Thoughts on Language February 14, 2008
Posted by Kristen in Kids, Language.add a comment
Of course language is on my mind a great deal these days. When we made the decision to move to Tokyo, I fantasized about spending all my spare time studying Japanese and adding another and much more exotic foreign language to my repertoire. How cool it would be to talk to real Japanese people in their own language! I might even learn how to read, I thought.
In the beginning, it was easy to work hard. It was very exciting to learn something new and thrilling to be able to put words together in new and strange ways, and to be understood. It was a major breakthrough to be able to direct a cab driver to my building, and a crucial one too—since there are no real street addresses in Tokyo and you always have to give directions. I have also mastered the crucial and tricky counters and so I can count two when describing pizzas (nimai), pencils (nihon), kittens (nihiki), people (futari) or any general thing (futatsu). I can order in a restaurant and say “for here” or “to go”. I can ask “what is this?” on a menu and sometimes I might even understand a wee bit of the answer. This was useful in a sushi restaurant recently when we were served something which apparently came from the abdominal region of some kind of fish. And I can read a few kanji, even sometimes useful ones like “restroom”.
Yet as time went by, I got tired. The novelty wore off. And there were fewer and fewer circumstances in which I had to be able to speak Japanese in order to get what I needed. But mostly, I was tired. Each time I dropped Juliet off at school and rushed home to meet my tutor, newly confused and ill-prepared, I felt tense and anxious. Finally I decided it was time to take a break. And so for the last two months, I have not had a single lesson and haven’t learned any new words. I feel bad about this. It makes me feel weak and unmotivated. It makes me feel like a bad guest in my host country.
And yet, I ask myself, what was I gaining by learning Japanese?
And this leads me to a related question, which is: why do we learn language in the first place, and why would we want to learn more than one?
Juliet is now 2-1/2 and is talking up a storm in English. She seems to do very well in Japanese as well, though I’m not the best judge. She took her first big leaps in language over last summer when we were in the States. When we retuned to Japan, I noticed that she was speaking mostly in English to Noriko. She seemed to understand just fine when Noriko spoke to her in Japanese, but she would respond in English. Gradually she stopped, and now I hear her speaking only Japanese. I find this very interesting because Noriko speaks English very well, and Juliet hears me speak to her in English all the time. Yet she seems to accept that Japanese is the language Noriko uses to communicate with her. After the initial transition, it doesn’t seem to be any more difficult for her speak Japanese than English.
A few weeks ago I took Juliet to a birthday party for one of her English-speaking friends. Almost all of the guests were English or American, but there was one Japanese mother there. Her husband was English and their baby understood both languages, though I think she was not yet talking. I was chatting with her in English when Juliet came over to us. She picked up a toy that was on the floor and asked the Japanese woman, “kore nani?” (what is this?). To the best of my knowledge, she had not yet heard the woman speak Japanese.
So I’d love to be able to say that my daughter is completely bilingual and so brilliant that she can determine which language to speak based solely on facial features and/or accent. But of course it’s not that simple, and the pattern is not consistent. Another day we had a Japanese friend of hers from school over for a playdate. Her friend understands very little English and I’m sure they only communicate in Japanese at school. The mother spoke to Juliet in Japanese and Juliet answered appropriately, yet she persisted in speaking English to her friend. I found this very strange, since it seemed clear to me that the little girl had no idea what Juliet was talking about. But on the other hand, she spoke very little. I wonder what would have happened if her friend had answered in Japanese?
And then there are the funny and slightly humiliating instances in which she refuses to listen to me speak Japanese. If I try to say a word in Japanese (for example, pointing to a strawberry and saying “ichigo”), she will correct me (“no, Mommy, that’s a strawberry.”) I wonder what she’s objecting to. Is it because I just don’t say it right? Or is it because the word doesn’t match the person? I tend to think it’s the latter, because if I ask her what Sensei (Teacher) would call it, she will say “ichigo”.
