha, I love it. This much attention and praise for one person can't be healthy.
I have fallen in love with communicating. I love it when people talk to me. I love talking to other people. I love being expected to be able. More than able. I am what I wanted to be when I was little looking at the big 18 year-olds. I am what I wanted to be when I was 17 looking at the big 18 year-olds.
Before I left, I heard that the common amount of time it takes an exchange student to be able to communicate effectively is three months. But I also heard that this deadline doesn't apply to Asian countries because the language is so incredibly different (I can vouch for that). I expected not to understand anything until maybe the fifth or sixth month. I'm two months into the exchange and I can communicate fairly easily. Of course, I couldn't fool anyone (well, unless the anyone is 3 or 4 years old...) into thinking I'm a native speaker, but I can fool people into thinking I've been studying for years. Today, many people asked me how long I've been studying Japanese. Surely I've been taking in high school for a few years, right? Haha! I'm so cool I can hardly handle it.
And then, to complete my successful day, I read an adevertisment all in kanji for a tire shop. Yeah! I read kanji all by myself!
The only thing wrong with today is that I got a little bit more cocky. I've become so full of myself that I'm only serving to support the idea that Americans are uhm, I can't remember the word that means full of yourself. Arrogant! Yeah, I've become arrogant and it feels so good I don't care.
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