新しい授業 (New classes)

I have got one new lesson to my weekly timetable at Fukuoka University. Since I have studied German for many years and I know that one German teacher here, I asked if I could join some class of his to practice my forgotten German. After that I have joined a German conversation class a couple of times and I have come to realize how disappeared my German skills actually are. I can understand pretty well what I hear but talking is so difficult because I get only Japanese words and phrases to my mind. Luckily the level at the class is not high so I am still more of a help than a burden for the Japanese students.

Last Saturday I had TA for half a day. There were some international students coming all the way from Beppu (Eastern Kyushu) who were leading the groups of Japanese students so this time we TA's were just assisting them. Somehow I was told to be the partner for the only Vietnamese leader and even my friend was wondering out loud how I always end up to meet Vietnamese people. It was a fun TA session when we played games and made a presentation in a tv-program style.

After the TA I went to Hakata with my Taiwanese friend to meet my Finnish friend who came to Japan together with my family but who stayed here for a longer time. Finding an available hostel was a little bit tricky but we got lucky to find a brand new hostel with super nice staff. While waiting for my Finnish friend to get to know the hostel and its rules, me and my other friend were talking with an Australian guy who also had signed for the same hostel. In the end he ended up to join us for karaoke nearby our dormitory where one can also eat free ice cream as much as one likes. That is so best place! Since my friend had decided to travel around in Kyushu, I took his big luggage to the dorm so that it is easier for him to travel. It surely made his life easier because bot of the wheels broke down the day before and one needed to carry it or drag it with lots of power.

On Monday after TA I took the same bag to bring it back to my friend. I felt a little bit exhausted already when I got out of the dormitory yard and thought that it will be a long way to the subway station. Luckily there were two Japanese guys who passed me and surprisingly they asked if they would carry the bag. As a result, I got help and company all the way to the station. Just how nice Japanese can sometimes be! I spent the evening with two of my Finnish friends (one had joined us from the Northern Japan where he lives at the moment) and we visited Fukuoka Tower. It was third time for me there but the view is so beautiful every single time. This time they had a different kind of decorations both outside and inside. Inside there were also some trees for people to hang wishes on their branches.

I don't normally have classes to Tuesdays but an acquaintance of mine had asked a professor of education if I could join his lecture. So I tried to quietly just sit in the corner of a classroom with closer to 100 Japanese students and be unnoticeable but the professor started the lesson by mentioning about me to everyone. Besides they continued on a topic about Finnish education and the professor sometimes asked my opinion or if something really is true. More than once I had to admit to him that I didn't understand the question or what they had talked about. All my Japanese lessons and my Vietnamese lessons are in Japanese but I surely came to realize that following pretty well on those classes doesn't mean I could follow any class in Japanese. Many times I had no idea what the professor was talking about or what was written in his powerpoint but it was somewhat an interesting experience to see a Japanese educational course lecture.

The rest of the day went quickly when I helped my Finnish friends to find souvenirs, played fun games at a gaming hall in Hakata and went to a conveyor belt sushi bar Sushiro to have a dinner with other two friends of mine. It never stops amazing me how one can eat so many sushis and desserts with 10-15 euros and be super full afterwards!

At Hakata station we also saw a structure that they are building for the Yamagasa festival in mid-July. Some older Japanese man just decided to tell us about it the same things over and over again. He must be an enthuastic fan of Yamagasa matsuri. This huge 17-meter-tall wooden structure will be carried by running men at 5 a.m. during the festival. Cannot wait to see it!

Working as a teacher assistant in Fukudai (=Fukoka University) can be tough sometimes when you need to push shy and unwilling Japanese to speak in English but sometimes I surely enjoy earning money this way. I had two TA lessons on Wednesday and there were some memorable moments in both of them. On the first lesson there were only a few Japanese students so we worked 1 to 1 and made funny stories together. My partner spoke and wrote pretty good English so we had nice conversations also outside the stories. On the second lesson we a game "What comes to your mind when speaking of...?" The teacher gave us themes and we had to shout our answers and find all the people who are shouting the same answer. We started with really easy ones, such as "the favorite color" but at some point the teacher took themes from the TAs' home countries. "What comes to your mind when speaking about Finland?" Over half of the class gathered together with the answer "Santa Clause" while "Moomins" got surprisingly few students together. Other answers were "snow", "cold", "winter" and as a surprise one TA said "Simo Häyhä". With my bad knowledge of history, even I had to check who he is talking about...