She never gets mixed up, but I have heard her use a Japanese word when she doesn’t yet know the English one. They were learning the names of animals in school, and one of the animals was a camel. I didn’t know this, and the word “camel” had never really come up in conversation before. Then one day we were looking at her Sesame Street word book together and labeling the things on the “C” page. She pointed to the camel and said “racuda” I thought she was saying “it’s a duck”, and so I corrected her and said “no, that’s a camel.” The next week was a special observation day at school and the teacher took out the animal cards they’d been practicing with. Up popped the camel and the children chimed in “racuda” along with the teacher. I felt silly about having corrected her, and yet I realized that it was part of the process of separating the two languages. She didn’t say “camel” to the teacher, but now she knew that “camel” was the word to use with me.
Obviously, we use language to communicate. It is also obvious that young children learn language very quickly and can even learn two at the same time. I know that a large part of the reason I find it difficult to learn Japanese is that I’m no longer a child. But it’s also true that I don’t need to use it in order to communicate. I can get what I need, make friends, talk to my family, eat, sleep, shop, everything—all by speaking my native language or by using my few words of Japanese. I think that a huge part of our drive to learn language is the need to connect with other people. Children are making new connections all the time, creating friendships, trying to figure out their place in the world. As adults, we have already made our most important connections—especially if we are married and have families of our own. And we have the flexibility to seek out other people who speak our own language and make friends with them.
We know that children who move to a new country are able to pick up the new language and speak almost as well as a native, yet adults do not fare so well. But children are also immersed in schools and have a great need to make friends. Adults who move to new countries often go with their families or can form communities of others who speak the same language. What would it be like, I wonder, to go alone as an adult? What if you had to make friends and go to work and do everything in a new language? How long would it take to learn, and how well would you learn it?
Ranting December 13, 2006
Posted by Kristen in Food, Gripes, Language.3 comments
Can I just say how much I don’t want to have my Japanese lesson today? It’s hard and confusing and I never have any time to study. My teacher will come in and ask me some question in Japanese about something we did 2 days ago and I will have no idea what she’s talking about. Then she’ll teach me a new word and I’ll forget it immediately. Then I’ll go out into the city and try to use some word or phrase I was supposed to have learned and get it all wrong.
Yesterday I went to the bakery to buy 8 small rolls. Counting things in Japanese is complicated, because you don’t use regular numbers. There are special counters for things, and the type of counter you use depends upon the type of thing. Suddenly I realized that I’ve used the counter for 1 (hitotsu) and 2 (futatsu) many times, but I completely forgot the counter for 8. I stood silently for a few seconds, then finally gave up and held up 8 fingers. The helpful saleswoman said, “eight?”. Now I can be incompetent in 2 languages.
I ordered a pizza online last night. I felt very proud of myself because I did something different this time: instead of a plain pizza with the same toppings, I planned to order one of their special pizzas. I found the one I wanted on the menu and read the name in katakana: Domino’s veggie. I clicked on the picture and read the ingredients in katakana. I selected the pizza, then went on to complete the order. I didn’t bother to read the finished order when the confirmation screen came up because it’s and effort to read Japanese and it didn’t seem necessary. Oops. When the pizza arrived, it was a pizza Margherita, a plain pizza with additional fresh tomatoes and basil. Not what I had my heart set on. (But as I said to Isabella, it could have been worse: we could have ended up with sea urchin pizza!).
I want to order pizza from Lombardi’s on Spring Street, or from Two Boots Pizza. In English. I want Chinese from Buddha House, Indian from the place on Bleecker Street. I want to pick up a roast chicken for dinner from Gourmet Garage. I want a good bagel. I want decaffeinated coffee. I want my Netflix movies back. I want to have time to watch a movie again.
I think fatigue is beginning to set in.
Branching Out November 21, 2006
Posted by Kristen in Kids, Language, Tokyo Adventures.add a comment
I started this post over a week ago, then got overwhelmed with preparations for Thanksgiving. Here, belatedly, are some of my recent adventures getting around this unusual city.
