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Borang Maklumbalas （Ang, Jess, Lee, Sing Fong ) KOSONG

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Date: 20th September 2019

Time: 2.30 - 4.30pm

Venue: IPGKBA (Japanese learning classroom)

On 20th September 2019, there were 11 nihon no gakusei from Waseda University came to IPGKBA to have a social visit with us. It was a really memorable day for me as it was a rare chance for me to use my Japanese language 😎. Totemo koufun shimashita.

First of all, we have to introduce myself (jikoushoukai) in Japanese to our new friends. Nani! Jikoushoukai! Watashi mada junbi shite nai desu! Without any preparation, I have to jikoushoukai in front of 10 Japanese plus 1 Taiwanese. Luckily I was still able to talk about myself although it was not smooth enough. I realised that watashi no Nihongo wa mada mada dame desu.

After jikoushoukai, we were having a good opportunity to talk to some of the nihon-jin desu. We were giving the chance for us to ask questions towards the Japanese. At first, we were a bit nervous as we were still strangers therefore, most of the time our group kept silently. However, after a while, we started to communicate smoothly as we all knew that this was a really rare chance for us to get to know each others' culture. After these short 2 hours, we would definitely regret for wasting our time just because of the shyness.

In these 22 years after I was born, there were quite a number of time I heard someone said that Japanese were very polite, clean and hardworking. It was the time to evaluate these "rumors". Through these two hours, I realised that most of the "rumors" about the Japanese are truth. Based on my observation, I realised that the Japanese were really polite. They tend to ask permission first before they eat and drink. The nihon no gakusei were quite tidy. For the level of hardworking, I was unable to observe within that 2 hours.

Within that 2 hours I had learnt a lot such as the system of a school. I was told that most of the school in Japan have swimming pool and there is swimming class for them. urayamashiiii. It was a nice experience although I did not have the to bring them out. Totemo sutekidesu.

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Other than getting to know the pedagogy used by teachers in Japan and the Japanese culture, I came to a realisation that language learning is all about making connections with the learners' surroundings. The more opportunity I get to use the language to communicate with native speakers, the more vocabularies I can remember. For instance, I remembered the meaning of the word "Rainen" and "si gatsu" because of hiroki-san. Besides, I was also able to remember the usage of the fillers and the expression sounds. The fillers like "er...", "a.." and "um..."  were common among Malaysian at the beginning of a sentence which is different from the Japanese's "Anou...", "Eto..." and "E...". Kota-san was one of the Japanese students who sat at the same table as me. He often uses "E?" when we told him something that is new to him and "Eto..." when he is thinking for an answer. Even though he answered our questions in English but he still used the fillers when he was speaking. After that, I was able to change the "Malaysian fillers" into the "Japanese fillers" when I am speaking in Nihongo. In fact, the connection between my knowledge of the usage of the fillers academically and the experience of listening to native speakers using the fillers helped me to remember the appropriate fillers to be used.

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This is my second time interacting with Nihon-jin. I was excited when I heard that the Waseda University students will be visiting us. This is one of the reasons why I practised my jikoshoukai to avoid any embarrassment in front of them. When I first saw them, I could feel their enthusiasm in approaching us and know more about Malaysia! They are willing to share everything about Japan.

At my first glance, they were super friendly. When the interaction and QnA session were going on, I realised that we know more about each other. For instance, during the interaction hour, my group shared about our favourite food, artists and manga in which I think this is the best opportunity to get closer to them and also their culture. I asked them regarding which part of Japan is recommended to be visited for vacation, they suggested Oosaka and Tokyo. I wasn't surprised with their recommendation as these places are tourist-visit-place which I am not really want to experience. I felt a bit disappointed in their answers. However, I found the QnA session very interesting as we were required to answer each other's questions about our culture. The one that impressed me was they were surprised with Malaysian's supper culture! Japanese rarely take supper in their daily routine. Due to the time constraint, some of the questions are answered through e-mail and whatsapp.

Their visit enables me to reflect myself as a future teacher. Even though they are almost same age with us, but they look mature, intelligent and hardworking. They attended English courses and able to speak English fluently in which this impressed me a lot. They are willing to learn second language, indicating that they never stop learning. Also, they showed their enthusiasm in knowing other's culture. As a future teacher, I should possess the enthusiasm in teaching by spending more time in recognising students' learning style and catering their needs. With that, I should have explored more ways to implement my teaching in a more meaningful, fun and effective way. As mentioned in the educational emphasis, learning must be fun, meaningful and purposeful. Instead of for the sake of teaching, I have to foster my enthusiasm in teaching in order to produce a more holistic individual in the next generation. In brief, never stop learning!

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They shared their answers through Whatsapp.

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Today we had a visit of a group of Japanese students came from Waseda University. Two years ago, when I was one of the members of Japanese Club, we used to have a visit from the same university. To me, this year the participants were so different compared to the last batch. They were more energetic and out-going. This year, we had 14 students to come and visit us. I felt that they were really shy at first. After that, they slowly became active and enjoyed the activities that we prepared. They were really friendly and polite. I was always amazed by the courtesy of Japanese. We had our jikoshoukai but I guessed they could not remember because there were 25 of us. Similarly, I could not remember their names too. So, when we were separated into small groups, we did jikoshoukai again with more details about ourselves. We asked them questions about their stay in Malaysia, such as food and weather. I found that only some of the Japanese students like spicy food, such as Nasi Lemak and Laksa. It was too bad that the durian season was over when they were here so they did not manage to taste our famous fruit, durian. Throughout the session, we found out one of the students was Taiwanese. His name was Liang Yi Fei. He was very kind and friendly. He even offered us for help in learning Japanese Language. At the end of the session, we sang a classic Malay song, "Rasa Sayang". I was very happy and proud to see the Japanese students were able to sing the song together with us.

All in all, through this session, I have learnt that respecting different culture is important. We need to have the open heart to embrace the culture diversity so that we can enjoy and try out new things to the fullest. I believe that Malaysians are good at this because we live harmoniously in this country with many races. I am very grateful to have the sharing session with the Waseda Daigakku no gaksee desu.

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Today's class was a little bit special. My classmates and I were asked to conduct a cultural sharing session with the students from Waseda University in Japan. Sensei asked us to speak to them in Japanese even though all of them are able to speak in English more fluently. This is the opportunity for us to have a better understanding of the Japanese Language and at the same time making more friends and know more about their culture.

We first introduced ourselves in Japanese to them and had a short Ice-breaking session with them. Next, we were managed into groups and sat down with the Japanese students. I talked to them mostly using English but could also able to understand when they use some new words which we don't learn in class such as "Rainen". One of my groupmates asked them about when will they start working during the discussion session. One of the Japanese student, Hiroki-san, he told us that he will be working starting from April next year. "Rainen no shi gatsu..." Then only I came to a realisation that "Rainen" has the meaning of "last year".

The Q & A session was after the discussion session. I enjoyed this session very much. This is because when each question was asked, my group will have a short conversation about it and we will share more information about our culture for each other. I found it pretty interesting. Towards the end of the session, we introduced the Malay folk song "Rasa Sayang" to the Japanese students. They enjoyed the song very much as I can still hear them singing after the session ends.