Well… it’s been awhile.
I have all these images in my mind of my grandma but they have no relation to anything else. There is no convienient date marking on the bottom corner of my memory.
Last weekend I finally went out to Vancouver and saw my grandma and my sister.
But that’s not the story I want to tell.
I’m a pretty shy person. Once you get to know me, I have a tendency to talk excessively but on first meet, it’s unlucky that I will say anything. I don’t like talking when I don’t feel comfortable… I say stupid things and I don’t like it.
Usually, on the bus, I listen to music. It is the perfect buffer. You have a wall that people cannot penetrate and if someone does say something to you, you can pretend not to hear. In Japan, I used my cell phone as well, as everyone places with their cell phones in those awkward situations that public transit is. Unfortunately, people are not as obsessed with their phones here, so playing with my cell for an hour would look strange. Thus, I’m left with my ipod.
The bus from the ferry was crowded and a bunch of exchange students got on right after me. The guy that sat next to me kept fidalling with his bus schedule. He asked the guy in front of us a bunch of questions. Even though I had Roisin Murphy blasting in my ears, I could tell the Canadian was very confused by the Japanese way of asking questions in English (English learners tend to repeat parts of sentences until they find the word they are looking for). Finally, I pulled off my headphones and asked if the exchange student needed help. He was confused about the bus times. Victoria transit had forgotten a page in the schedule. Very confusing indeed.
For the next hour, he and I had a halting start and stop conversation. The thing I find most interesting about Japanese ESL learners, is they all say the same thing. "I need to study English more." Is this the first sentence they teach in English class? The first Japanese sentence I learned was "toire wa doko desu ka?" which means where is the toilet? followed closely by "niku nashi onegashi shimasu" - no meat please. These are very useful phrases even if you don't understand the response given to the first question. But the Japanese always say how bad their English skills are. Trust me when I say, that everyone that I have met that has attempted to speak English far exceeds any Japanese ability I even picked up.
The other thing many ESL learners say is that Canadians are the easiest to understand. I've heard that in many different countries and from many people from different countries. Apparently we speak clearly and enunciate everything. Then they tell me Australians are difficult. I always tell them that I think Australians are difficult to understand too, especially with some beer in them.
We had just entered Victoria when he asked me the final question that all my conversations with English learners comes to. "How can I become better at English?" I told him what I tell everyone who asks... practice with native speakers. He seemed shocked at this proposition. What? Talk to Canadians? But seeing as he had already told me that I looked Japanese (which they all do at some point, it's a favourite topic), I guess he didn't feel he was talking to a Canadian.
It's funny... I have tons of advice about learning a second language and I never follow it myself. Which explains why I'm still monolingual.
S.
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