A couple of weeks ago, I went in search of an electronics store to buy a webcam and headset for my computer. I decided to go to one called Bic Camera, because I’d been to the store before and I have a “pointo cardo” (they’re really into point cards here). I set out for Shibuya, thinking that was the location of the store I’d been to before. It turned out this was a different store, and I wasn’t sure where to find it. I wandered around for awhile and tried to just enjoy exploring without worrying too much about finding anything. This worked for some time, but then I began to get annoyed because I really wanted the webcam and headset. I found a map near the subway station and located the store on the map. I set off in what I thought was the right direction, but couldn’t find the store. So I checked the map again, and found another location for the store in another direction. I walked up that street and looked, still to no avail. I walked many blocks, knowing it was too far. This is when I stumbled upon Colonel Sanders as Santa Claus. Finally, I found a policeman and asked him. He pointed me back in the direction I had come and added helpfully “right-hand side”. By this time I was determined to find it, so after walking back several blocks, I began walking slowly and looking for electronics. I listened closely. At last, I heard it: “bic-a bic-a bic-a bic camera!”, that inane little jingle that they always play outside the store. I looked up, and sure enough, there it was: The sign. Plain as day. Written in katakana.
It had never occurred to me that the sign would not be in English.
(Okay, in my defense, most big stores have signs in English–even those wtih Japanese names like Takashimaya.)
Another day, I decided to walk to the American Club. I had been told by a couple of different people in my building that it takes about 25 minutes to walk. I had never tried before, and thought it was time. Why had I never walked this relatively short distance in the 2 months I’ve been here? Well, because it’s nearly impossible to find things in this city. Why?
There are not street names in Tokyo.
Okay, to be fair, there are some major avenues that have names. Think University Avenue, Franklin Avenue, the West Side Highway, Broadway. But most streets are tiny little windy roads that are barely wide enough for 2 cars to pass and usually have no sidewalks. And they have no names. So you can look at a map, but you can’t actually find any of the streets unless you have really good spacial reasoning, which I apparently don’t. I took my map with me on this walk and I still got lost several times. But I persevered. I even asked directions from a Japanese person, a friendly-looking woman with young children. Later, lost again, I asked a policeman who spoke very good English. He directed me in a very roundabout way that didn’t seem to make sense according to my map. I asked if I couldn’t go a more direct way, and he said no, that wasn’t the way people go. So of course, being the stubborn, independent American I am, I had to try it my way anyway. And he was right: the “direct” way got me to the service entrance of the club with no way around to the front door. I had to walk around several blocks and up a hill with the stroller to finally get to the front entrance.
After an hour and 5 minutes, I finally made it to the entrance to the club. At this point, I hardly needed the workout–but would you have skipped it after all that effort? I went to the gym anyway.
I think I finally have to accept the fact that in order to learn my way around here, I have to be willing to get lost. Many times. This will be a challenge for me because I am very uncomfortable when I’m lost. And can’t read a map. And can’t ask for directions. It will be a good exercise in letting go, I think. It’s time to branch out a little more.
I’ve met some new people in our building during the past few weeks. Two women who live on the floor below decided to host a coffee for all the stay-at-home moms in the building and I got to meet and talk to several of the women I have seen in the elevator and the halls. It was a great relief to talk to new people and make new connections. And of course, several of them have children close in age to Isabella and Juliet. I was especially glad to meet our new neighbor down the hall, who had just moved from New Jersey with two girls, ages 4 and 6, who are also going to the New International School. To top it off, the older girl is named Isabella! The girls met soon after, and have been running down the hall to visit each other almost every day. Even better for my Isabella was getting to meet Rachel, 10, and Hana, 8, who live just downstairs. They grew up in Tokyo with a Japanese mother and an English father and go to an international school nearby. Isabella likes to hang out with the older girls and get help with her Japanese homework. It makes a big difference for us both to add more people to our social circles. And I think it’s great for Isabella to have friends she can visit completely independently. Finally, she can say “Bye, Mom, I’m going to Rachel and Hana’s. See you later!”
Now, if I can just figure out how to get her to come home on time . . . .
Juliet’s first Japanese Word November 10, 2006
Posted by Kristen in Kids, Language.add a comment
Yesterday morning at Gymboree music class, Juliet handed her blankie to the teacher (see the picture below) and said “dozo.” This means “here you go” in Japanese. Yippee!
Her words in English so far include “baby,” “ball,” “no,” “okay,” and “oh-oh.”
Reinventing A Name November 1, 2006
Posted by Kristen in Language.add a comment
One of the interesting things I have found about reading English words in Japanese is the way they use different vowels to approximate our strange pronunciation. For example, the “a” sound is used for words ending in “-er” or “-or”:
エレバーター
ay-ree-bay-tah
Elevator
I keep thinking that they will pronounce it using the vowel sounds that correspond to the spelling, as in Italian, which would give something like this:
ay-ray-bah-to-ru
(There is no “l” in Japanese, but they way the say “r” is very close; there is also no “v”. Consonant sounds are always paired with a vowel, with the exception of “n”, so you have to add something to the end of the word.)
Obviously, this sounds much less like the English word. Their system clearly makes sense, especially since they use an entirely different system of writing. Why not spell it the way it’s supposed to sound?
My Japanese teacher arrived last week with katakana cards to spell “Poppele”. She had first asked me how it was pronounced, then brought the letters to create that pronunciation. After a bit of discussion, I realized that there was more than one possible way of writing it and that I had a choice. How interesting, to get to create one’s name anew! I began experimenting with different sounds to try them out.
First, there was the pronunciation using the Italian “e” (“ay”) sound:
ポペリ
Poh-pay-ri
Then I tried out a middle “ah” sound:
ポパリ
Poh-pah-ri
The last choice was the least obvious, “u”
ポプリ
Poh-poo-ri
Then I asked Noriko to pronounce each choice for me to hear. To my surprise, it was the last one that sounded most like the way I say Poppele.
But is it really finished here? As I was writing this, it occurred to me that there is yet another choice:
パプリ
Pah-poo-ri
This one comes much closer to the “o” sound in the initial syllable “Pop”. But it’s a little strange, since the vowel is an “a”.
So what is my name? Do I want people to call me by a name that is closest to the way we currently pronounce it, with all of its strange American vowels, or closer to the letters we use to spell it?
What do you think?
A Visitor From America October 26, 2006
Posted by Kristen in Language, Tokyo Adventures, Visitors.1 comment so far
Earlier this week we had our very first visitor from the U.S. My brother Jon is here in Japan for his annual Aikido training, and was able to extend his visit by a few days in order to spend some time with us. He arrived in Tokyo on Sunday afternoon and had no trouble getting into the city on the comfortable airport bus to a nearby hotel. He astonished us all by sleeping until nearly 11:00 am Monday morning, a near impossibility with the 14-hour time difference!
We had a low-key day on Monday. We began with a stroll through nearby Arisugawa Park, a beautiful and lush landscaped park a few blocks from our apartment. Juliet enjoyed watching the ducks in the pond and we discovered a surprising black and yellow spider on a web between some trees. 
Further along, we went up the hill and found a lovely little waterfall. The park also includes a fairly nice (though rather dirty) playground that I visit with Juliet almost every day. We had a slightly adventuresome lunch at a noodle shop that had no menu in English but did have plastic food on display outside so that we could point to what we wanted. We found that there is something unexpected about ordering more than one of something: when Jon pointed to one bowl and said “ni” (which means “two”), the woman did not seem to understand and kept holding up fingers to ask how many. Mark and I had experienced the same problem before when ordering food. We resolved to find the answer to this puzzle soon.
Monday night was our now regular treat, kaiten sushi at Roppongi Hills. This time was a first for me, however, as we had a babysitter for Juliet and I got to eat my sushi without any little hands grabbing for my food! Isabella ordered several special plates by herself, to be sure she got her favorites without wasabe. It was exciting to see her trying out new words and being so brave.
On Tuesday Noriko came to babysit for Juliet and Jon and I set out for a day of sightseeing. Before we left we asked her about the mystery of ordering two of something. The answer is that in Japanese, they don’t use the same numbers for counting 1-2-3 as they do for saying a number of objects. If you want two of something, you have to say “futatsu”. (That is, of course, unless it’s something flat. Then it’s “nimai”. Long and thin–”nihon”. Two people is “futari”. Got that? There will be a quiz tomorrow). Jon and I resolved to use this at lunch today.
This was my very first day as a tourist in Japan! Knowing almost nothing about sightseeing in Tokyo, we went for the most obvious sites. First we visited the very famous temple Senso-ji at Asakua. 
It was a cold and rainy day but we still enjoyed walking around the temple and surrounding shrines, and browsing the nearby tourist shops. Jon was especially interested in all the elegant hakama in different designs and colors. They wear these for Aikido, but only in basic black. We found a tempura place for lunch and tried out our new word, “futatsu”. Hooray, it worked! Another mystery unlocked.
Next we got back on the subway and headed for the Imperial Palace. Although the palace and most of its grounds are off-limits, there are many other beautiful gardens to stroll through. We walked by the Budokan, which wasn’t much to see. We found the Science Museum but decided not to go in, as it would be a good place to visit with Isabella. Eventually we found our way to the Crafts Museum and perused the special exhibit, a display of modern Japanese jewelry that is at times elegant, avant-garde, whimsical, or even silly. It was the kind of unusual and pleasantly unexpected site that one occasionally happens upon during this sort of stream-of-consciousness sightseeing. Back home with aching feet, there was just time for Jon to pack up his one compact bag and head for the train.
A Lesson in Katakana October 21, 2006
Posted by Kristen in Language.add a comment
Japanese writing is made up of 3 separate alphabets: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. Hiragana and katakana are phonetic alphabets, with one symbol representing each consonant-vowel combination (such as ta, so, chi, etc.) and katakana is used just for words of foreign origin. Kanji is the same system of picture-writing that is used in China. There are about 1500 kanji in regular use (or was it 2000?). They are all used together, to make things even more confusing. During our limited time here in Japan, it will be impossible to learn much in the way of kanji, but hiragana and katakana are entirely possible.
I have now had 2 Japanese lessons and have begun to learn katakana. Here is a website that shows the entire chart along with their sounds: http://www.tokyowithkids.com/fyi/katakana_chart.html. So far, I’ve learned the a, ka, sa and ta rows. I’ve been delighted to find that I still have the brainpower to memorize new symbols and I’m having a lot of fun with it.
Yesterday I picked up my bag of baby carrots and was delighted to find that I could decode a word on the label!
Here is my first word in katakana:
スイート
The long dash-like line is used to indicate that the vowel of the preceding letter is a long vowel. If you decode this, it says “su-i-to”, which is pronounced something like “sweet”. So here it is, the first word I’ve ever read on my own in Japanese! I’m very excited.
Later in the day, I also read this word: タクシー (ta-ku-shi). Can you guess what this means?
Furniture in Translation October 11, 2006
Posted by Kristen in Food, Gripes, Kids, Language, Tokyo Adventures.add a comment
When I woke up this morning, the day ahead seemed relatively simple and manageable. The plan was this: in the morning, the furniture rental company would come to pick up our rental furniture; in the afternoon, our new furniture would be delivered. As I had already braved Ikea on my own last week, and had all of that furniture safely delivered yesterday (well, all I was able to buy–but that’s still a story for another time), I thought this would be very easy.
I had asked Noriko to come at 9:00 so that I could be sure she would be here when the rental guys came. Once she arrived, I finished up the task of stripping the beds and cleaning off the tables. The guys finally arrived around 10:00. The removal took a little longer than I had anticipated but went smoothly. They were helpful and accommodating when I asked them to move the TV from the living room into the den (it’s their TV, but we’re keeping it for awhile longer). At 11:30 they were gone. The furniture delivery was supposed to come between 1:00 and 3:00, so I decided to go out for lunch and do some errands. As Isabella’s birthday is coming up, I had to buy cake making ingredients and supplies (cupcakes to bring to school tomorrow, and a cake for the family celebration). After a quick sushi lunch, I managed to find everything I needed for the cake. Granted, the cake pans cost $9 each, but I was happy to find them. I had better luck with the plastic boxes in which to transport the cupcakes, which I found at the 100 yen store–which means they cost 100 yen apiece, around 85 cents. I got home right at 1:00. The furniture delivery team from IDC arrived at around 2:00. Consistent with the high level of service in Japan generally, and with this rather upscale store in particular, the salesman who had helped us came along to oversee the delivery. It seemed like overkill at the time, but I soon found out that it was a very good thing.
After they rang the doorbell and I let them into the building, it took quite some time before they came up to the door. I wondered if they were moving the truck or something. When they finally arrived, the salesman told me that they were here to deliver the furniture but that there was a problem. Apparently, they were greeted at the front door by the superintendent who informed them that they would have to put up protection on all of the walls, including the stairwell and elevator, before they could move any furniture. And, apparently, this was very unusual and they were not prepared for it. The super had told them that if they could not do it, they would have to come back another day. Now if you’ve been following the story carefully, you’ll realize that we had no furniture at all in the apartment at this point.
Our helpful salesman told me that he would do everything possible to deliver the furniture and suggested that I come with him to the building office to talk to the super. What followed was about 45 minutes of me listening to people talk to each other very politely and with strained smiles on their faces, after which I would be informed by Mr. Salesman that they still said no. The main office was called. The man authorized to make the decision was in a meeting and we were told to wait 20 minutes to speak to him. Mr. Salesman politely said no, they should call him out of the meeting to talk to us (at least that’s what he told me he said). Then Mr. Super decided to come and look at the truck and see the furniture to be moved. The verdict at this point was no, it could not be moved without required protection. At this point I explained that I had a child to pick up from school in an hour and a half, after which I would have to sit them down to dinner somewhere and put them to bed, all of which would be very difficult without furniture! Finally Mr. Guy-in-Charge was out of his meeting and called Mr. Super and everyone spoke to him, except that Mr. Super wouldn’t let me speak to him. This was very frustrating, as Mr. Guy-in-Charge turned out to be the real estate agent who had showed us the apartment and who has been our main contact on all apartment issues. In short, he’s the one person I could have actually asked for help. But finally, for a reason that was never clear to me, Mr. Super decided that they could move the furniture if they were very careful and if he supervised to make sure they didn’t scratch the walls.
At this point, I came back up to the apartment to see how Noriko and Juliet were doing. Juliet was in bed, and Noriko had decided to help out by starting to put together Isabella’s new dresser from Ikea. A truly kind and thoughtful gesture, really, but now this meant that we were committed to finishing the project today. Now Ikea furniture is relatively straightforward to assemble, but it is not trivial. You really need to have 2 people (thanks for the tip, Caryl!) to fit some of the pieces together. It went fairly smoothly until we got to the point where you were supposed to put the back on. Step 1, nail in top left corner of back piece. Step 2, nail in top right. Step 3, nail in bottom left and right. Step 4, nail in the rest of the 30 nails provided.
In spite of the 30 nails (and managing to only poke one through to the inside of the drawer), we were nearly finished by 4:00, time to leave and pick up Isabella. I asked Noriko to go and stayed to finish the dresser. Juliet, thankfully, continued to sleep. The lovely furniture from IDC was progressing nicely. Finally, the day was winding down. At around 5:00, all the new furniture was in place, Isabella was home and Juliet up. The only problem at this point was that I had never managed to get anything simple to make for dinner. Then a brilliant idea struck me–why not have Noriko help me order a pizza?
They have Domino’s and Pizza Hut here; the only problem, of course, is that you need to be able to actually communicate to the person on the phone if you want to order a pizza. Therefore, we had not tried this before. I didn’t have any menus, having thrown them all away because I couldn’t read them. So I decided to go on the internet. You can follow along on my journey at http://www.dominos.jp/ . When I saw the website, I got the idea that I could create a web account so that I could order by myself in the future. Okay, if you’re following along with me, you probably see that this is a ridiculous idea. But if you’d had the day I had, you’d understand my desperation! With Noriko’s help, I got as far as entering in all my personal informatin (including, for some reason, my gender and birthdate). But when I tried to click on the button to create the account, I got an error. It seems you have to type your name in Katakana, one of the 3 Japanese scripts. I guess I was getting a wee bit obsessed at this point, because I decided to try to figure out how to do this on my computer. I thought maybe I could enter the text in Word and then cut and paste. I checked Help for Word, which then led me to Microsoft Office help on the web, and on and on. I found that support for Asian languages in installed by default in Windows XP, and even managed to get a little drop-down menu on my toolbar. But even when I set it to Japanese, nothing happened. Alas, I was foiled. No web account today.
In the end, Noriko called in my order. We got a large pizza with sausage and mushrooms, for about $20.50. I guess those stories about the price of pizza in Japan are at least partly true. But on the positive side, you don’t tip here. And the happy ending is that they now have our name and address in their computer and can retrieve it with our phone number. We also learned that there is usually someone there who speaks English and that if we speak slowly, they may be able to take our order. This is a major breakthrough in dining convenience! And the pizza, despite the very strange-looking yellow cheese, was very good. The crust was definitely superior to Domino’s in New York.
Now if you’ve been paying attention, you’ll recall the bit about the cupcakes above. Ah yes, the cupcakes. For tomorrow at school. Once Juliet was in bed, Isabella and I had cupcakes to bake. At least here, I had the sense to take a reasonable shortcut: I bought a Duncan Hines cake mix at National Azabu, the international supermarket down the street. Now, finally, the cupcakes are baked and cooled and merely await topping with the violet-colored buttercream frosting we made. (Yes, they have food coloring here–but it is a powder. We opened the little boxes to take out the little bottles and found tiny spoons. You dip the tiny spoon into the powder and dump it into your food, trying not to get it all over your clothes in the process. Thank goodness Isabella had the idea for us to put on aprons!)
And now at long last, I will put the sheets on my new bed and then sit down for a few minutes on some of our very comfy new furniture. The new day will start too early once again, and I have cupcakes to deliver.
School woes October 10, 2006
Posted by Kristen in Language, School.add a comment
After two and a half weeks, it seems that the novelty of the new school has worn off and the stress is beginning to set in. Isabella confided in me this afternoon that she had had a bad day because her friends were making fun of her on the bus. What did they say, I asked? Well, she said, they were teasing her about the way she was talking to her magical cat. It seems she has a magical spell-cat, whose real name is too long to say or type, but whom she calls Adeedah in spell-language. Adeedah speaks all languages; Isabella speaks to her in spell-language. I asked her more about her day and about the other kids in her class. Apparently, most children are more comfortable in Japanese than English and they speak Japanese to each other all the time in school. Sometimes she hears her own name but can’t understand what they’re saying about her. It seems that it’s really hard to be the only one who can’t speak Japanese. Luckily, she now has a friend to whom she can speak in a language only she can understand.
Isabella went on to sing for me some of the songs her cat had taught her today, such as “The Star Spangled Banner” (okay, she called it “Oh Say Can You See”). Interestingly enough, spell-language has pronunciation and intonation that sound very Japanese.
Beginnings October 8, 2006
Posted by Kristen in Kids, Language, School, Tokyo Adventures, Travel.add a comment
It seems that it’s about time I started recording some of our adventures and thoughts about our new life in Tokyo. A blog seems the best way to do it. Here, then, begins my novice attempt.
To start, I’m going to cheat a bit and copy from some emails I sent recently. Chances are, you’ve already read what follows. I apologize for the repition; still, it makes this a more complete journal.
How it all began . . . .
Here we are, at last, settled in Tokyo. Mark was given the opportunity to move here for a few years to head up computer system development in several areas for the Asia region of his company. We think we will be here for about 3 years. We are really excited to have the opportunity to live in Japan, especially for the opportunities it will give for Isabella (who will be 8 in a week) and Juliet (now 14 months) to learn a new language and experience another culture. Once we made the decision to relocate, we had to move fast in order to get Isabella settled in school as close to the start of the year as possible. Here’s what we’ve been up to!
After the possibility of this move first came up in mid-June, we had a whirlwind of a summer. Following a trip to Glacier National Park with the Poppele family and a short visit to Seattle to visit friends, we returned to New York to begin the enormous task of preparing for the big move. We came to Tokyo for a week in August to look for housing and find a school for Isabella. Back in New York, we spent some time at the summer house we had already rented in Croton-on-Hudson and tried to see friends and tie up loose ends. We spent Labor Day weekend in Mayfield, Kentucky with Mark’s family. Isabella began the school year at her old school in New York while I tried to sort through all our worldly possessions, figure out Juliet’s vaccination schedule, get fluoride vitamins, take a truckload of stuff to Goodwill, sell the car (making 2 visits to the DMV in the process), and plan a farewell party for Isabella, just to name a few things. It was a crazy couple of weeks, ending with 3 nights at the lovely Holiday Inn Chinatown after our furniture had been packed up and sent to storage. Our New York apartment is now empty and awaiting tenants to whom we hope to sublet.
We left New York on Saturday, September 16 and arrived in Tokyo on Sunday the 17th.
We were able to move right into our apartment with rental furniture, dishes and linens. Then we began the enormous task of getting settled here! We applied for our residence permits. We got the all-important cell phones. We have finally bought some furniture of our own and expect it to be delivered next week. Isabella has started school and Juliet is enrolled in a class at Gymboree. We have found a Japanese babysitter for Juliet. Mark had just begun to get settled at work when he left on Saturday for a business trip to New York.
Every day is an adventure, and usually exhausting. It is very frustrating to be unable to communicate, and even more frustrating to be unable to read! I went to the drugstore to buy lotion, and couldn’t find any. Dozens of bottles labeled in Japanese, and no clue as to what they contained. Some things are easier, such as baby food, which has helpful pictures of the ingredients on the label.
Isabella is in 3rd grade at the New International School. She has Japanese as an Additional Language every day. Her regular classroom has a both an English and a Japanese teacher, and lessons are given in both languages. Every child learns violin as part of music class, so she has been working hard on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. The curriculum revolves around themes and they are currently studying the ocean. In the first week they made an enormous accordion book with the help of a professional artist. The school is not close, and she has a bus ride of more than an hour each way. It is a long and tiring day. But she has made several friends and is happy at school, and we are delighted with the opportunities it provides.
Juliet has a terrific new babysitter named Noriko. She is the mother of an 8-year-old boy and lives nearby. She and her husband are separated and she wants to work to become independent, so she’s babysitting while studying at home for a license in early childhood education. She will speak to Juliet only in Japanese, and last week went to the library to get some Japanese picture books for them to read together. She’s also an enormous help to me. Last week, I planned a furniture shopping trip by myself to Ikea (more on that adventure later!) and asked her somewhat casually if she knew how to take the train there. The next day, she arrived with the instructions written out in complete detail: which station to go to, which side of the street to enter on, the exact fare, and every single stop along the route written out! She’s a real treasure and I feel incredibly lucky.
Mark and I will begin our language lessons soon with the JAL Academy (that’s JAL as in Japan Airlines–I guess they have to train a lot of people in Japanese!). We will each have a teacher who comes to us a few times a week. As it turns out, it is pretty easy to get around here without speaking Japanese (unless, of course, you want to buy lotion). That’s nice for now, but it means we will have to put a concentrated effort into studying if we really want to learn the language. And we really do! I want to learn Japanese just for the fun of learning a new language, and so that I can talk to people here and learn more about the country. And if we’re here long enough, I really want to send Juliet to a Japanese preschool. That means I’ll have to be able to communicate somewhat with the teachers. I hope if I start now, I’ll be able to do that in a few years.
